Take into account the history of unassuming stars, from Karl Malone and John Stockton to David Robinson and Tim Duncan. What you find is that maybe it's more than a coincidence the Spurs and Jazz are playing in the Western Conference finals.

The Jazz don't have the three championship banners hanging inside their practice facility and arena like the Spurs. But the Jazz's success during the Stockton-to-Malone era undoubtedly offered the Spurs an example of how it could be done.

"We used them as a model when we built here," general manager R.C. Buford said. That admiration extends to Popovich, who said before the series: "From the first time I came into the league, I always felt watching all the teams, Utah executed better than anybody else."

The Jazz are playing in their six conference finals since 1992 and the Spurs their sixth since 1995. While the Spurs are in the heart of a dynasty built around Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, the Jazz have successfully rebuilt after Stockton's and Malone's departures.

Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz's senior vice president of basketball operations, said the similarities between the organizations might come down to the players they have in place to complement Sloan and Popovich's respective systems.

"I think what we were looking for was guys that would work to get better," O'Connor said. "I think if you look at their guys, they've done that. And they're ahead of us in the process. We were probably ahead of them with John and Karl back then."

Popovich said: "I think in that regard we're pretty similar. People that accept roles and understand about team and want to just come to work. People who've gotten over themselves, who aren't impressed with themselves. They just do their job and go home. "

Sloan and Popovich have remained in their jobs for a combined 30 seasons, remarkable longevity in a league where coaches come and go. Little has changed: Sloan's teams still run the pick-and-roll, while Popovich's play the NBA's best defense.

Both set a no-nonsense tone and have gotten their stars to buy in over the years. Spurs guard Jacque Vaughn, who played for Sloan, reasoned that when he left Utah there "pretty much wasn't going to be anything tougher."

When it comes to the coaches, what goes for Duncan goes for Fabricio Oberto, what goes for Carlos Boozer goes for Paul Millsap. "They're not reluctant to talk to the best player on the team the way they would one of the inactive list guys," Buford said.

"The consistency allows them to coach everyone," Buford added. "They both have a disciplined structure that hasn't changed very much in the course of a lot of time. Often times, I think you see teams and organizations change just to be changing."

The run of success enjoyed by the Spurs and Jazz has been extraordinary. The Jazz have had one losing season since 1983 and the Spurs one losing season since 1989, when they won the draft lottery and selected Robinson with the No. 1 overall pick.

Even more remarkable is where they have done it. The Jazz play in the country's 35th largest television market and the Spurs in the 37th. The only smaller markets in the NBA are in Memphis, Tenn., and New Orleans.

The economic realities that come with that haven't derailed either teams' success. While neither the Spurs nor Jazz can spend like the New York Knicks, they have pushed their payrolls to the luxury-tax threshold of $65 million.

"You have to take advantage of value opportunities wherever they might be," Buford said, "because we don't have the ability to be free-spending."

In the case of the Jazz, that might be drafting Millsap in the second round. For the Spurs, it was signing Michael Finley after he was a luxury-tax casualty in Dallas. But there are some notable differences in the teams' respective draft histories.

While the Spurs have landed No. 1 overall pick twice - selecting Duncan in 1997 after an injury-ravaged season - the Jazz went 21 years without having a pick higher than No. 13. That changed when they drafted Deron Williams with the No. 3 pick in 2005.

His arrival accelerated the Jazz's rebuilding process, with Williams and Boozer giving the Jazz a second-generation Stockton and Malone of sorts. Both teams also have succeeded in using first- and second-round picks to find promising international players.

The Spurs used a No. 57 pick to draft the rights to Ginobili, then playing in the Italian league in 1999. They drafted Parker, a 19-year-old French guard, at the end of the first round two years later. For their part, the Jazz found Andrei Kirilenko in 1999.

When it comes to the future, the Spurs are following the Jazz's lead in another way. They have only Duncan, Parker and Ginobili under contract past the 2007-08 season, giving them the flexibility to rebuild with younger players around their championship core.

The Jazz similarly freed the salary-cap space to sign Boozer and Mehmet Okur after Stockton retired and Malone left for the Lakers. Sloan, meanwhile, said he was '"flattered" when told that Popovich tried to model the Spurs after his teams.

"I am fortunate, I have had guys that seem to work hard," Sloan said. "That's what we try to do, is to get people we think if they will work hard, they have a chance to get better. That's about all we try to do."