LOOKING FOR THAT FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH? THE THING'S IN UTAH.Byline: KEVIN MODESTI If there's anything you hate worse than a smart-aleck kid, it's a smart aleck smart al·eck n. Informal 1. A person regarded as obnoxiously self-assertive. 2. An impudent person. [Perhaps after Aleck pushing 40. The Utah Jazz: Won't these guys ever go away? Apparently not, but they're happy you asked, because if there's anything they love more than defying the actuarial tables, it's reminding the world how wrong it has been all these years. ``You guys have (called) us `old' for a long time,'' Karl Malone abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= western crown from Utah. ``I like the way I'm aging,'' Malone said. ``Nice and slow.'' He sat with both feet in a bucket of ice as he said that, so the age thing isn't exactly a crock crock - [American scatologism "crock of shit"] 1. An awkward feature or programming technique that ought to be made cleaner. For example, using small integers to represent error codes without the program interpreting them to the user (as in, for example, Unix "make(1)", which . But 28 points from the 35-year-old Malone, 26 and 11 assists from the 36-year-old Stockton and another steady afternoon's work by 35-year-old Jeff Hornacek Jeffrey John Hornacek (IPA: /ˈhɔrnəsɛk/); (born May 3 1963 in Elmhurst, Illinois) is a retired American basketball player who played at the shooting guard position in the NBA from 1986–2000. were strong arguments for eternal youth. Or cryogenics cryogenics: see low-temperature physics. cryogenics Study and use of low-temperature phenomena. The cryogenic temperature range is from −238°F (−150°C) to absolute zero. At low temperatures, matter has unusual properties. . After back-to-back losing trips to the NBA finals The NBA Finals is the championship series of the National Basketball Association. The team winning the Eastern Conference Finals earns one of the two berths in the championship round, with the other going to the team that wins the Western Conference Finals. , with playoff victories over the Lakers en route, this was going to be the year the Jazz lost its edge. Its roster and the Lakers' were basically unchanged during the long offseason, which is supposed to be good for the Lakers (older and wiser, ho ho) and bad for the Jazz (older, period). Utah's lone nonrookie addition, Thurl Bailey Thurl Lee Bailey (born April 7 1961 in Washington, D.C.) is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA, whose career spanned from 1983 to 1999 with the Utah Jazz and the Minnesota Timberwolves. , 37, served only to add a wrinkle, pun intended. It was an offseason of un-Jazz-like angst all around. Malone took part-time work as an L.A. sports-talk radio host during the lockout lockout, intentional closing up of a company, factory, or shop by an employer to prevent employees from working during a strike or labor dispute. The term lockout and, in one weird rant, vowed never to play for the Jazz again because ``the pebble have been snatched from my hand.'' ``That's just a show (TV's old `Kung Fu'),'' Malone said Sunday when somebody asked for a translation. Then he good-naturedly poked the interrogator in the belly. Malone even mused during the lockout about playing for the Lakers. Stockton got calls from friends wondering what's up with Karl. Stockton said he left his teammate a phone message: ``I'm hearing stuff and I want you to know I'm still with you.'' Stockton said he didn't worry - either that Malone would play for Utah or that he'd be the same Karl. ``I knew he'd be ready to play,'' Stockton said. That took a leap of faith. Malone lifts weights in the offseason but adheres to a no-basketball diet. He shoots squirrels but not hoops. He believes it refreshes him. ``I don't play basketball in the summer at all. Ever,'' he said in the locker room Sunday, explaining his absence from informal workouts with teammates. A few of those teammates were eavesdropping Secretly gaining unauthorized access to confidential communications. Examples include listening to radio transmissions or using laser interferometers to reconstitute conversations by reflecting laser beams off windows that are vibrating in synchrony to the sound in the room. . ``You could have joined us in the fall,'' Stockton cracked. (They all laughed.) Maybe it was a lapse of sanity that prompted his threat to leave Utah, with which he's under contract through this season. Malone said he wished he could have taken it all back immediately. The Lakers wish he never had. The Jazz stood between them and the Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are a professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois. They play in the National Basketball Association. The team was founded in 1966, and has won six NBA Championships since. in '98 and it could be the same in '99. The Lakers are 1-6 against Utah since last March, and Malone was the leading Jazz scorer in all six Lakers' losses. Forum fans were laying for the Jazz Sunday and the game started promisingly. The Lakers built a 10-point second-quarter lead. Kobe Bryant hit a long jumper and froze in his follow-through the way Michael Jordan did when he beat the Jazz out of the title. Malone was in first-half foul trouble, so a Lakers fan held up a sign: ``The Mailman Doesn't Deliver on Sunday.'' This Mailman must have joined the private sector. He pick-and-rolled to 19 points in the second half as the Jazz came from behind. The Lakers and Jazz meet three more times in the regular season. And you just know they'll meet in the playoffs. And then the Jazz will break up? Don't count on it. Hornacek, who had hinted about retirement, said Sunday he'll ``probably'' be back after the short season. Hornacek expects Stockton will be back and said Malone ``obviously'' will. And then the Jazz will be - finally - too old? Don't hold your breath. ``I've been answering that question for six years,'' coach Jerry Sloan said of the age question. ``Karl and John (supposedly) `lost a step' six years ago. ``Do you see anything different?'' If there's anything you hate worse than a wise guy, it's a wise guy who's right. |
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