Ostertag, 38, Looks For One More Shot at the Big Time

Ostertag, one of the most revered shot blockers in the league over his 11-year career, last played in the NBA in 2006.
David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images

On Tuesday, the Texas Legends announced that they'd signed center Greg Ostertag from the available player pool.

Ostertag hadn't played any sort of organized basketball in five years, ever since he retired from an NBA career that saw him play a key role in Karl Malone and John Stockton's Utah Jazz teams of the 90's and early 2000's, and consistently finish near the top of the league in blocked shots. He called it quits in 2006 and proceeded to do, in his words, "nothing." A few short-lived comeback attempts dotted his retirement, until he decided, early in December, to drag his 38-year-old body back onto the court to see if it can still do what it once could. "One last good effort," he said.

On Wednesday, NBADLeague.com caught up with the 7-foot-2 big man to talk about what he expects from his final comeback attempt, how life changed during retirement and the void in his life that only grew with every year away from the game.

Ostertag: I really haven’t had any big-time contact in a couple days, so I’ve been more or less recovering, with travel and holidays. But practice will be my first little test. So, if you wanna call me back, let me know.

I put in two weeks of training, trying to get it done with a little bit of conditioning and strength training. I played a little bit, trying to get my timing back. It’s like riding a bike – you don’t forget it, but you just gotta get the feel.

I'm gonna go to practice get a run in and get my timing back.

Ostertag: Probably about the same. I worked on my shot there a little bit, and I feel comfortable with my shot, but just being a defensive clogger, taking up space, knocking guys down, getting fouls, rebounding, blocking shots, changing shots, getting the put-backs.

I just missed it. I played for 11 years, and when I retired, at the time, I was just tired of it. But I missed it and realized I shouldn’t have retired when I did.

I was like, ‘I’m 38 – lemme see if I can get two more years out of it.’

Ostertag: No, right now I just want to try to get back and give it everything I can for a month, month and a half, and see what happens.

If I get lucky and the Mavs like what they see and I can go there and play, so be it.

My motivation is just to go do it. There are naysayers out there saying there’s no way – he wasn’t that great when he played. I wasn’t an All-Star. I’ll be the first to admit it. But people knew I was there when I was there.

I was always, per 48 minutes, at the top of the league in blocked shots. I’m still 7-foot-2, still got big long arms, I’m a big body still. It’s just gonna be a matter of how fast can I get into shape.

Ostertag: Nothing (laughs)

When I quit, I quit. I went to playing golf, hunting and fishing. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the greatest father in the world, so I’m just trying to be a better dad.

I had a few hiccups in my life between when I retired and now, but things are going well now. I’m doing the things I enjoy doing.

Ostertag: Hiccups, just kind of …hiccups.

Ostertag: I talked to my agent, and I was like, ‘with the lockout over, who needs a big guy?’ He said you take two weeks and we’ll see if we can get you into the D-League.

If I can get out there, and in a month’s time get back on the court, get the feeling back with the banging, the up and down, and do some extra workouts in the morning and that kind of stuff, I think I’ll be fine.

Ostertag: A couple years ago I went to Portland and was with them a couple days, maybe a week. Then I went to San Antonio a couple years ago, but I always tried to do it a little too late to get ready. I’m always thinking about it, thinking about it, and I try to do it a month before camp starts, and that’s hard to do.

I go in, and it’s bad the way I’m doing it. But let me give it one more shot, give it as much as I can, give it full effort and go from there.

If at the end of the month or month and a half, if I don’t feel like anything’s happening, I’ll pack my stuff and go back to Arizona.

Ostertag: I’m sure. That’s what I was always known for, pretty much, anyway. That’s part of it, getting the timing back, not taking pump fakes, knowing when to jump, when not to jump – just being a big body and using my length.

Ostertag: I’ve continued to watch basketball after I retired, and when you’re younger, you don’t think studying film is important, but I’ve been watching guys – seeing how they move. And with the internet, now you can watch everything a guy does.

Now it’s important for me to study a guy’s moves, and use less physical and athletic ability, and more understanding what a guy’s gonna do with the ball.

It’s stuff you should learn when you’re younger but you’re too stupid to do it.

Ostertag: I think the other times I was thinking about it, and I was serious, but it was, you know, just trying to make a commitment too late. Of course, once again I am [doing that], but with a shortened season teams are gonna be looking.

I’ve put in two weeks of hard work. Harder than I’ve worked in a while. It was tough on me, and the end of the first week I wanted to lay down and not move. The second week was better, though. I had to miss one workout with a bad head cold, but I was there working. There were days when stuff would shut down, and I’d have to get it adjusted by a chiropractor and get back out there.

I went out there with a trainer who broke down with a shot and now I’m shooting the ball a little bit better, whereas at the end of my career, I wasn’t confident anywhere. Outside of layups and dunks I had no confidence anywhere. Not even confidence at the free throw line.

Right now I have confidence. Granted I haven’t been in a game situation where I can use it, I’ll give it a run. I’m not scared. I know my ability.

Ostertag: There were a bunch of factors in there. I was just tired. I was tired of the travel, tired of the practices. It’s probably hard to hear you say that when you’re making the money that somebody like that makes, but I was tired of being on the road. I played basketball for 24 years.

Ostertag and longtime Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan (left) had a contentious relationship over the years, but today, the center says he loves the coach "to death."
NBAE via Getty Images

It was premature – I shouldn’t have done it. I should’ve stuck it out. Granted, the money’s great, but it’s not so much about the money. It’s just what I know.

I don’t have my college degree, and basketball’s what I know. I know basketball.

I’ve gotten smarter. I learned over the years of being retired, and started understanding. Jerry [Sloan] and I used to butt heads all the time and I thought he was getting on me because he needed somebody to get on.

Now I look back on the things he said to me and they’re all making sense. I guess I won’t say the things he was saying to me – more like the things he was yelling at me.

Ostertag: I love Jerry to death. He was old school. I played with two of the best to ever step on the floor, and I was the one taking the brunt when things were going bad. I thought he was just picking on me, and I understand it now.

Ostertag: What was the next spot I was gonna throw this worm. Where was I gonna set up my deer stand. What’s wrong with my golf swing. That’s the kind of stuff I was thinking about.

I wasn’t thinking a whole lot about how to make my basketball game better, because I was done, then as the years went on I started learning it more and learning positions better. It’s silly you learn those things when you’re not doing it.

I try to put my two cents in there with my sons’ teams and not try to get the coaches’ way, and it turns out – and I don’t mean this in a bad way – but when you’re playing basketball, you don’t know anything about your son, and when you’re trying to talk to your son, you don’t know anything about basketball.

My son’s a better shooter then I ever was, and we butt heads when it comes to basketball. It’s hard to have your father telling you what to do.

Who knows – maybe 20 years from now, he’ll feel the way you feel about Jerry.

I can’t wait until he has a son and he’s trying to teach him stuff, and he’s like ‘I don’t want to talk about it!’

Ostertag: Probably not. I guarantee every one of those 3-pointers were trying to beat the buzzer, and the only one I made – I made one – it was a buzzer-beater at the end of the third quarter to beat the clock in Portland. I grabbed it, chucked it and it went in.

Ostertag: You know, if I didn’t think I could do it, I wouldn’t be out there. I’m not doing it to prove anybody wrong, but to prove I can still do it, and to give it one last good effort.

I can already hear Shaq and Charles Barkley. If I ever get back in, I can hear Shaq and Charles going, ‘What the hell? Really?.’