So it's come to this. In the absence of any real challengers, the Jazz are being called a dirty team.
This is good news for the Jazz, if you think about it. The Jazz and their fans are taking issue with the accusations, but they don't understand.Nobody ever called the Jazz dirty when they were losing. Nobody calls the Dallas Mavericks dirty. No one calls Pat Riley's teams thugs when they aren't contenders. No one called Americans imperialist pigs until they started spanking a few bad guys. No one called President Clinton all those names when he was losing elections.
No one cares until you're winning.
The Jazz used to be such nice guys when they cooperated and took an early exit from the playoffs. But now that they're ruling the playoffs, suddenly they are Rowdy Roddie Piper and Hulk Hogan with jump shots.
When your opponents are calling you dirty, things are going well. The Jazz have got to get used to their new role as a bully. They're the big kid on the block someone picked a fight with, and when the Jazz knocked him down he called them cheaters.
After the Jazz knocked off the Rockets on Monday night, they said the Jazz were dirty and overly physical and vowed to respond in kind next time. Everyone said Game 2 would be different, which seemed to mean a rugby match might break out.
The Rockets came out throwing their weight around (i.e. Charles Barkley), not to mention their elbows, but the result was the same. The Jazz never blinked, as Stockton put it. They beat the Rockets 104-92 Wednesday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.
If that is all that the Rockets have, then Houston, you have a prob-lem.
Everything is going as planned and then some for the Jazz. They are 9-1 in the playoffs, claiming their victories by an average of 11 points. So far, the only thing the competition has been able to do is call them names.
The Clippers, while doing three-and-out, called the Jazz whiners. The Lakers, five games and out, called the Jazz whiners and dirty players. Then the Rockets stepped up and called the Jazz dirty players after Game 1.
So far, the philosophy in the playoffs is, if you can't beat 'em, call 'em a name.
After Game 1, Hakeem Ola-ju-won said this, among other derogatory things, about the Jazz: "They want to look like good guys all the time . . . But the truth is they are bad guys, very bad guys. This is a dirty team. They play a way that is cheap and dirty . . . The referees don't see a lot of what they do."
Maybe Olajuwon is right about the referees. If the Jazz are doing something dirty, the referees are either legally blind; on the Jazz's side; watching the Jazz Dancers. CNN, while investigating the dirty-Jazz theory, discovered that the Jazz are among the clean-est teams in the game, as far as the officials are concerned.
Looking at data from the 1995-96 season (statistics for the just-completed regular season are still being compiled), the Jazz tied for last in the NBA in fines, with the Hawks, Blazers, Clippers and Mavericks. Their total fines: $0. Indiana, by comparison, accumulated $102,500 in fines.
The Jazz also earned a total of two flagrant fouls that season. Only one team (Cleveland) had fewer. Sacramento, Chicago and Philadelphia had eight apiece.
In the end, all the Rockets' talk of dirty play "got in their heads," as one Houston writer observed. They spent so much time trying to put Jazz players on the floor that they forgot there was a basketball game being played. Even the coach got caught up in it.
Before the opening tipoff, Rudy Tomjanovich said, between repeated claims that he wasn't whining (he doth protest too much), he told officials to watch out for the Jazz guards setting moving screens in the lane. He also said he was ignored.
Charles Barkley ran over Stockton twice in the first quarter and got called for fouls. In the second half, Barkley, apparently mistaking Stockton for a bowling pin, went out of his way to knock the little guard to the floor, which earned a flagrant foul.
Olajuwon got into a jawing match with Karl Malone. Someone elbowed Howard Eisley (Howard Eisley!) in the second half. Willis wasn't picky: He bodied anyone wearing white.
Too bad the Rockets didn't think about other things, such as shooting. They made just 36.5 percent of their shots, and during one three-minute stretch missed five layups. Or they could have grabbed a few rebounds, as long as they were in the neigborhood. They were outrebounded 56-37, including 20-4 in the first quarter. Olajuwon had 0 rebounds at halftime, five for the game - three fewer than Stockton. He was outrebounded by every Jazz starter.
For his part, Willis had six points, seven rebounds and several nice elbows. "Some of their guys talk a lot of - about us being dirty," said a steaming Russell. "Willis is the main one. Cheap shots is all he ever does now. I was ready to come to blows with him."
Instead of grumbling and rumbling, the Rockets might have tried defending the Jazz bench, which accounted for 23 points and 14 rebounds. The no-names did it again. Strange sights in the Delta Center: Greg Foster swatting away a Barkley shot. Foster calling for the ball. Foster teaming with Eisley to shoot down a third-quarter Rocket rally.
"We can't get caught up in the sideshow," Malone said of all the "dirty" accusations, and they didn't. That's what happened to the Rockets, and look where it got them. If they can't right themselves in the next couple of games, it's all over.
Except for the name-calling, of course.