Home at last: After a series of the unkindest of cuts, Greg Foster is a hoop vagabond no more. His sojourn has led him to a home and starter's minutes with the Utah Jazz. When Greg Foster hears about somebody getting laid off, he can relate.
He knows about losing a job and looking for another. He's gone north, south, east and west - and even overseas - in search of employment in his chosen profession.He could have tried a different, less transient line of work. That thought crossed his mind, if only briefly. But deep down the basketball vagabond had a feeling he would someday make it.
Sure, it was frustrating playing on five different NBA teams and in Greece during his first five years as a professional. He played on all those different teams, but not once was he traded. In each case he was either cut or the clubs chose not to re-sign him at season's end.
"It was tough," he said. "You start to lose confidence in yourself, in your ability."
Foster was drafted in the second round by Washington in 1990. He played sparingly for the Bullets, however, and two-plus years later they released him. Atlanta picked him up for part of the 1992-93 campaign but didn't re-sign him at season's end. His stay in Milwaukee lasted all of three games before the Bucks cut him at the start of the 1993-94 season. Then he was off to Europe.
He made the Chicago Bulls out of training camp for the 1994-95 season - the second year Michael Jordan was striking out as a baseball player instead of dominating basketball. Foster felt good about his chances of sticking. No such luck. He was waived after 17 games.
"Getting cut by the Bulls was a real downer," he said. "I kept thinking, `What do I have to do to make this league?' "
He finished 1994-95 with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The next fall he tried out for the Indiana Pacers and the Miami Heat. His agent wanted him to give the Utah Jazz a shot. Foster didn't want to.
"It was nothing against Utah," said Foster, "but I was exhausted after Pat Riley's camp in Miami. I didn't want to go right off to another camp, but my agent wanted me to, so I just sucked it up and did it."
The rest, as they say, is history.
"He was a free agent with not very many places he could go," said Jazz assistant coach Phil Johnson. "The thing that helped him make our team was that he was in very good condition. He'd been in other camps and was working hard trying to stay in the league."
Foster is now in his third season in Utah. He's played nearly as many games in a Jazz uniform (197) as he had with his previous five NBA teams combined (227).
And now - at least for the time being - he's the starting center for the defending Western Conference champions.
"I hope we've found a home," said Foster, who is married to his college sweetheart, Victoria. "I've dragged my family all over the world for this game. It's nice to see my wife and my kids have a place to call home and where they can begin to develop relationships with people."
Thank you, Derek.
"You go live in Utah. I don't wanna."
Those were the "fighting" words - at least to Utahns - of veteran guard Derek Harper last season just prior to the NBA trade deadline.
The Jazz and the Dallas Mavericks thought they had agreed to a deal that would send Harper to Utah for the stretch run and the playoffs. Harper nixed the trade, though, raising the ire of Karl Malone, among others in the Beehive State.
Foster, meanwhile, thanks his lucky stars. Had the trade gone through, he would have been sent packing to Dallas.
"I couldn't be happier that the trade didn't happen," said Foster. "I would have hated to miss the whole atmosphere of the playoffs and being in the Finals last year."
The Jazz, in retrospect, are pleased Foster is still around, too. He was a forgotten man near the end of the bench at times last season. But he came up big in several playoff games, averaging 4.2 points. He was even better in the Finals, averaging 5.5 points per game.
"I probably made a mistake last year because he deserved more playing time," admits Jazz coach Jerry Sloan now.
When Greg Ostertag struggled through the first six games this year, Sloan inserted Foster as the starter prior to the seventh game. The Jazz are 5-2 since the switch. Foster has made 54.5 percent of his field goals and averaged 8.6 points and 4.6 rebounds as the starter. He played a season-high 37 minutes with 10 points and nine boards in Monday's overtime win over the Timberwolves.
"I don't care if I'm a starter or . . .," said Foster, who then caught his fib in mid-sentence. "Well, actually, I do care. I'd rather start. I'll be honest."
