PHOENIX — Jeff Hornacek, the humble one, was honored on Sunday night.

Karl Malone, whose own accomplishment for the evening seemed overshadowed by the attention heaped on Hornacek and on the Jazz for clinching the Midwest Division championship, was happy to see it happen.

"It's amazing to me that with what Jeff Hornacek has done for 10 or 11 years (actually, 14), it's the first NBA franchise to honor him and give him something, because he's something special," Malone said of Hornacek, who is retiring after this season and was playing in his third-to-last regular-season game. "To me, it's a disgrace that we got here to the last two or three games of the season and Phoenix is the only franchise that did it. But I think it shows a lot of character and class on their part."

The Suns did do right by Hornacek, who started his NBA career in Phoenix as a late second-round draft choice given little chance of making it in the league.

"He was a young man who came in against great odds," said Suns Chairman Jerry Colangelo, who praised the odd-shooting Iowa State product for his "commitment and heart" during a pregame tribute at midcourt of America West Arena.

Following a video scoreboard tribute to Hornacek and his six seasons with the Suns, the Jazz guard was presented with a set of Ping golf clubs and a bag emblazoned with the nickname "Horny."

Hornacek — with his wife and children on hand in Phoenix, where he was a true fan favorite — thanked Colangelo for "taking a chance" on him, and thanked two of his former Phoenix head coaches, John MacLeod and Cotton Fitzsimmons, both of whom still work for the organization.

"Every time I come back it seems like I just left," Hornacek, who was also given a shoe by Fitzsimmons that was signed by his old Suns teammates, said after scoring 13 points in the Jazz's Midwest Division-clinching victory.

As for Malone, he surpassed the 31,000 career-point plateau with a third-quarter putback of his own miss — joining Wilt Chamberlain (31,419) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) to score more than 31,000. It was just one in a long list of milestones reached this season by Malone, who now has 31,013 career points.

"I don't know what else to say," he said.

Malone, though, did come up with this quip regarding is own eventual retirement from the NBA: "I know one thing," the avid hunter and fisherman said. "I don't know whether they're going to honor me or not, but I sure as hell don't want no golf clubs."

Something with a trigger would do just fine, thank you very much.

CAMP NEWS: Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz's vice president of basketball operations, caught up with the team on Sunday in the Phoenix area, where last week in nearby Tempe he, scouting director Dave Fredman and scout Richard Smith were attending the Nike Desert Classic predraft camp for college seniors.

The trio — along with about 100 other NBA scouts and execs, including former Jazz front-office men Scott and Frank Layden of the New York Knicks — saw A.J. Guyton of Indiana take MVP honors in the tournament-format camp. Among those making the all-tourney team was Stanford's Mark Madsen, who spurned offers from BYU and Utah to instead play at Stanford after an LDS Church mission to Spain.

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SWEEP: The Jazz's victory on Sunday capped a four-game sweep of their season series with the Suns, the first time that has happened since the series began in 1974.

"Clearly, we got beat by a much better basketball team," Suns coach Scott Skiles said. "We'd like to think we're in that caliber, but they swept us this year, and the last two times they've handled us very easily. Hopefully, this will be some sort of wake-up call that we need to improve."

Suns guard Penny Hardaway, who committed a whopping eight turnovers, suggested the Jazz give the Suns fits on both ends: "We have trouble with that team," he said, "because they run their half-court offense so well."

MISC.: Hornacek is the guest for an Internet chat scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday at NBA.com. . . . Utah has the NBA's second-best record (25-8) since the All-Star Game break, and Phoenix is third-best (23-9). The Los Angeles Lakers are tops at 29-2.

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