LOS ANGELES — Before he could come back to Utah and surprisingly rejoin the Jazz five seasons after he left, David Benoit had to apologize.
Benoit realized it, and did.
He has returned a repentant man, sorry for whatever was or was not said way back when.
He said as much in a letter of apology addressed to Jazz owner Larry H. Miller. He said as much in a letter to Jazz coach Jerry Sloan and his staff of assistants. He even said as much in a letter to Frank and Scott Layden, the father-and-son team that formerly ran the Jazz front office.
Moreover, he made amends with Jazz star Karl Malone — the subject of controversial, disputed comments attributed to Benoit shortly after his departure from the team that gave him his first big break.
And now, Benoit's back in the NBA.
A visit with friends in Utah last April broke the dam, clearing the way for the 32-year-old former University of Alabama forward to play for the Jazz in last July's Rocky Mountain Revue summer league. Then, late last month, despite the fact he went to training camp with no guarantees, Benoit did what many doubted he would.
He made the team.
"I think it was finally coming to all these years, and then being able to be in touch with a couple of people back in Utah, (that) really opened up my eyes that there were some things that happened back in (1996) that I wasn't really fully aware of," Benoit said. "And I think the lines for everyone got crossed up.
"The letter was just stating I felt like I really owed an apology . . . on my behalf, because I had something to do with it. And after talking with everyone, it's pretty much swept up under the rug. I mean, I think they understood, pretty much, what kind of took place, and I did, so, you know, we're not going to sit and dwell on any of that."
But it hasn't always been so simple.
Benoit, undrafted out of college, spent his first season after Alabama in Spain. He signed with the Jazz as a free agent in 1991 and spent the first five seasons of his NBA career in Utah the last two following a stint in alcohol rehab — as a starter with Malone, John Stockton & company.
That's when things went wacky.
Benoit, apparently unaware the Jazz may have had plans for him, wound up signing as a free agent with the New Jersey Nets in August '96. Late the next month, a New Jersey newspaper quoted him as saying, among other things, this:
"When it came down to big plays and we went to (Malone) and we really needed him to finish, he didn't finish. He got the ball and he didn't finish it off.
"You would think the coaches or management would look at it. The guy's an All-Star and everything, but that (the 1995-96 season) was the third time we went to the (Western) Conference finals and he didn't finish.
"I didn't mind playing with Karl and John (Stockton), but at the same time I don't think they appreciated the things I could do offensively. They didn't respect my ability to do something, like shoot the ball, take a guy one-on-one or get post-ups. If there was anything for me to do, it was play defense. That was all that was left for the rest of us to do.
"Ninety percent of the time the plays are run for Karl, and we scraped up anything that was left. I don't have a problem with Karl getting the ball, but if Karl doesn't have anything — and most of the time he was double-teamed —then he could have bounced it out and let someone else create something. But a lot of times, if Karl got double-teamed, he'd kick it out and we'd whip it around until Karl posted up again on the other side of the lane. That's not really basketball. That's a bunch of guys standing around."
Benoit allegedly went on, but you get the point.
About a month later — after Benoit blew an Achilles tendon, an injury that cost him the entire 1996-97 season — Malone responded.
"It's strange, because when David was here, I was taking time to help him, and I thought I was helping him with his career.
"You can't say bad stuff about a person and not expect that person not to like you. That's human nature. There's nothing I can do about that. A lot of people spend too much time worrying about what other people are doing instead of worrying about their own game. That's what this league is coming to.
"Everybody comes at me to say, 'How about winning the NBA championship?' But you know what? That's not what drives me. What drives me is these guys in this locker room, and competing. I don't care about the NBA championship because that's how outside people measure me. That's not the way I measure myself.
"I have my priorities in order, so when I leave this business, I won't need to explain anything to anybody because I don't need to. There are a lot of people out there who can't say that. They'll have to explain not just their game but the rest of their life, too."
Malone said more, but you get the point.