Like most NBA players, Foster enjoys nothing more than scoring points. But he knows that's not the primary reason he's finally found an NBA home.
"Quite frankly, I'm not on this team to score big points and have big numbers," he said. "I'm here to defend and rebound. The scoring is the icing on the cake. As long as I know what my role is, I'll be fine."
At 6 feet 11 inches and 240 pounds, he's undersized by NBA standards for centers, but he's still the second tallest player on the Jazz roster, behind Ostertag. And he does some of his best work against the league's mammoth superstars.
"He plays big guys very well," said Johnson. "He's done a good job against guys like Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Oluajuwon, David Robinson - he's really helped us against those type guys. He becomes more physical than he is normally, and he gives them problems because he can make the outside shot. It's hard for them to guard him."
Added Sloan: "Greg's big thing is that he's really worked hard defensively. He's usually out-sized, but he works hard at it."
Since defenses key on Malone so much inside and since some centers don't like to guard the perimeter, Foster is often left open for mid-range jumpers. "If he makes those shots," Sloan said, "it makes us a pretty good team."
Foster still has a tendency to be inconsistent, which can drive the coaches crazy.
But it's clear he's become a crowd-pleaser at the Delta Center.
He wasn't always popular in these parts. In fact, there was a time when he was despised by fans from Salt Lake City to Provo.
Foster, an all-WAC performer, was the designated thug on a couple of outstanding UTEP teams from 1988-90 that included Tim Hardaway, Marlon Maxey and Antonio Davis.
"Every time I touched the ball against Utah I'd get booed," Foster remembers. "I actually kind of liked it at the time. I thought it was funny."
Now Delta Center crowds feed off his enthusiasm on the court. He's prone to pump his fists a few times on the way back down the court after making an outside jumper or a dunk.
Foster's popularity peaked last June in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. The Bulls held a 2-0 series lead and the Jazz needed a home win desperately. With some 600 million people watching worldwide, Foster, the guy who had been cut time and time again by NBA teams - including the Bulls - had his moment of glory.
He almost couldn't miss, making five of his first six shots. He scored a career-high 17 points, 15 in the first half, mostly on an assortment of 3-point and mid-range jumpers. He added a Jordanesque put-back dunk on a Malone miss that sent the already frenzied crowd into hysterics. He also pulled down six rebounds in helping the Jazz to a 104-93 victory.
"It was an incredible feeling," he said of Game 3. "To do that with millions of people watching all over the world against a former team that I thought gave me a raw deal - it was incredible. It was the sweetest thing I've ever experienced, besides the birth of my children."
Foster grew up in Oakland, the product of a single, working mother. "We weren't rich by any means, but we weren't dirt poor," he says. "I had a good childhood."
Now he wants to be there for his two daughters, 4-year-old Victoria and 2-year-old Collette, just like his mother was there for him.
"I guess you could call me a homebody," he said. "I just feel very fortunate to have a job where I can get up, work hard for two or three hours and then go home to spend time with my family and do what I want to do."
Finally, he's earned a degree of job security. And better still, he and his family, knock on wood, are finally putting down some roots.
*****
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Greg Foster
Non-starter Starter Total
G 6 7 13
Min* 12.5 24.7 19.1
FG 9 24 33
FGA 24 44 68
PCT .375 .545 .485
FT 7 11 18
FTA 8 15 23
PCT .875 .733 .783
Rebounds
OFF 12 7 19
DEF 9 25 34
TOT 21 32 53
PPG 4.3 8.6 6.5
*Minutes per game
*****
Greg Foster's stats
Year Team GP Min Avg
1990-91 Wash 54 606 4.4
1991-92 Wash 49 548 4.3
1992-93 Wash/Atl43 298 2.9
1993-94 Mil 3 19 3.3
1994-95 Chi/Minn78 1144 4.9
1995-96 Utah 73 803 3.8
1996-97 Utah 79 920 3.4
1997 Utah 13 248 6.5