Kevin O'Connor won't be sliding a plate of pork chops and apple sauce under your nose, and don't bother asking him for a free refill on that almost-empty iced tea.
He isn't fishing for a 20 percent tip, either.But, in a wacky point-guard serving sort of way, the Jazz's new vice president of basketball operations sees himself as a waiter. Jerry Sloan sits in the seat at the end, and potential players are the order of the day. Sloan says what he likes, O'Connor delivers, and, in the end, it's the coach who determines who stays on the menu, and who gets sent to the nearest soup kitchen.
"He's the one who is going to make the decisions on those kids, and which ones he wants to keep," O'Connor said of Sloan, whose chosen Jazz cast of 12 opens the 1999-2000 season against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night at the Delta Center.
"The thing we try to do," O'Connor added, "is set the table for him."
Zagat has no say on whether the recipe works. This is simply a Salt Lake City serving, and Sloan is the one who says what he approves of, what he does not. It's the way the NBA seems to be going, a power structure setup in which front-office folks do all the dirty work, but coaches are the ones with more and more control over personnel decisions and roster makeup.
"We just try to get players whose playing style is compatible with his coaching style," said O'Connor, who knows full well that Sloan likes consistent, steady character types who offer long-term upside and as few headaches as one can reasonably expect from today's breed of masterful but sometimes moody NBA millionaires.
O'Connor, who left his post as director of player personnel with the Philadelphia 76ers to succeed Scott Layden with the Jazz, is quite content to play the part of procurer.
For some, ego would get in the way of such a role.
But O'Connor sees the task as one that is critical for successful
franchises, which is why he doesn't mind yielding to Sloan's wishes in both bringing players in and shipping them out.
O'Connor will have much more say on matters like draft strategy and selections, since that is something Sloan does not have time for. And, as long as the lines of communication remain open, O'Connor believes that is the way it should be.
So far, he said, so good.
"I think we're all trying to be on the same page with that," O'Connor , a regular fixture at Jazz preseason practices, said of the personnel moves that have been made since he arrived, including the decision last Thursday to waive bubble players Rick Hughes, Torraye Braggs and Alvin Sims. "We've had communication after every practice, or every game. . . . It makes your job a whole lot easier that way."
Sloan, whose role in the decision-making process seems to have taken a somewhat higher profile since Layden left in the offseason to become executive vice president and general manager of the New York Knicks, is pleased with the way things are falling into place.
The coach said when training camp opened that he had full authority from Jazz owner Larry H. Miller to keep the 12 players he liked best, regardless of whether they had guaranteed contracts. But don't take that to mean Sloan is out to undercut anyone.
"The most important thing is that we work together," he said. "I think that's the bottom line."
In other words, who is on top of whom on the corporate chain-of-command chart does not really matter, so long as all the principles involved are compatible.
For many NBA teams, titles matter little.
Several coaches, in fact, run the show. Some have a tagline to go with it, others do not.
Pat Riley, for instance, is president and head coach of the Miami Heat, and Rick Pitino is president/head coach of the Boston Celtics. Both wave the power wand. Phil Jackson just goes by coach of the Lakers, but you can be certain he has a lot of say when it comes to working with general manager Mitch Kupchak and executive vice president of basketball operations Jerry West.
In Philadelphia, where Larry Brown goes by the title of coach/vice president of basketball operations for the 76ers, O'Connor played a similar procurement role.
He kept quite busy doing it, too.
"It's just that Larry likes to tinker more (with his roster)," O'Connor said, "and Jerry (Sloan) is very, very consistent."
Sloan, whose sole title with the Jazz is head coach (and has been since Frank Layden resigned as coach in 1988) downplays the question of power. Rather, the veteran coach sounds as if he is perfectly willing to collaborate with O'Connor in an effort to make things work, and work smoothly. The front office, he suggested, is his friend, and certainly not his foe.
"Coaches can't succeed," Sloan said, "if you're not in agreement on things."
When the time comes that Sloan and O'Connor disagree, which seems inevitable for two men doing the jobs these two do, the key is a matter of give-and-take.
"You have to understand there's nothing perfect in this world," Sloan said, adding, "Sometimes you have to sacrifice a few things."
Time will tell whether Sloan continues to evolve into more of a personnel decision-maker than he is already. The same goes as to how much trust and faith Miller will extend to O'Connor, who took over the key front-office post with the Jazz after coming with a recommendation from Scott Layden, who is now the second-in-command in New York to ex-Jazz executive and current Madison Square Garden CEO Dave Checketts.
For now and the foreseeable future, though, the success of the Jazz is all that matters to both Sloan and O'Connor.
"You always hear about people with their own agendas," O'Connor said, "but all that leads to is a lot of negativity."
Take that as a tip, free from your friendly front-office waiter.