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Right now, the Jazz don't belong to coach Tyrone Corbin. General manager Kevin O'Connor has even less say.

Since Utah's practice facility opened Thursday to players for informal workouts, the Jazz have placed their trust in three often-anonymous men: Mark McKown, Gary Briggs and Brian Zettler.

The trio has spent 33 combined years in Salt Lake City, toiling behind the scenes and along the sidelines while pushing million-dollar athletes to be more than they ever imagined.

Courtesy of the nature of their profession, the men go unnoticed in the public eye and their best work often occurs when doors are closed. But during an eight-day period that will end Friday when training camp officially opens, the immediate future and overall health of the Jazz are in the hands of their training triumvirate.

"We've been preparing our butts off just getting ready for this point," said Zettler, Utah's equipment manager and assistant athletic trainer.

History lesson

McKown said the preparation started July 1, when the 157-day lockout began. Entering his 15th season as the Jazz's strength and conditioning coach, McKown spent June 30 working with several Jazz players at a high-performance training facility in Santa Barbara, Calif. A day later, contact was severed among anyone earning a paycheck working for Utah and the athletes who make the Jazz what they are.

Corbin provided specific instructions before the work stoppage to the nine Utah players under contract, as well as unsigned rookies Enes Kanter and Alec Burks. McKown offered his own advice, topping off his words with a symbol: Karl Malone. The Mailman was old in NBA years during the 1998-99 lockout, hitting 35 in his 14th season. But while some players stopped being athletes and turned into overweight, overpaid embarrassments, Malone became superhuman, enduring a punishing 50-game season to emerge with his second MVP trophy.

"He trained like a madman and you knew it. … Because he trained hard, he kicked everybody's ass," McKown said.

Malone has long been out of the league, and they don't make them like they used to. But initial indications are promising for the Jazz, with players such as C.J. Miles, Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson appearing to be in the best shape of their careers.

Still, McKown acknowledged that not everyone will be ready to run suicide drills Friday morning. Speaking as a proud veteran of 1998-99, McKown broke his expectations for players returning from an unpredictable five-month vacation into three categories: athletically fit, so-so and disgusting.

Gym rats such as Gordon Hayward aren't a concern, and former problem child Kyrylo Fesenko is no longer on Utah's roster. Still, the Jazz's training trio must first get fresh eyes on the entire 11-man crew before they can tailor specific workout regimens for each athlete.

"We need to get a feel for where they are because you don't know. Frankly, it'll be across the spectrum," McKown said.

Rest and recovery

An abbreviated training camp and a compressed 66-game schedule that will feature as many as three back-to-back-to-back series for a single team is expected to create chaos.

Ask McKown about the effects of the 1998-99 lockout on aging veterans and he replies, "brutal, just brutal." Briggs recalls most of the pain, but Utah's head athletic trainer chalks the rest up to "a blur."

The Jazz aren't going to run headfirst into a brick wall this time around. McKown will slowly stretch and strengthen bodies; Zettler will help fill the in-between spaces. But the burdens of rest and rehabilitation will mostly fall on Briggs' shoulders.

He has 30 combined years in the NBA and said he's the second longest-tenured trainer in the league, trailing only Detroit's Mike Abdenour. The quiet but affable Briggs has an answer for almost everything. And 21 days before the 2011-12 season tips off Christmas Day, he already has the Jazz's entire lockout plan in place, breaking a self-made system into two categories: maintenance of conditioning and recovery.

Briggs said the primary fallout from packed games and hectic travel will be tendinitis. Thus, postgame icing of the knees will no longer be optional but mandatory. After home contests, Jazz players will find two English ice caps — the "old-timey" kind made from cloth and rubber, locked with a screw — waiting near their locker. Ice packs will be individually numbered, and constructed to fit firmly inside neoprene wraps.

Road trips will feature standard icing procedures. Nutrition and rest will be heavily emphasized, though, and a selection of four recovery power drinks will be made available as soon as the buzzer sounds and players re-enter the locker room. In addition, compression tights worn last season by Millsap and Jefferson, among others, will be available for every Jazzman.

Briggs borrowed the idea for the tights from Dallas' Casey Smith, who served as a trainer for the 2008 gold medal-winning USA men's basketball team.

Some Olympians won't hop on a plane without wearing compression pants. This season, Briggs won't leave Salt Lake City without them, attempting to counter lactic acid accumulation.

"If we play three games in a row, we're not going to be able to have a practice on the fourth day. But there are things that we can do to … hopefully be able to cut down on muscle soreness," said Briggs, who was charged with reaching out to Jazz players as soon as a tentative deal was reached Nov. 27 to end to the lockout.

Practice time and intensity are also expected be scaled back, as Briggs works with Corbin to find a comfort zone between on-the-court production and off-the-court recovery.

"It's kind of a two-phase thing," Briggs said. "I'm trying to help him be a new head coach and then throw on top of that this situation. Probably more so than normal, I'm trying to explain everything that we do and why we want to do it."

Old friends

Communication between the Jazz's training trio is often seamless. McKown said his longtime relationship with Briggs is "probably about the best" in the NBA. Zettler joked that he paid the duo to say great things about him after learning of his mentors' praise, then acknowledged he'd be a "complete buffoon" if he didn't absorb something new every day.

Five months after the lockout started, the trio is finally back on the clock, preparing the Jazz for the wild unknown that awaits. In actuality, though, their work never stopped. And they know the compressed journey has only just begun.

"We're there for the team, the players, the organization — anything that we can do to help bring that ring to Salt Lake City," Zettler said. —

Who's who?

Mark McKown • strength and conditioning coach, 15th season with Jazz

Gary Briggs • head athletic trainer, 12th season with Jazz

Brian Zettler • assistant athletic trainer/equipment manager, 8th season with Jazz —

More the merrier

Each NBA team will play at least one back-to-back-to-back series during the 2011-12 season and some could play as many as three. The league will compress 66 games into an abbreviated regular-season campaign that starts Dec. 25 and ends April 26. —

Upcoming dates

Tuesday • 2011-12 NBA schedule released

Friday • Training camp/free agency start

Dec. 17 • Jazz scrimmage at EnergySolutions Arena

Dec. 19 • Jazz at Blazers

Dec. 21 • Blazers vs. Jazz

Dec. 25 • NBA season starts