While Ostertag apparently talked to coach Jerry Sloan about his decision to retire, which he announced prior to Monday night's game at San Antonio, vice president of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor was caught off guard.

"It's a little bit difficult for me to talk about right now because I have not spoken to him," O'Connor said. "Greg is young, as far as basketball players go. But maybe he lost his passion for it a little bit. If that's the case, we wish him well. . . . We respect the fact he's ready to call it quits and not trying to hang on."

Ostertag's career has been full of surprises like this one.

One of the most highly touted high school players ever produced by the state of Texas, he went to Kansas but played only a limited role for coach Roy Williams.

Still, Ostertag flashed enough potential that the Jazz, picking 28th in the 1995 draft, were surprised he was still on the board.

Utah, looking for a space-eating, shot-blocking center since a back injury forced

Mark Eaton into retirement after the 1993 season, grabbed Ostertag.

Why not?

With a healthy Eaton patrolling the paint, the Jazz won 55 games and reached the Western Conference finals for the first time in 1992.

Eaton's back injury limited his effectiveness during the '92-93 season, however, and the Jazz were not prepared to contend without him. They won only 47 games, barely qualified for the playoffs and lost in the first round to Seattle.

Utah did surprisingly well in 1993-94, when the Jazz got a career year from journeyman Felton Spencer and signed Tom Chambers, whose presence allowed Malone to play center.

The Jazz won 53 games and reached the Western Conference finals, but their lack of interior size and strength was obvious in a 4-1 loss to Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets.

The Jazz won 60 games in 1994-95, but Olajuwon and the Rockets upset them in the first round of the playoffs, again taking advantage of Utah's lack of an Eaton-type defender.

Enter Ostertag, who two years into his career looked like the answer.

In his sophomore season, Ostertag averaged 7.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and three blocked shots. He shot 51.5 percent from the field and 68 percent from the line.

In Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, he befuddled Jazz nemesis Olajuwon and, along with John Stockton, led a fourth-quarter comeback of a 104-101 win that lifted Utah into its first NBA Finals.

Ostertag had 16 points and 14 boards in the final game of the series, which helped earn him a six-year, $39 million deal in the offseason.

Unfortunately for Ostertag and the Jazz, it proved to be the highwater mark of his career.

Just hours before the 1997-98 opener in Los Angeles, Ostertag crossed paths with the Lakers' Shaquille O'Neal at the pregame shootaround.

O'Neal, upset about comments after the Jazz's easy 4-1 win over the Lakers in the second round of the playoffs just five months prior, slapped Ostertag.

"I just told him, 'Hey, yo, watch your mouth and just play,' " O'Neal told ESPN the Magazine. "He said, '[bleep] you.' I said, 'Oh, [bleep] me? OK.' "

Ostertag did not retaliate and, when the altercation was reported, it appeared he had been intimidated by O'Neal.

Many of his teammates were upset by Ostertag's lack of a response, and the incident seemed to set the stage for the rest of his career.

While he flashed occasional signs of being a dominant center, Ostertag never consistently played like one after the slap by O'Neal.