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Are there any past Jazz player's number would the organization retire?

infection said:
While we were in the middle of our Spurs series, he was speaking with the Russian media saying exactly what you said above. My perspective is that in sports, that's the closest thing to an unpardonable sin as there is.

People make excuses for Tracy McGrady caring about himself and not being a true winner. He just didn't have the mentality.
People make excuses for Dwight Howard. He doesn't have the mentality, either.
AK is cut from the same cloth.
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I would argue that AK was better than those two in that regard as an evidence of his European championship title and MVP title and Olympic bronze medal with Russian national team.
 
I would agree that AK did not have killer instinct and did not treat the game like a war for example. He looked at it as fun play where he wanted to outplay his opponents instead of destroying them. Had he had Bryant mentality and less fragile body he would have been talked as one of all time greats - talent wise he was absurdly gifted.
 
MVP said:
How? That he booked consulate appointment for visa 3-4 month ago while having no clue what dates of the playoffs will be and that Jazz will have practice on one of those days? He still played hard during that series in EVERY game ( some of you folks sound like he abandoned the team and did not play) - lets be honest Spurs were head and shoulders better than us and we had no chance to win it anyway.
And lets remember that without him we would have not won vs GSW in semis either.... he made life hell for S.Jackson and easily was the best player in that series ( maybe only Boozers scoring can be compared to what AK did defensively in that series)
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The WCF was not his visa issue. That was a different year:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/nba/jazz-kirilenko-0-2/sn-amp/

What people are referring to is when Deron was mad the day after and mentioned people not being focused and planning their summer vacation during the playoffs. He didn’t specify. It later came out it was AK.

With regard to his comments to the Russian media being before or after the playoffs, my recollection was that it was before they ended. We’re putting each person’s recollection up against the other, so it’s pretty worthless, but your recollection above is a little fuzzy.
 
MVP said:
Had he had Bryant mentality and less fragile body he would have been talked as one of all time greats - talent wise he was absurdly gifted.
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And hence our frustration. He didn’t need a Kobe mentality. He could have been an all-time great with even a Raul Neto mentality.
 
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infection said:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/nba/jazz-kirilenko-0-2/sn-amp/

What people are referring to is when Deron was mad the day after and mentioned people not being focused and planning their summer vacation during the playoffs. He didn’t specify. It later came out it was AK.
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Ok, so was it Deron's place to make comments like that? AK informed the Jazz way before and was given permission to miss practice ( not the actual game). While I get that Deron was frustrated about loss to Lakers as far as I remember it was Boozer who was ineffective in that series and frankly terrible officiating in game 5 cost as the chance to go ahead. AK was the least of the problem in that series and Deron being hotheaded directed his frustration and wrong target.
 
MVP said:
Ok, so was it Deron's place to make comments like that? AK informed the Jazz way before and was given permission to miss practice ( not the actual game). While I get that Deron was frustrated about loss to Lakers as far as I remember it was Boozer who was ineffective in that series and frankly terrible officiating in game 5 cost as the chance to go ahead. AK was the least of the problem in that series and Deron being hotheaded directed his frustration and wrong target.
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I’m not talking about the Lakers series at all. I’m not talking about his visa at all. I’m talking about the WCF. You win that and you win a title.
 
infection said:
I’m not talking about the Lakers series at all. I’m not talking about his visa at all. I’m talking about the WCF. You win that and you win a title.
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Sorry, not following you. How is this AK's fault that we got destroyed by future champions and best team in NBA that year? Superior coaching, more talented team, completely took Boozer out of the game, we had nobody to defend Duncan, Parker outplayed Deron, just bad matchup everywhere you look unfortunately. We had way more chances to win vs Lakers next year and that loss to me was way more frustrating as we had lead in game 5 in 4th quarter and then refs took it away from us.
 
Andrei Kirilenko. I bet on the Jazz to have a winning record under his and Matt Harprings play despite everyone else saying that the loss of Stockton and Malone would cripple the Jazz. A few 5x5's and a 42 win season, I won the bet ans became a die hard Jazz fan.
 
