One was supposed to be a cancer, someone with the potential to single-handedly tear apart the Jazz locker room. The other was supposed to be an overpaid underachiever, someone who had seemingly tapped a mere portion of his potential.
Together, it seems, they could be some sort of monster.In a way Olden Polynice and Greg Ostertag have become just that.
"We are the two-headed monster," Polynice calls the creature.
Actually it is more like a two-headed center, frightening only in that a franchise's fate could depend on which way they play.
So far, so good: The Jazz's men in the middle have combined to shed the tags with which they started the season, in large part because they have grown together to do as two what at least one or the other must if this team is to continue its winning ways in the postseason.
Put their averages together from the regular season, and the line reads like this: 11.5 rebounds, 9.8 points and 3.14 blocks per game. Add in the fact that they get along so well, and it seems the two 7-footers are up about as high as they can get.
"When we get that kind of production out of the center position . . . we have a good chance to win ballgames," Jazz power forward Karl Malone said.
How many victories, especially as the NBA
playoffs unfold and the Jazz prepare for Saturday's Game 3 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series with Seattle, depends perhaps as much on one as it does the other.
"When we make our presence felt inside," Ostertag said. "we're a pretty tough team."
Equally tough is believing that presence is coming from two of whom so many expected so little this season.
Now 35 years old, Polynice came to Utah with enough baggage to be charged extra by the airlines.
He is hated in Sacramento, where he was chastised for once speaking his mind when he thought the Kings were playing to lose. He is equally disliked in Seattle, where following last season he was ushered out of town with run-ins with the media and a reputation for selfish play
With the Jazz, however, that has all done an abrupt 180.
"He's an energetic guy," veteran guard John Stockton said, "and he just brings life out on the floor."
"Obviously Olden's more than just a big body," forward Adam Keefe said. "When he shoots the ball, he's expected to make it, and he's not afraid to put his body on the line. And he moves well, which is a task for big guys. He moves better than, say, a James Donaldson, or maybe even a Felton Spencer. He can get up and down the court."
The production has been there, too: In a starting role that typically finds him on the bench in favor of Ostertag by game's end, a rotation that seems to have suited both players and the Jazz just fine, the 7-foot Polynice averaged 5.5 rebounds, 5.3 points and 1.02 blocks in 22.2 minutes per game.
"I'd hate to think," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan added, "where we'd be without him this year."
The Polynice who admits to once being known as "a cancer" has been little else except a breath of positive vibes and refreshing enthusiasm, both on the court and in the Jazz locker room.
"When we first signed Olden, I think the talk shows were having a field day: 'Why did you sign this guy? He's never been nothing but trouble,' and stuff like this," said Malone, who was instrumental of bringing Polynice and the Jazz together. "And all of sudden he comes here, and I think he's one of the biggest influences on Greg. . . . No one's really (written) how positive this guy has been. Everybody wants to crucify him when he first got here, and I said, 'Hey, give the guy a chance.' "
Malone is pleased the Jazz did.
The Jazz are equally happy this season with the play of Ostertag, 27 and 7-foot-2, whose production hasn't always matched expectations.
"I think Greg's had his best year for us," Sloan said after Ostertag averaged 6 rebounds, 4.5 points and 2.12 blocks per game in his fifth NBA season.
Early in the season, Ostertag told Sloan he was comfortable and secure as a backup.
"I think it's helped him because the pressure's not there," Sloan said, "and Olden seems to be playing well as a starter for us. I think both of them have benefited from it."
How much so is subject to debate, but it seems indisputable that it has helped on at least some level.
"This guy has been one of the most-positive influences, on and off the court, for Greg . . . and myself, too," Malone said. "(Polynice) didn't come here to tell Greg, 'I'm here to take your job.' That wasn't his attitude. He just came here to play. But I think, also, Greg realized, 'Hey, if I'm gonna get some playing time, I'm gonna have to come play every night; if not, Olden is gonna get all the playing time.' "
The result: A virtual splitting of the minutes, and some extra time for Ostertag to get his head into the game. He often enters late in the first quarter (earlier if Polynice has picked up two fouls), plays the second, sits some of the third and is back in for much of the fourth.
"When I'm on the bench, waiting to go in," Ostertag said, "I'm sitting over there thinking about what things I'm going to do to try to help the team get going.
So rather than allowing the competition to rear its potentially ugly head, the two have made it advantageous.
The sight of these two 7-footers hitting tee shots one after another is not pretty, nor is it one many would have predicted before the season began. A couple of laps around 18, however, tell you all you need to know about how these two get along.
"It's 1-1 right now," Polynice points out.
Yes, Ostertag agrees, it is. But who is up 19 strokes, he asks, after two rounds of their little golf outings?
"If they didn't like each other," Malone said, "they sure as hell wouldn't be doing those kind of things off the court."
Actually, winning is another matter.
That is where Ostertag and Polynice come into play. Together, the two are a potential asset the Jazz cannot survive without. Often it is evident they realize that. On occasions, it is not.
"As long as one of us is getting the job done," Polynice said, "that's all that really matters."
So far in the playoffs, one is getting it done. It's been Ostertag, whose shot blocking and rebounding have helped tremendously.
"We don't have an (Hakeem) Olajuwon," he said with reference to the Houston Rockets center who was a solitary force when at the top of his game. "But when the effort is there, the legitimate effort to compete, I think we're just fine. I do think we have a tendency to drop off at times, and get a little too casual, and get a little too 'cool' to play sometimes.
"I'm being real critical of them," he added, "but I also have to look at the bright side."
And that is this: The cancer is gone, the underachiever is absent and the Jazz's monster is not nearly as scary as some might have made it out to be.
You can reach Tim Buckley by e-mail at tbuckley@desnews.com