About a year from now, after they have finally settled back in to the home from which they were given the boot, the Jazz very well could be regretting they ever made copies of the key to the Delta Center.
If they are struggling to finish the 2001-2002 season with 45 wins, let alone 50 or 55, it might not be the fault of fellows like Stockton and Malone but rather guys named Plushenko and Yagudin.
That's newly crowned world champ Evgeni and second-place Alexei, for those of you scoring quads and combinations at home.
That's right: Utah's NBA team will be voluntarily evicted by guys who wear sequined pantsuits, for goodness sake, and gals who do toe loops with the same precision that the Jazz run the pick-and-roll.
For nearly a month during and before the 2002 Winter Olympics, the hardwood's heroes must yield to figure skating's finest. The Delta Center will be transformed into the Salt Lake Skating Center and, for 28 days, the Jazz won't be able to play any games there.
"It will be a challenge for us, no doubt," Jazz president Dennis Haslam said. But so be it, say those in the Jazz's front office. It's all part of the price of inviting the world into your own cozy living room.
"It's going to be very disruptive," said Jazz basketball operations vice president Kevin O'Connor, whose 46-21 club plays host to Washington tonight in the third game of a four-game Delta Center homestand. "But how often do you get the Olympics in the city?"
The NBA, both O'Connor and Haslam said, has expressed a willingness to cooperate with the team on scheduling matters during the extraordinary time period — one, it should be likewise noted, that is hardly unprecedented in the pro sports world.
"We are presently hoping to have a (home) game on Jan. 30, which would be the last game prior to the Olympics, and we are hoping to then return to the building on Feb. 28," Haslam said.
That is even longer than the Jazz's 1994 agreement with the original bid committee, which called for the skaters to slide in Feb. 6-25, 2002.
But the current Salt Lake Organizing Committee, Haslam said, asked for additional move-in time, and team and Delta Center officials were willing to accommodate.
Now, the plan is to start making ice Jan. 31, 2001 — more than a week in advance of the first of 16 days of competition there.
The Jazz will play all of their games on the road during that period, but it's not as if they must all come during one ridiculously long trip.
"We're hoping the league will accommodate us so that we don't have an enormous amount of travel time," Haslam said, "and we will be able to have some downtime at home."
The Jazz, whose longest journey this season was a six-gamer in December, will catch a break because the NBA All-Star Weekend coincidentally falls during the Winter Games.
"Four days off really helps," O'Connor said.
Beyond that, Jazz officials expect the club will play a series of games against relatively nearby Western Conference opponents.
"During that time period," Haslam said, "we are hopeful that the league will be able to give us some schedule (flexibility) that will limit our road trips to a Northwestern swing, a California swing and a Texas swing."
And, hopefully for the Jazz, no lengthy trips out East.
Specific details have yet to be worked out and won't be announced until the NBA releases its full schedule this summer.
But it's safe to assume the Jazz will be afforded ample opportunity to return to Salt Lake at least a few times so that players and coaches can collect mail and reintroduce themselves to the kids at home.
It remains to be determined exactly how many road games the Jazz will play during that span, but it's likely to be a total similar to that which the club played during the same period this season — 11, including six at home.
"They (league officials) will try to work with us, I'm sure," O'Connor said. "But they're committed to 28 other teams, too."
Jazz employees will be able to get into their offices at the Delta Center, but only after getting shuttled to the secured site from elsewhere in the city.
An admitted inconvenience for many, then, but something with which the Jazz must simply find a way to deal.
It could even work in their favor; who knows? The Jazz are 22-11 on the road this season.
More likely, though, it will leave John Stockton, Karl Malone et al. spending next March thinking about just how cushy they had it back in the winter of 2001, when guys like Plushenko and Yagudin only took up space in their sports sections.
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com