Utah Jazz: What's his deal? General manager's 10 years at helm

If Kevin O'Connor wasn't about to celebrate his 10th anniversary as general manager of the Utah Jazz, Jerry Sloan isn't sure he would be preparing for his 22nd season as head coach.

Why?

Sloan gives O'Connor considerable credit for helping him survive the transitional years surrounding the retirement of John Stockton and the departure of Karl Malone.

Rattling off a partial list of free agents who signed with Utah during those seasons of uncertainty, Sloan said, "Raja Bell, Matt Harpring, Carlos Boozer, Memo Okur. ... If Kevin hadn't gotten those things done, I probably would have been gone a long time ago."

O'Connor became the Jazz's primary decision-maker on Aug. 26, 1999, when he replaced Scott Layden,

who had been hired away by the New York Knicks.

According to those who know him, O'Connor has become the NBA's second-longest tenured general manager behind Sacramento's Geoff Petrie because of a tireless work ethic, an intense competiveness and a franchise-first approach to his job.

"Kevin is a great guy -- a very bright guy," said Rod Thorn, the president of the New Jersey Nets who is also a friend.

"I have tremendous respect for him because he's worked his way up through the system and has become one of the best in the business. He doesn't get the notoriety that some bigger-name guys do, but I don't know anybody who does a better job."

Asked about O'Connor's competitive nature, Thorn laughs and mentions

an annual golf tournament every summer at Pinehurst, N.C. The two are regular participants.

"When Kevin first started playing -- and it wasn't too long ago -- he wasn't very good," Thorn said. "He was one of the guys you really didn't want on your side. But now, he's one of the top two or three guys down there."

O'Connor's ability to rapidly improve as a golfer does not surprise his wife, Linda.

"He's very determined and works so hard at everything," she said. "... He doesn't want to do anything unless he can do it well."

O'Connor's concern for excellence carries over to the performance of his team. He has been known to shout at the television set, which has created some anxious moments for the family's Australian shepherd.

"When Kevin is watching an away game," Linda O'Connor said, "the dog gets a little scared sometimes. She runs upstairs and hides in the closet."

Linda O'Connor haltingly agrees that describing her husband as a "workaholic" is accurate.

"He has other interests, of course," she said. "And after a loss, there's about a half hour when he doesn't want to talk. Then he leaves it alone -- until the middle of the night, when he wakes up and goes over every play. ... For Kevin, it's pretty much basketball all the time."

O'Connor shrugs.

"In this business," he said, "you're either all in or all out. That's the way Larry [Miller] approached it and it's the way Jerry approaches it. It's been a philosophy with the franchise."

 

Rising up the ranks

O'Connor grew up in New York.

The son of a cop, the nephew of a fireman and boyhood friends with some future firemen who were killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11, he attended Belmont Abby College in Charlotte, N.C., and played basketball.

In his senior year, his team finished 21-5.

"We were a good small college team," he said.

Just not as good as his daughter's Virginia Tech team.

"They were 28-3 her senior year and lost to Tennessee in the Sweet 16," said O'Connor. "... My dad came to watch her play once in high school. And she played well.

"So he congratulated her and said, 'You played great. You did a lot of great things. You made your teammates better and you helped your team win.'

"I turned to my dad and said, 'Hey, you never said any of that stuff to me when I was playing. How come?' And real quick, he turns around and says, 'You weren't that good.' Then he turns around and starts talking to her again."

O'Connor got into coaching when a friend -- a full-time assistant at Virginia Tech -- helped get him a job as a graduate assistant.

"I can still remember taking the old 16-millimeter film and driving from Blacksburg to Roanoke -- about 35 miles -- after a game," O'Connor said. "I'd turn it in, drive home and then go back the next day after it was processed. That's how I started out in this business."

After the glamorous beginning, O'Connor ended up as an assistant at Virginia Military and Colorado, where he met Denver Nuggets coach Larry Brown.

The two formed a lasting friendship and, years later, Brown hired O'Connor as the Philadelphia 76ers' director of player personnel, which led to his job with the Jazz.

"I got a call from Billy King, the general manager in Philadelphia," O'Connor recalled. "He said, 'Utah called about you.' I remember saying, 'Boy, that's interesting.'"

 

Taking the plunge

After his interview, O'Connor returned to Philadelphia and discussed the situation with other basketball-types he trusted. Among them: ex-Sixer player/coach Billy Cunningham, ex-North Carolina coach Bill Guthridge, future Tar Heel coach Roy Williams, and Brown.

"I asked them a lot of questions and what they thought," O'Connor said. "To a man, they saw an opportunity to build something because there was some stability here and, at some point, John and Karl were going to retire."

O'Connor took the job.

"It was a challenge," he said. "A lot of people said, without John and Karl, the franchise would become irrelevant."

Wrong.

Since O'Connor's first season in 1999-2000, the Jazz have averaged more than 45 wins. They won more than 50 games four times, played in one Western Conference final and finished below .500 only once.

Although the Jazz haven't reached Stockton and Malone-like heights and will pay a luxury tax because of an inflated payroll this season, Larry H. Miller Group CEO Greg Miller said, "I'm very pleased where we are because Kevin lives in the real world of player personnel issues.

"Those who like to take shots at him don't have real-world experience. They sit on the Internet or they talk to their buddies in the bar and say, 'Why doesn't Kevin do this? Why doesn't Kevin do that?' But chances are, he's already tried that.

"When you look at how many moving parts there are to a deal and how limited the opportunities are to make meaningful personnel moves, I think Kevin has done a great job for us."

His defining moves

O'Connor's best move came on Draft Day 2005.

With the Jazz coming off an injury-plagued 26-win season, they were relegated to sixth because of bad luck in the lottery. But he worked a deal with Portland that netted the No. 3 pick.

O'Connor turned that selection into Deron Williams, who, more than anyone since Stockton and Malone, has emerged as a pillar of the franchise -- probably one of the top 15 players in the NBA.

On the downside, O'Connor signed Andrei Kirlenko to a six-year, $86 million contract extension prior to the 2004-05 season and watched him become a role player -- unhappy at times -- behind Williams, Boozer and Okur.

Boozer's deal has also become an albatross, mostly because the All-Star power forward has been unable to stay healthy and, this summer, announced his desire to be traded.

Said Sloan: "I'd never want [O'Connor's] job. It's impossible to bat 100 percent every time you come to the plate, as far as picking out players and getting them for your team. But he is really dedicated to trying to do the right thing."

O'Connor likes how the Jazz are positioned heading into his 11th season in Utah.

"We have a good core, from an asset standpoint," he said. "When Carlos was hurt last season, we started four players who were under 25 and we think those players are going to get better. ...

"We would like to get longer and we would like to get more athletic. But those kind of players are hard to find, especially when you've been drafting where we have been drafting."

luhm@sltrib.com