It wasn't all that long ago that Utah Jazz center Greg Ostertag was the young one, the new kid, the rookie taking regular beatings from centers like Patrick Ewing, Shaquille O'Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon in learning to be a bona fide NBA center.
Now, two years later, with an NBA Finals appearance under his belt, Ostertag is developing into more of the deliverer instead of the delivered upon.In Friday night's 85-59 Rocky Mountain Revue victory over the San Antonio/Philadelphia club, Ostertag showed No. 1 overall pick Tim Duncan what he has learned in the past two seasons.
Ostertag scored a game-high 21 points and pulled 10 rebounds to move his club to 3-1 in the Revue.
Duncan, who fouled out with three minutes to go, scored 14 points and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.
"We're really pleased with the way Greg came out and played," said designated coach-of-the-day Kenny Natt. "He's played against some of the best centers in this league and this is an opportunity where I'm sure he didn't come out nervous. I told him to go out and show the young fellow what he had in regards to his skills."
To go along with his points Ostertag had eight defensive rebounds and five blocked shots.
"Defensively he's been very good. That's one of the things that we haven't been worried so much about with Greg. He's always been able to block shots and rebound. We're very impressed by the way he stepped his game up."
Ostertag was generally pleased with his own play.
"Today I thought I had a pretty good game. I was real aggressive with the ball on offense," Ostertag said. "I took it up strong and made good strong moves. I probably could have played a little better defense."
As for Duncan and his potential and talent, "I think he's going to be a very good ball player. He's a very skilled athlete," Natt said. "The one thing that he's going to learn is to pick up his aggressiveness and energy. Once he does that he's going to be a very good player in this league."
The Jazz opened up an early 5-0 lead and increased to 12-3 on a bucket by Ostertag. While the Jazz coasted, the Spurs trimmed the lead to 35-31 on a 3-pointer by Jeff McInnis midway though the second quarter.
Utah, behind Ostertag and Jacque Vaughn, went on a 7-0 run in the final minutes of the quarter to take the 42-31 halftime lead.
The Jazz increased their lead to as many as 29 points in the second half en route to the lopsided victory.
Behind Ostertag, Nate Erdmann had 13 points and Bryon Ruffner had 11 points, while McInnis led the Spurs/76ers team with 15 points.
The Jazz play again today at 5 p.m. against Dallas.
In other Revue action:
Warriors 71, Sonics 64: James Cotton scored a game-high 21 points and Rick Brunson added 10 as the Warriors edged the Sonics. Todd Fuller led the Sonics with 16 points.
Mavericks 82, Magic 72: The Mavericks had four players score in double figures led by Kevin Ollie's 20 points. Former Jazzman Walter Bond led the Magic with 15 points.