Salt Lake City ? Greg Ostertag filled the vacuum left by Karl Malone before the Utah Jazz’s first practice even began this week. But calling out the requisite stretching exercises — as Malone customarily did for years — is a lot different than actually leading the team.
Ostertag hopes to take charge of that, too.
“I’m going to try. I’d enjoy taking on the burden (of leadership) and putting it on my shoulders a little bit,” said the eight-year veteran out of Kansas University. “I’m the oldest guy, I’ve been around the longest, and I know what Jerry (coach Sloan) expects. It’s kind of all on me.”
If seniority was the only criterion, Ostertag would be the unquestioned locker-room leader. After all, he is the Jazz’s only player to have reached his 30th birthday, the lone remaining participant in the Jazz’s two NBA Finals appearances, and the team’s highest-paid player, too. If this was Congress, he would be a powerful chairman.
But there’s a lot more — and a lot less — to leadership. The ability to command a teammate’s attention, to rally a locker room to action, is earned, not conveyed.
“When those things show is when you get into tough times, lose two or three games,” Sloan said. “(It’s) who steps up and says, ‘Let’s go get after it,’ instead of saying, ‘I don’t know if we’re running the right offense, I don’t know if this defense will work, I don’t know if that guy should be playing.”‘
And it’s not something that can simply be announced.
“Guys can step up and say, ‘I want to lead this team.’ I can hear them now,” Sloan said. “But if you have leadership priorities, they’ll show up.”
Malone and John Stockton were perfect examples, Sloan said, the sort of teammates who led by displaying an incredible work ethic. With the all-stars gone, the Jazz could use a good leader or two. But to be blunt, the coach doesn’t believe Ostertag is it.
“I don’t care who it is; if it comes out of Greg, that fine,” Sloan said. “But I question that right off the bat, because he’s been here eight years, and I haven’t seen that from him. We want Greg to step out and play, to be more consistent on the court.”
Ostertag has another reason to show some consistency in the middle: Money. His six-year, $39 million contract expires in July, and the senior Jazzman intends to play “a couple more years, at least.”
The free-agent market for his services depends greatly on his ninth season in Utah. Even after some maddeningly mediocre seasons — Ostertag’s scoring and rebounding averages, for example, have never approached the 7.3-point and 7.3-board averages of 1996-97, his second season — the 7-footer knows that centers are in short supply around the league.
“It’s a giant year for me. … I’m not going to (mislead) you, I’m playing for next year’s contract,” Ostertag said. “There’s pressure on me because the better year I have, the better my contract will be. How do you get that? By helping this team win.”
Such talk makes Sloan grumble. “That’s the wrong reason to be here,” Sloan said.
Ostertag maintains that his pending free agency is simply added motivation. “This is a chance for me to make a name for myself on defense, and that’s not playing selfishly. It’s all within what we’re trying to do,” Ostertag said. “It’s all on me and how hard I want to work. I come into the season with the attitude that I want to be a big part of the team.”
