The "Western Conference Champions" T-shirt and hat looked a little silly on Karl Malone, but he didn't seem to mind. He had been meaning to try out the look for a dozen years. He swung by the media interview room, then headed to the locker room to field more questions. In the midst of describing John Stockton's last-second, game-winning shot, Malone paused as a stately man walked to the edge of the crowd and called out.
"Finish it," said Hakeem Olajuwon. "Now finish it."Malone had received his directive from one who knows. Olajuwon, who has won two NBA championship rings, was reminding Malone it was time to move on. There would be only a few moments for celebrating, but the end to the story was still to come.
"We're not going to Chicago just to go there," Malone said.
After years of waiting, Malone and his significant other, John Stockton, were in the NBA Finals. No more watching Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen at home on the big screen, pretending it didn't really matter. No more agonizing over a missed shot, a broken play, a defensive slip-up. Eddie Johnson's game-winning shot in Game 4 in Houston? A nice video. He can watch it all summer. This time it was the Houston Rockets who would lie awake and run the last play over and over in their heads. The Rockets led by 13 points with 6:47 to go, and by 10 with 2:59 remaining, Thursday night. Playing in a nightmare near you: The Utah Jazz in"Night of the Living Dead."
When Stockton dropped in his game-winning three-pointer for a 103-100 win, the Summit got quiet as a tomb. The team that couldn't quite finish, that was too old, too predictable, too . . . too . . . Utah, was finally in the Finals.
It was as though someone, somewhere, with even more authority than Commissioner David Stern, had declared the two best teams in the league actually would be playing in the NBA Finals: Utah and Chicago.
"We're ready to go play," said Jazz forward Antoine Carr. "It doesn't matter who. If it's them (Chicago), that makes it even better. We want to play whoever is perceived to be the best team."
As good as the Jazz were in this best season in their history, it wasn't as though they went into Thursday's game with a lot of evidence that they could survive a Game 7. They were 1-11 in road games in the Western Conference Finals. They were 5-6 in deciding games (either Game 5 or Game 7) in previous playoffs. In games in which they were facing elimination, they were 12-13.
Not exactly a guarantee.
But the Jazz got into their do-or-die mode a game early. For a team that over the years has seldom lived well with prosperity, that often has lived by the motto "Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?", the Jazz made up their minds they weren't going back to Salt Lake City for a seventh game. Not back to the scene of the crime, where they lost Game 5 of the first round to the Rockets in 1995.
"I think we kind of had to win tonight," Carr said. "We didn't want to take it back to Salt Lake."
So with the Jazz trailing by 13 points with 6:45 to go, they made their move. They decided that, as much as they like Salt Lake, they didn't want to be there on Sunday for a seventh game. Stockton scored 13 points in the last 3:13 and added two assists to Bryon Russell. His fingerprints were on the last 19 points the Jazz scored. By the time he finally let fly the last shot, he had pretty much convinced everyone he was planning on winning, case closed.
"I just knew it was cash," said Carr. "It was goin' in. He had that look in his eyes, those daggers, and that was it. I was getting ready to party."
There was a brief flurry of jumping and bear-hugging on the court, but the Jazz held a rather subdued meeting in the locker room after the game. No one uncorked any champagne. Nobody pulled out the big cigars. Nobody suggested they turn over a police car. It was more of a warm fuzzy moment than a wild celebration.
"There was no champagne or anything," said Malone. "We wore the shirts and hats, but we had water and Coca-Cola. I think that's how it should be. Now's where the fun starts."
Then the moment was gone and their minds were drifting off to Chicago and the NBA Finals. "When we were up 3-2, everybody was talking about a game on Sunday," said Malone, not a little amused at the irony. "Well, there will be a game on Sunday - in Chicago."
*****
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
1997 Statistics - Chicago Bulls
Playoffs summary
Jordan:
G: 13 RPG: 8.3
GS: 13 APG: 4.2
MPG: 42.2 STL: 23
FG%: .456 BLK: 12
3PT%: .119 PPG: 20.5
FT%: .871
Pippen:
G: 13 RPG: 6.1
GS: 13 APG: 3.9
MPG: 38.2 STL: 18
FG%: .416 BLK: 7
3PT%: .333 PPG: 18.8
FT%: .800
Bulls:
G: 13 RPG: 44.9
GS: APG: 21.2
MPG: 240.0 STL: 116
FG%: .433 BLK: 60
3PT%: .306 PPG: 94.7
FT%: .747
1997 Statistics - Utah Jazz
Playoffs summary
Malone:
G: 14 RPG: 11.9
GS: 14 APG: 2.6
MPG: 40.8 STL: 17
FG%: .432 BLK: 13
3PT%: 1.000 PPG: 26
FT%: .768
Stockton:
G: 14 RPG: 3.9
GS: 14 APG: 9.9
MPG: 36.7 STL: 21
FG%: .529 BLK: 2
3PT%: .371 PPG: 16
FT%: .859
Jazz:
G: 14 RPG: 42.1
GS: APG: 22.4
MPG: 241.8 STL: 103
FG%: .460 BLK: 77
3PT%: .371 PPG: 99
FT%: .803