The oldies are back, or haven't you noticed? You can barely turn on the TV without seeing a commercial with a classic rock theme.
It isn't entirely surprising, then, to find another blast from the past has returned. David Benoit, the former Jazz forward, is working out four to five hours a day in Salt Lake City, plotting his return to the NBA.
His not-so-secret desire: playing again with the Jazz.
"I hope I get an invitation," he said, noting the Jazz's July rookie-free agent camp. "I don't know. Anything can happen."
In Benoit's case, anything DID happen. Since leaving to play for New Jersey after the 1995-96 season, his road has been fraught with bumpy stretches and icy curves. You think the two open 3-pointers he missed in Game 5 of the 1995 playoffs were rough?
That was the easiest part of the past several years.
Go ahead, tick off the list of stress-inducing life changes; Benoit has run the gamut. Death in the family? He can count two in the '90s (father and cousin). No. 2 on the stress lists: divorce. He went through that, too, and admits his share of blame. Job change or loss of employment? Double-check. After five seasons with the Jazz, he moved from Salt Lake City to New Jersey to Orlando to Tel Aviv to Orlando and back to Salt Lake City — all in the name of basketball. Last year he didn't play anywhere. He spent the season working out, hoping for the phone to ring.
Moving down the checklist . . .
Illness/injury? Yup. After leaving the Jazz as a free agent, he tore his Achilles on the first day of the Nets' training camp and missed the entire '96-'97 season. In the illness department, he entered a Salt Lake rehab center in the summer of 1994 after admitting to alcoholism.
The one drawback Benoit has yet to put behind him is an incident in 1999, while playing in Tel Aviv. During one game, he and an opposing player named Monty Daniels exchanged shoves and elbows, which led to a stop in the action. Eventually an official separated them. But according to Benoit, Daniels went after him two more times after he had walked away, spitting and calling him, as Benoit describes it, "the n-word." The dispute escalated into an all-out brawl that was caught on film and replayed numerous times in the United States. It later appeared in a film documentary on violence in sports.
The incident brought undue attention to a player noted for being soft-spoken and modest; who after seeing Karl Malone's 50-point night against the Sonics in this year's playoffs, left a congratulatory phone message that said, "You're still staying ahead of the posse." He was never in a fight as an NBA player and was stunned by the reaction.
Although so popular in Israel that fans dubbed him "King David," he issued a public apology for the fight, anyway. Even so, he continues to be asked about the inci-
dent. Every time a team calls his agent, one of the questions is: "What about that thing in Israel?"
Benoit remarried a year ago, which helped bring balance back into his life. He never lost his fondness for Salt Lake City, its fans or the Jazz organization. When he left Utah, he was going on the advice of an agent he has since fired. "I'm still grateful for the people here and the Jazz organization who supported me," he said.
Benny Smith, a friend and part-owner of a Salt Lake health club named Body by Banks, suggested Utah would be a good place for Benoit to start his comeback. It didn't take much convincing. Benoit says of those who don't want to play in Utah: "You can't say a book isn't any good if you haven't read it."
In addition, he knows the Jazz system and most of the players. He watched the Jazz lose during the playoffs and agonized over his former team falling so early.
A few days after Bryon Russell missed the two clutch free throws against Portland in the Jazz's final game, Benoit told him he knew the feeling. His advice: Be patient.
"Believe me," he told Russell, "that's something that will come up again."
If he's lucky, the chance will come again for him, too.
E-mail: rock@desnews.com