MVP said:
He was not booking travel during series lol. He had appointment at consulate for visa. Those are booked 3-4 month in advance and even NBA players do not get exceptions.
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Nope. I remember it distinctly. It was NOT a viss he needed to stay in the U.S. It was a travel visa. Those are much easier to obtain. He misled the Jazz. I have NEVER heard of any other player taking off on a practice day to take care of vacation matters.
 
Jack Strop said:
Nope. I remember it distinctly. It was NOT a viss he needed to stay in the U.S. It was a travel visa. Those are much easier to obtain
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Are you a Russian citizen and know how easy it was for them to obtain travel visas? Point remains - he scheduled appointment for that visa interview way before playoffs even started and did not miss any games because of that. He was excused from practice - big deal, you guys blowing it out of proportion.
I had similar experience back in 2000 when I visited USA first time. I needed to book my interview with consulate 3 month in advance - and if you missed that appointment you needed to reschedule again in 3 month or so. You Americans have no clue how difficult sometimes was to go through visa processes in some countries when you are from former USSR.
 
Ron Mexico said:
Boozer deserves to be retired before AK does. He was a far far bigger reason for our success at that time.
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Boozer was amazing against Yao and Rockets and in some way vs GSW yet he was super ineffective vs Lakers or Spurs. If anything we can blame him more for playing way below his level in those series than AK.
 
Ironankle said:
Come on guys! Rudy is not a candidate! He is for sure the next player. Even if he have to stop his career now, there is no doubt about his Jersey. He won 2 DPOY guys! Not one, but two! And multiple all team nba. By himself alone, he give a identity to the jazz!!!jazz DNA is not just Rudy but begins by him. Few players can have such an impact. After rudy, not sure we will see a jazz player like him before a long time. We won't have a Eaton or Gobert every year or 5 or 10 years in the team. It's so rare, we wait more than 20 years to see it again. We are so fortunate to live in the Gobert - Mitchell era and have them in the team.

Sent from my MI 9 using JazzFanz mobile app
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For the record Rudy is already the best center in Jazz's franchise history.
 
MVP said:
There are tons of players who had their numbers retired for being long time with one team. And it is not automatically for just playing long time ( maybe Collison in OKC fits that category as his 5pt, 5 reb stats certainly do not deserve it)... AK though is in top 5 in 5 major stats lists.
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To me he didn't do enough. As I said before total stats when he played that long mean little to nothing to me. What was his impact on winning and how far did the team go with that impact. They lucked into the WCF, that's the best they did and he wasn't the best player or even the 3rd best player on that team. When he was the best player or close to it they barely made the playoffs. I liked AK, was my favorite player on the roster for 3-4 years, but he doesn't deserve his number retired.
 
MVP said:
Boozer was amazing against Yao and Rockets and in some way vs GSW yet he was super ineffective vs Lakers or Spurs. If anything we can blame him more for playing way below his level in those series than AK.
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Yep, he had some struggles at times. Still far bigger factor in those series and more important to our team than AK.
 
Ron Mexico said:
It was frustrating to watch him waste the talent. It was frustrating to watch him play hard for his national team but coast and disappear for the Jazz. I really liked AK and he made me a bigger fan of the Jazz and brought back interest for me. In fact it was probably him that caused me to start posting on Jazzfanz. But its silly that people think its sloans fault he dropped off and couldnt live up to his contract or anywhere near it. That was all on AK, he just didnt have the attitude to be a great player.
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Ron, I have to disagree with you about AK. While I agree that he kind of gave up with the Jazz, it was in part because they didn't use him properly. I saw the games in FIBA when he won MVP. He was used differently. He was doing lots of backdoor cuts and getting dunks. Who were they running those plays for with the Jazz -- Ronnie Brewer. DWill was freezing him out too and Jerry allowed it. I remember making these comments on the site back then and the DWill crowd that was on here went nuts, some who are still here. In the current NBA, though he couldn't shoot, he would've been a beast on the fast break, fast-paced system.
 
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