The individual, Shandon Anderson says, is all too often lost in the system.
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan hears the criticism from a man who fled the system, but he refuses to be fazed by it.
"If that's the way he feels," Sloan said, "then that's the way he feels."
It's the way he feels.
Anderson said as much recently to the Houston Chronicle, speaking for a story that appeared prior to the Jazz's game against his new team, the Houston Rockets, last Sunday.
"They figure any guy can be plugged into it," Anderson, who left the Jazz to sign with the Rockets for less money last offseason, said of the Jazz system. "After a while, they stop looking at you as individuals.
"It wasn't like Utah was holding me back, but up there everything goes through Karl (Malone)," he added. "Here, there's more freedom. I can use my strengths more."
In defense, Sloan suggested Anderson was treated fairly during his seasons in Salt Lake City.
"He came (to Utah), worked hard, and I thought he had a chance to play with some players who let him have a chance to play, rather than be on a team, to start with, where he might not have gotten to play at all," Sloan said. "But I don't have any problem with that. He played hard (in Utah), and he should get better."
He already has, Anderson maintained.
Coming off efforts of 28 points in a victory over Seattle and 30 points in a victory over Portland prior to playing the Jazz, Anderson gave himself good grades this season.
"If I didn't think I could do this, then I would have stayed in Utah," he said in reference to his starting role with the Rockets. "But I felt my abilities (justified) more (of a role) than what I was presented with up there, so I moved on.
"Anyone who's watched me play my first three years, and then seen me play this year, can see my game has blossomed," added Anderson, who scored 13 vs. the Jazz. "It's still not where I want to be (performancewise), but it's a great start."
And Anderson felt even better about it after the Rockets beat the Jazz on Sunday, Houston's lone victory over Utah this season — and first in more than three years.
"For me personally, being there (in Utah) for three years," he said, "to come out here and beat these guys makes it all worth it."
OH, DOC: The way things are shaping up, it looks like the Jazz may be meeting Sacramento in a rematch of their first-round playoff series from a season ago. But one can't blame them for wanting the Seattle SuperSonics, who currently sit eighth in the Western Conference.
The Sonics are a mess, and their Horace Grant essentially admitted as much when he said this to the Seattle Times following a loss on Monday to the NBA-leading Los Angeles Lakers that marked their ninth loss in the last 11 games: "We need Dr. Joyce Brothers . . . The psyche of this team is not good right now."
WAR ZONE: The Jazz left Houston on Sunday seeming like losers in a street fight, perhaps because that is precisely how the Rockets treated their last game of the season with Utah.
"When they hit us," Anderson said, "we hit them."
"They throw a lot of elbows and get away with a lot of different things, probably more than other teams," Walt Williams told the Chronicle. "You have to fight through it and come back even tougher, and that's what we did."
"The way they play," rookie guard Steve Francis added, "it's hard to keep your composure."
THE DREAM'S NIGHTMARE: Karl Malone on Sunday came to the defense of his 1996 U.S. Olympic Dream Team teammate, Hakeem Olajuwon of the Rockets, during a monologue reiterating his old-school views on all that's wrong with today's NBA.
Though Olajuwon is out for the rest of the season due to respiratory problems, Malone told the Houston Chronicle that he abhors the way Houston used its veteran big man when he was available.
"I feel that even when Hakeem was there, they weren't going to him," Malone said. "I don't sit there and watch the games, but I watch the different highlights and stuff like that, and it has to be tough for a guy like Hakeem, a guy I feel can still play. And now he has become the fourth or fifth option.
"I'm in a similar situation here (as an NBA vet), but we do things a little different here (in Utah). But if (reducing Olajuwon's role) is the norm, then so be it. . . . . That's what the league is going to."
In the Rockets, Malone sees a selfish style he cannot stand.
"These guys are talented and whatever," he said, "but if you look at everything and the way the league is going, then that's what's being taught — from YMCA ball to summer leagues and everything like that. It's crossed over into the NBA now. Taking nothing away from guys, but that's probably a lot of the reason why people don't like to come and see you anymore.
"It ain't a team. It's I. With (last season's) lockout (came) the one-on-one, the crossover, the behind-the-back. I don't know. How many games is that really going to win for you? I've been playing a long time, as well as Hakeem and Charles (Barkley), and when I look at the transformation it's kind of unbelievable for me to see Hakeem in the post and guys are waving him out.
"Nowadays . . . the team is not being promoted. I don't care what anybody says — I don't care what the NBA says, (and) I don't care what these people (the Rockets) say or whatever — it's not a team goal anymore. That's just the way it is.
"It's individuals and one-on-one and stuff like this. And a pass is kind of an, 'can't get it myself,' an afterthought. I look and see when Hakeem was playing, how he'd block a shot and bust his butt to the other end, only to get waved away. I don't understand it, but I'm happy with this situation here (in Utah) and I'm going to ride this gravy train right on out."
HMMM: Center Olden Polynice, for one, did not seem surprised that the Jazz's slow start Monday, a rather bad habit of late, cost them dearly in a 90-86 loss to Portland that all but killed Utah's hopes of catching the Trail Blazers for the second-best record in the Western Conference.
"Things are catching up with us," Polynice said. "Things we were getting away with."
Another point from Polynice, and it's a good one: "Our last three losses — we've given up a lot of points."
It's true.
Utah yielded 113 points to Dallas, 112 to Denver and the 90 to Portland — an average of 105 points per loss over the last nine games overall — more than 13 more points per game than Jazz opponents are averaging this season.
AND FINALLY: Jazz broadcast analyst Ron Boone, who played for both the Jazz and the ABA's 1971-champion Utah Stars, is one of 10 honorees selected for November induction into the Utah Basketball Hall of Fame. . . . Former Jazz president, general manager and coach Frank Layden threw out the first pitch in Monday night's home opener for the Salt Lake Buzz. . . . Jazz forward Bryon Russell is scheduled to serve as honorary first-base coach the Buzz's home game on Thursday night. . . . Jerry Sloan was presented prior to Monday's game vs. Portland with a plaque for winning NBA Coach of the Month honors for March, when the Jazz went 14-2. . . . Black T-shirts seen on Jazz players before Monday's game, and while they sat on the bench, were worn to promote child-abuse prevention.