After a 97-92 victory Tuesday over the Clippers at the Delta Center, a victory that offered a perfect example of the way everything seems to come hard for the Utah Jazz these days, center Greg Ostertag didn't want to talk.
Olden Polynice did.
Both Jazz centers have heard the criticism. They're aware that as the team has slumped in recent weeks, they've borne the brunt of fan wrath and media censure.
But Ostertag presumably has decided that talking about it to the media doesn't help his case.
Polynice, on the other hand, welcomed an opportunity to discuss the unfairness of the constant center criticism.
"I don't think it's justified," Polynice said. "I'm starting to take offense. We're playing. We're trying to do our best. People have unrealistic expectations."
What Polynice contends is that centers — and he might have said especially any center on the floor with Karl Malone — shouldn't be measured by scoring.
And he has a point. More often than not, a center in the Jazz offense is used primarily as a decoy, someone to stand above the three-point circle and draw an illegal-defense call.
"I'm not going to put up 20 points," Polynice said. "But what I'm asked to do is rebound, play defense, and I think I do that. I don't feel people are seeing that. They only see guys who score a lot of points. That's not the way to look at basketball. I do so many little things that there's no stats for, and people should understand that."
Polynice says he could be an offensive force, if that was what the team needed.
"On other teams, I was an offensive threat, but not here," he said. "And I've accepted my role, and people should see that. When I was in Sacramento and was one of the main options, I was scoring in double figures. I come here, I'm not being asked to do that, but it's worth it because I gained 20, 30 wins. Sometimes you have to give up something to get something."
Another factor fans overlook is that there are probably more teams dissatisfied with their center situations than satisfied. Take the Clippers, for example. L.A.'s center duo of Michael Olowokandi, a former No. 1 pick in the draft, and Sean Rooks combined Tuesday for 14 points (5-of-14 shots), 10 rebounds, five turnovers and zero blocked shots. The Jazz center duo, while playing fewer minutes, combined for six points (3 of 3 shots), 14 rebounds, three blocked shots and one turnover.
If you were measuring these guys in fantasy-basketball terms, you'd probably take the Jazz's centers.
In fairness, it would be hard to make the case that the centers have been largely responsible for the Jazz slide. Starting small forward Donyell Marshall was terrific in January and February when the Jazz were winning, and lately he's been spotty. Bryon Russell has been mired in a serious shooting slump. And backup point guard Jacque Vaughn has had some awful games.
But those players never seem to get criticized as much as the centers, for whatever reason.
For his part, coach Jerry Sloan isn't interested in placing blame as much as trying to find a way to get something out of his players — all of them.
"If you're going to play this game, you might as well play as well as you can," Sloan said. "I can understand being competitive and losing, but when you walk off that floor and haven't put everything into it, quite frankly, I don't understand why you play."
E-mail: rich@desnews.com