Kirilenko spent most of his brief interview session swatting away inquiries, already exhausted by the subject of wanting to be traded that he raised publicly in the first place.

Deron Williams was just sick and tired, period.

The most refreshing part of the Jazz's Media Day was that amid the persistent questions and occasional answers, no one was denying there was at least a little problem surrounding the team, its unhappy forward and its well-established coach. Still, this is a workable situation, for two reasons: Sloan's attitude seems much less defiant than usual and Kirilenko's only available career option is to play along in an organization that is not about to trade him just to trade him.

Only Kirilenko can make himself happy, really. The fact is, as Sloan prepares for his 20th season in charge of the Jazz, this is a coach-driven franchise. Of all the things Kirilenko should have figured out by now, that's tops on the list.

Asked if he served as a mediator in Monday's meeting with the two of them, Jazz vice president Kevin O'Connor said, "No. No, no, no, no, no, no. Irish people can't be mediators. They've got to be on one side or the other."

Care to guess which side management's on here?

So Kirilenko is basically doomed to whatever punishment accompanies the remaining $63 million on his contract, while having expressed displeasure with Sloan's criticism and an offensive system that tends to give better players the basketball, if you can imagine such injustice.

Yet Sloan sounded willing to make things work better for AK in Utah, and so did Williams, whose point-guard role might give him the most say in the matter.

"There's only so much you can do, only so much that can be done if a guy doesn't want to play here, if that's ultimately how he feels in his heart," said Williams, who was feeling dizzy from the effects of illness and resulting medication. "You can't really control that, but you try to make him feel as comfortable as possible while he's here. I can definitely do that, and get him involved more."

Kirilenko will probably be here quite a while, actually. The beauty in this darkness hovering above the team's opening of training camp in Boise today is that the only way Kirilenko can enhance his trade value is to play well, which in turn helps the Jazz, and which would also likely make him happy enough to want to stay, Sloan or no Sloan.

Left unanswered is the question of how Kirilenko and Sloan could fail to understand one another after all this time together, entering AK's seventh season with the Jazz. Then again, Kirilenko claimed the perceived "conflict" with Sloan was something the Utah media "created" out of his words from Russia, instead making "misunderstanding" his word of choice to describe problems in their relationship.

Regardless, his saying he no longer could stand to play for Sloan translated pretty directly, even if he was not expounding on the subject Monday.

"It's not good when we come into the season with anything negative," he said, a little too late.

Not that he was claiming to have been misquoted on his own blog or taking back any of the recent interview words, saying he spoke out "because I was feeling that way, and I still feel that way."

Kirilenko aired some private concerns Monday, according to Sloan, who initially called their meeting "effective," before realizing there could be no way of measuring its impact just yet.

Sloan believes the AK dilemma can be solved, but added, "If it can't, it can't. I can't tell you how Andrei will be. I can't tell you that I'll always make the right decision on his behalf."

Knowing management supports him, Sloan could afford to acknowledge some mishandling of Kirilenko, saying he still could learn "how to be a more effective coach with him," and that if the solution was to "go out on State Street and give him a hug," well, fine.

As it is, the affirmation will have to come from inside EnergySolutions Arena, at the corner of Stockton and Malone. Sloan sounded ready to provide more of it, and by the available accounts of the meeting, Kirilenko seemed to understand what he has to do to get it.

kkragthorpe@sltrib.com