Hot Rod provided the soundtrack for some great Jazz memories

Chiseled on the Mount Rushmore of the Utah Jazz organization there are four undisputed faces; longtime owner Larry Miller, longtime coach Jerry Sloan and two Hall of Fame players in John Stockton and Karl Malone.

But only one voice hovers over them all, and it belongs to "Hot" Rod Hundley. For a team named after an improvisational, melodic music, there could have been no better choice to voice its soundtrack than his.

As a player, Hundley mastered the improvisational aspect of the game, earning the "Hot Rod" nickname while starring at West Virginia University in the '50s, mixing a variety of ball-handling tricks and Globetrotters-esque moves into his game.

As a broadcaster, he mastered the sounds and the rhythm of the game and passed them on to his loyal listeners. His words echo in the annals of Jazz basketball history, from "Pistol" Pete Maravich in New Orleans through Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer today. Hundley retires from the team as the last employee to have stuck with the team since its relocation to Salt Lake City in 1979.

A couple of weeks ago, after 35 years as a Jazz broadcaster, Hundley called his last game for Utah in Game 5 of the team's first-round loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, the franchise responsible for both his professional playing and broadcasting careers.

"It's been a great run," Hundley told NBA Entertainment. "I never thought I'd still be with this team for this long."

Hundley was a two-time All-Star in his playing days but ended his NBA career after six seasons with the Lakers because of bad knees. Soon after he retired, he was offered a job in the broadcast booth alongside the revered Chick Hearn. He started off by copying Chick.

"He's made this public about he took what he could from Chick Hearn when they worked together, from the 'hippity-hop' to the 'frozen rope' and the 'cowhide' a little bit," said Jazz play-by-play man Craig Bolerjack, who worked with Hundley since 1985. "All those phrases were in the past and he makes no bones about it. Like all broadcasters, we pick and choose our favorite lines."

Now, all these years later Bolerjack says, Hundley is the one being imitated.

"Hot Rod is a guy that everyone knows. When people talk to him, they talk to him in his own voice. I could probably break out and do a Hot Rod impersonation right now and say, 'You know I tell you, it's incredible, the Jazz ...' you find yourself like, 'Why am I talking like Rod?' That's kind of the way it is. It's funny to watch people come up who like to impersonate him and like to try to make him laugh. What's the cliché? Imitation is the best form of flattery? That is exactly the way it is."

Over the course of his 42-year career calling games -- first in L.A., then in Phoenix (he plans to spend time there and in Salt Lake City during retirement), then New Orleans and finally Utah -- there is one distinctive phrase of Hundley's that stands out:

"Stockton to Malone."

"I picked up the line, 'Stockton to Malone' and I rode that pretty good," Hundley, 74, told NBA Entertainment. "That was a lot of fun for me. We never won the world championship, we were denied by Michael Jordan and the Bulls, but we gave them a good run and went all the way to the end."

"The phrase 'Stockton to Malone,' that rings because that was a duo that the fans could identify with," said Ron Boone, a color commentator that Hundley took under his wing. "[Hundley] was loved. There's not anymore you can say about the guy other than the fact that he's a legend around here as far as broadcasting is concerned."

You don't become a legend overnight, and you don't stick around in the broadcast business for four decades unless you're made of legendary stuff.

"I think that it speaks for the stability of the organization that Hot Rod came with the franchise to Salt Lake and never left," said Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor. "You have to be very good at what you do to stay as long as you did."

Said Bolerjack: "That's like Jerry Sloan in my opinion. You just don't see that longevity. I don't think you'll see that longevity in broadcasters in this day because I've been in it since 1981 and I'm 50 and I just don't know if teams really stay with anyone for that length of time. They're always looking for change or a fresh approach."

Sloan, who just finished his 21st season with the Jazz, still has a long way to go to catch Hundley, although they do share a record together.

"We've done more coaching shows than anybody else in any sport," Hundley said. "We've done over 2,000 five-minute coaching shows."

That's not the only first-place finish for Hundley either. He was the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft in 1957, he was the first former player to receive the prestigious Curt Gowdy Media Award by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003 and, by Boone's estimation, he was part of the only broadcast duo in the NBA comprised of guys who actually played in it.

"You hear this in some broadcast teams today where the play-by-play relies on the analyst for a lot of his knowledge of the game and what should happen and what shouldn't happen and that type of thing," Boone said. "Whereas when we work together, I think we work a little bit better together because we've been there, done that and we know exactly what the other one is talking about."

"His description of the game and the plays are second to none," adds former Jazz player and current Utah assistant coach Tyrone Corbin.

While Hundley has a keen intellect when it comes to the game and is generous in sharing that knowledge, the same doesn't apply to how he shares his money. "The first thing that comes to mind is how cheap he is," Boone recalled with a laugh.

O'Connor illustrated one of Hundley's cost-saving techniques.

"One of the things that I always get a kick out of was he never had to invest in socks," O'Connor said. "He always wore his shoes without socks. Everyone thinks it's a style thing, he said, 'No, I'm just trying to save money on socks, they're expensive.'"

His love of the game always trumped his love of money however.

In an extensive 2003 article in the Deseret News entitled, "Hot Rod Hundley: The Man Behind the Voice," Doug Robinson wrote:

"The only constant in his life  the only real source of love he could count on in his youth  has been basketball. Basketball made him an all-American, a first-round draft, an all-star. It made him everybody's buddy. It made him feel loved. It made him Hot Rod."

Before the final game Hundley called in Utah, a signed photo of Hundley and Kobe Bryant in Bryant's locker with the inscription, "To The Best Basketball Player In The World -- Hot Rod Hundley."

After Hundley's final game -- he was given a standing ovation by the Staples Center crowd and introduced as "always a Laker" -- Kobe Bryant made a point to seek out Hundley and tell him, "It's been a pleasure."

That's what Hundley says he'll miss. Not just the game, but the players. The coaches he's befriended. The countless arena employees that he knows by name.

The Jazz lost owner Larry Miller in February of this year when he died due to complications from diabetes. O'Connor insists that Utah isn't losing Hundley.

"Those two issues are similar because they're not going to be here, but diametrically different," O'Connor said. "Larry passed away and we're going to obviously miss him, but Hot Rod thought it was the right time to say, 'You know what, I've had an unbelievable ride on this train. This is my last stop.' That doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to go away."

A voice as special as Hundley's tends to leave an echo.