Loved seeing Phil Johnson in the studio next to Thurl.
I've written this before, but I feel like it was a combination of injuries and AK's role in both the offense and the franchise that played a factor. He signed the $86 million extension in the summer of 2004, and he was a defensive terror the first month of the season before severely spraining his knee. He returned in Feb/Mar, again was putting up good numbers as really our #1 offensive option, then got fouled going up for a layup and broke his wrist on the landing against the Wizards.
Each time he got hurt, someone like Memo, Boozer, Deron or Harpring gradually increased their role a little bit more - to the point in 2006-07 where AK was the 4th and 5th option. IMO the mental reaction of going from franchise player and the #1-offensive option had a large impact on AK's psyche, to the point where he stopped trying to get better and resigned himself to being the player he was in the role he had. Not making excuses for AK (because the team and offense definitely had much more success w/Deron and Boozer as the focal points, and it's hard to depend on someone constantly injured to play a large role) but I don't think this was the case of a player getting a big contract and then mailing it in. I think AK really wanted to live up to his contract - he just didn't have the durability, mental toughness, and right situation to do so.
AK certainly never lived up to the franchise player status his contract represented, but IMO he still was one of the top-10 players in Utah Jazz history and certainly one of the most unique talents the franchise ever had. We never really had a player like him before, and his performance against Golden State in the '07 Conf Semis was a wonderful showcase of his talents.
Definitely time for AK to move on, but when I think of AK I'll think of his versatility, his length, and his spetacular weakside shotblocking more than his max-contract extension.
