Garnett

The only team likely to be in the 2003 Western Conference Playoffs that the Jazz have never faced is the Minnesota Timberwolves. Those are the same “pesky Timberwolves” that have failed to get out of the first round of the playoffs for the last six seasons, despite the presence of “Da Kid”, Kevin Garnett. The only other Western Conference team Utah has never met in the playoffs is the Memphis (formerly Vancouver) which has yet to post a winning season or make the playoffs.

Best of the Best
The top NBA regular-season MVP candidates, who are voted on by the end of the regular season, are generally considered to be Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady with Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Shaquille O’Neil and Chris Webber in the next tier. All of the first trio has warts: Lakers were 5-10 in the games Bryant had to play without O’Neil, Garnett has never got his team past the first round of the playoffs and McGrady is a one-man show with Grant Hill out. These factors may open the door for the unspectacular, low-key Duncan to repeat while O’Neil is always valuable, if not always available, missing 95 games in seven Laker seasons and 33 in four Magic years.

Jordan

Elusive Goal
Of the approximately 450 players who were on NBA rosters during the 2002-03 seasons, including injured lists, only 30 had ever won NBA Championship rings. That’s just 6.7 per cent of all players. It shows how hard it is to win a ring since 10, one-third of them, had just one title on their resume. Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen lead the way with six each while Robert Horry (5), retired in-season Horace Grant (4) and Steve Kerr (4) are next. Seven current Lakers have been on the team for their three-year run of 2000-01-02 including Horry. Only Grant and Scott Williams remained from the first Jordan-Pippen 3-peat in 1991-92-93 and only Randy Brown, Toni Kukoc and Kerr are left from the 1996-97-98 Bulls 3-peat.

Postseason Perfection
No other players have had runs as perfect as John Stockton (18 playoffs in 18 seasons) and Karl Malone (17 playoffs in 17 seasons) in their careers through 2002. The previous all-time best had been 16 playoffs in 16 years each by Julius Erving and Billy (Whopper) Paultz, which included their ABA and NBA careers.

Rewriting the Record Book
Former Alta High School All-Stater Travis Knight put himself in the NBA Playoff record book in a way he likely didn’t know at the time and didn’t wish to accomplish. He fouled out for the Lakers in just six playing minutes against the Spurs in 1999. He broke the mark of doing it in seven minutes set in 1953, tied by the Bulls’ Will Perdue in 1992 and later matched in 2000 by the Kings’ Utah-born Scott Pollard.

Stockton

Not-so-Petty Theft
Stockton holds the record of 28 steals in a 7-game playoff series against the Lakers in 1988, the same year he tied Magic Johnson’s single-game assists record of 24 (against the Lakers). He later tied Johnson’s second-best single-game mark of 23 in 1996. Stock also holds the playoff one-quarter-assist mark of 11 vs. the Spurs in 1994.

The Short and Long of It
The expansion of the NBA’s Playoff first Round from best-of-5 to best-of-7 is being unofficially called the “Laker Rule” in many places since the intent seems to be that no elite, major-market team ought to be eliminated in a “short series”. It reminds me of the 1980-81 Playoffs when the first round was best-of-3 and the 40-42 Kings and Rockets took out the elite Blazers and Lakers, 2-1 each. They went on to meet in the Western Finals and saw the Rockets extend the Larry Bird-led Celtics to his first NBA title in 6 games. It took three years until the format changed. The field was increased from 12 to 16 teams and Utah made its playoff debut. Nineteen years later it changes again.

Winning Streak
Utah hold the record for consecutive winning seasons at 18, extending the mark this season it set a year ago. At that, the ultra-competitive NBA record still ranks behind the other three major pro sports. The Yankees hold the all-sports mark with 39 straight winning seasons with the hockey Montreal Canadians next at 32 straight and the NFL Dallas Cowboys third at 20 in a row. The Jazz mark 20 straight years of .500 or better, which coincides with the first playoff berth in 1983-84, is also a record.

Familiar Faces
Utah’s most frequent playoff rival has been Portland with the Blazers having won four of the six all-time series and 19 of the 31 games between the teams. Utah’s next most frequent rival has been Houston with the Jazz having an edge of three series to two and a 13-13 record in games, the most playoff wins it has against any team. The Jazz are 12-10 in games vs. Seattle, 11-4 vs. San Antonio and 11-5 vs. the LA Lakers. Including its two trips to the NBA Finals, Utah is 16-19 in all-time series and 93-95 overall in games.

Sloan

Best Behind the Bench
The NBA’s Coach of the Year will be named sometime during the Playoffs. Four men have won the award in both the defunct ABA and the NBA. The list includes Alex Hannum (‘64NBA; ’69 ABA), Bill Sharman (’70 ABA; ’72 NBA); current Jazz KFAN analyst Tom Nissalke (’70 ABA; ’77 NBA) and current 76ers coach Larry Brown (’73 ABA; ’75 ABA; ’76 ABA; 2001 NBA). Who are the top 2003 candidates? Brown is probably the East’s foremost candidate. The West prospects include Don Nelson (Dallas), Greg Popovich (San Antonio) and Jerry Sloan (Utah), the latter for his work with the restructured team many thought wouldn’t make the playoffs.

The Ring's the Thing
A recent trend in the hiring of new NBA head coaches is that 11 current coaches have won at least one NBA championship as a player, 25 in all with one player getting a 26th while injured the whole year. The list of coaches who won as players includes Rick Carlisle (1), ill Cartwright (3), Don Chaney (2), Maurice Cheeks (1), Phil Jackson (1, 1 while injured), Dennis Johnson (3), Don Nelson (5), Pat Riley (1), Byron Scott (3), Paul Silas (3) and Isiah Thomas (2). And Thomas replaced Larry Bird who won three as a player.

Chasing Red
Phil Jackson needs one more championship to break a tie with Red Auerbach for NBA Championships won as a coach with nine. Jackson won a title as a NBA player with the Knicks in 1973 and was on the Injured List all during the 1970 season when the Knicks won the championship, but got a ring anyway as a member of the team. He’s had a trio of 3-peats with the Bulls (twice) and Lakers.

Forget the Lottery
By making the playoffs still another time, the Blazers (21 years in a row) and the Jazz (20 straight years) not only join the Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers (22 playoff berths in a row) as a 20-plus members, they maintain another streak. Neither has ever finished in the lottery although Portland picked in the Lottery, established in 1985 after the 1984 Salt Lake City NBA Meetings, once with a choice obtained in a trade. The next longest active playoff streak is nine seasons by the Lakers and then seven by the Timberwolves.

Mired in Futility
Which teams have the longest active stretch of playoff futility? Golden State’s nine years leads the pack with Denver and Memphis next at eight seasons. How fast can things change? After three straight non-playoff seasons, last year’s Nets went to the NBA Finals.

Title Holders
Only five active coaches have won NBA Championships led by record-tying Phil Jackson (9), Pat Riley (4), Rudy Tomjonovich (2), Greg Popovich (1) and Lenny Wilkens (1). Last year, Jackson also passed Riley for the playoff wins record, 156 to 155.