Benoit maintains not only that he was misquoted in '96 but also that he simply did not say many of the things attributed to him. He even suggests he was set up.
"But that's not what I'm really focusing on right now any more," he says now.
"It's just an unfortunate situation, because you have innocent people that's not really knowing what's going on with the whole situation," Benoit added. "The story gets twisted up, and once it hits the newspaper, then people say, 'Well, yeah, you know, he really said that' — without really knowing that person. Which is, in a way, for me, scary, because it's happened to me, and I realize the power the media really has.
"It's really up to us (athletes) to be able to tell it to you guys (media members), but you guys have to go out and tell the truth then. So I'll just leave it at that. It's really not something in my control."
Benoit does, however, feel he now has control of his life.
Remarried and in his best physical condition ever, he is back in the league — back after spending two seasons out of it, one playing in Israel and one, the most-recent, without playing any organized basketball whatsoever.
Before he could return to the Jazz and the NBA, though, Benoit had to clear the way.
His formal apologies went a long way toward doing just that, something Benoit realized when last month he ran into Scott Layden, now general manager of the New York Knicks, at a preseason game in Albany, N.Y.
"(Layden) was really happy to see I was back in a Jazz uniform," Benoit said. "And I was like, 'Well, that's where I really belong — from the beginning to the end.' You know, God already knew it. And, eventually, I was going to be back here."
Among the potential roadblocks might have been Jazz coach Sloan. But he yielded after Benoit repented.
"I've always respected David Benoit," Sloan said. "He had some things going on in his life. Not everybody has it perfect. Not everything is always perfect. And he fought through some tough times.
"We could have said, 'No, we're not giving you another chance.' But he wrote us a letter, and talked to us about it, and I felt like he was sincere, so we went on and forgot what happened . . . When he wanted to come back, I said, 'Yeah, I don't have any problem with it. Just come and do the best you can, and we'll see where you are.' "
The Jazz liked where Benoit was, and made room for the free agent — despite already having one too many players with guaranteed contracts.
Benoit is on the 4-0 Jazz's 12-man active roster but has played sparingly going into Wednesday night's game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
He logged 10 minutes against the L.A. Lakers last Wednesday but played just one minute in Utah's season-opener against the Clippers and on Monday against Minnesota and not at all last Saturday in Dallas.
His veteran presence on the Jazz bench, however, is welcome — most notably by Malone, who encouraged Benoit to come to camp with the Jazz rather than sign a guaranteed deal with a team in Italy.
"Everybody wants to talk about what he supposedly said when he left here, you know? I don't think I do," Malone, the two-time NBA MVP, said just before the regular season began. "I just think I've grown up a lot more than that, and he has too. You can't sit there and hold grudges with a guy."
For that, Benoit is grateful.
He also is happy "to be able to apologize to Larry (Miller), and Jerry (Sloan), and all them. And also thanking them for their support of me — having support for me during the time when I was with the Jazz.
"You know," added Benoit, who suspects he was a victim of bad advice back in '96, "it's tough when one can't see, and one can, and he's leading the one who can't see, but he's leading him in the wrong direction."
Now, Benoit likes the direction he is headed.
"Right now, it's really a blessing," he said. "I'm really happy to be back and have a second chance.
"The past is the past. It's something that I definitely personally learned from. Especially when you're working for a guy like Jerry, and Larry, and working with a guy like Karl (Malone) and John (Stockton) and the rest of these teammates — and then you go outside of that and see how valuable that really is.
"I guess it had to happen in a way. I just kind of hate that it happened the way it did, because, I mean, I feel like if I was here we probably would have won the championship — we would have won that championship out of one of those two years."
The first two seasons Benoit was gone from Utah are the two the Jazz advanced to the NBA Finals, only to lose both times to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
"But," Benoit said, "again, it's just like the past: You can't dwell on it."
You can, however, say you're sorry. And David Benoit has.
E-MAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com