The Lakers called. So did the Suns. Would Jeff Hornacek play for them, they asked?
What part of "I'm retired" didn't they understand?
Hornacek doesn't play basketball anymore. But he does do volunteer work at his children's school. "I'm doing the math thing," he says. "I'm at the math table."
Finally, he's using his accounting degree, on first-graders.
"I'm busier now than I was before (he retired)," says Hornacek.
When did he ever have time to play basketball?! There's carpool duty and yard work and the garage still needs cleaning and there's that mess in the attic and there are requests for appearances to sift through. You can put off a lot of things when you're pursuing an NBA career.
"When you're playing, it's easier to say no," he says. "I'll bet I've received 200 requests to do things. People think you have a lot of free time because you're retired."
Make a note, world: "I'm trying to disappear for a while," he says. So much for hanging around as the resident jock emeritus.
For the first time in 25 years, Hornacek is not getting ready for a basketball season. When the Jazz opened training camp in Boise, he was vacationing in California with his wife, Stacy. To make sure he felt their pain, John Stockton and Karl Malone called Hornacek on his cell phone.
"They were rubbing it in about training camp," says Hornacek. "I said, 'Hey, we're relaxing.' Obviously, I'd like to go out there some days and play, but I know all the other things that go with it in terms of practices and travel."
He had almost forgotten about the "other things" when he went to Stockton's house the other day to get a picture signed for a friend. Says Hornacek, "(His wife) answered the door, and I asked, 'Is John here?' She said, 'He's at practice.' I thought, 'Oh, yeah. That's too bad.' That's when you remember those guys have to go to practice every day."
During the off-season, the Lakers and Suns called Hornacek, trying to lure him out of his new retirement. "They thought I'd end up changing my mind," he says. "For now, I'm not playing."
For now?! Was that the door he just left open?
"Who knows what will happen in April, after being out six months," he says. "I'm pretty happy, but you never know. That's why I told (owner Larry Miller) that I'd keep it open instead of going ahead and signing retirement papers. If something crazy happens, the way it did in Phoenix (with Kevin Johnson coming out of retirement to replace the injured Jason Kidd late last season), I'd consider it. That's not to say I would do it. It's something to consider instead of signing some guy to a 10-day contract who doesn't know the offense. But I told Larry it would have to be in April for me even to consider it."
Hornacek has barely touched a basketball since he left the NBA last spring. The purest shooter in all of basketball, the defending three-point/free-throw champion guesses he has taken two or three shots total since the Jazz fell to Portland, but why should retirement be any different than his career?
"Over the last few years, I didn't shoot (in the off-season) anyway," he says. "It takes about a week to get it (his shot) back."
Hornacek, meanwhile, is happy to confront more wonderfully mundane matters instead. The riding mower, or the walking mower? Exercise, or sleep in?
"I thought I'd kind of enjoy mowing my own grass," he says. "You know, buy a riding mower. Then I thought that would be all right a couple of times a month, but not every week."
No one said he's dumb.
Hornacek tries to get up every morning to exercise in his home gym with Stacy, but "some days I think, well, I've exercised for 25 years, I'm staying in bed," he says. "But I have to do some of it. I can't get the old beer gut going."
Like everyone who stops him on the street, you want to know how the new-look, overhauled Jazz will do this year. Don't ask. He has no opinion and wants no part of armchair analysis. He'll follow the team — but only casually. He was a player, not a fan.
"I'm interested to see how they're doing, but watching them on TV — that I probably won't do," he says. "I might flip on the TV for the last two minutes when the excitement happens. I don't imagine myself sitting down and watching a whole game. I didn't want to watch it when I was playing and sitting on the bench."
E-mail: drob@desnews.com