You hear the whispers virtually everywhere.
In arena hallways. On press row. On the streets and the radio, and in those magazines that think they know how things are going to end before they even begin.
Shhhh. Don't tell anybody else, but this may be it. This may be the season the streak finally ends. Nineteen straight until now. But maybe not any more. Maybe, for the first time in a long time, the Jazz fail to make the NBA postseason. Shhhh. Don't tell anybody.
Jerry Sloan hears the whispers virtually everywhere he goes.
Few expect the Jazz's season to be a masterpiece. And sometimes those who feel that way don't even preface their feelings with "Shhhh."
"I've had a lot of people say, 'Well, how are you guys gonna make the playoffs?' " the Jazz coach says.
Good question.
For Sloan, the answer falls somewhere roughly between trust and blind faith.
"We're gonna try everything we can to try to accomplish that," he said.
"The expectations — they haven't changed. My expectations haven't changed. I know other people aren't going to have the same expectations I have on this — they never have had," Sloan added. "(But) my expectation is to win . . . That's a part of my job. I mean, I'm not gonna come out and accept losing."
Neither, it would seem, will a couple guys who have never known what it is like to go home when the NBA's regular seasons ends.
For John Stockton, the personal streak runs 18 years. For Karl Malone, 17.
Every season the NBA's all-time assists and steals leader and its No. 2 all-time scorer have been in the league, they have participated in the playoffs — in some seasons more successfully than others.
Two trips to the NBA Finals, in 1997 and '98. No championships, granted, but then again no never-did-make-it seasons either.
For that reason, Jazz brass are hopeful the streak won't end at 19.
"As long as John and Karl are here," Jazz basketball operations vice president Kevin O'Connor said, "we're going to remain competitive."
Stockton and Malone vow they would have it no other way.
"A lot of it's confidence . . . and realizing that we're going to be a very, very good team," Stockton said of the challenge facing the 2002-2003 version of the Jazz, who open their regular season Wednesday night in New Orleans.
"If we can do that," Stockton added, "then we will be a very, very good team."
If not?
Therein lie the whispers.
The Jazz went 44-38 last season, their lowest winning percentage since going 42-40 in Malone's 1985-86 rookie season. It was also the first time they have failed to win 50 or more in an 82-game season since 1992-93.
Some wonder if the Jazz can even win 40 this season, let alone finish the regular season above .500.
Even Malone, speaking as training camp was about to get under way a month ago, had his doubts as to what this season will hold.
"You know, I can't actually say if we improved," he said then. "I really can't . . . I can't say one way or the other. I really can't."
If nothing else, the Jazz do have a different look.
Gone from last season are six free agents who were not re-signed: point guards John Crotty (out of the league) and Rusty LaRue (playing in Italy), swingman Quincy Lewis (playing in Israel), forward Donyell Marshall (with Chicago), swingman Bryon Russell (with Washington) and shooting guard John Starks (out of the league).
Replacing them are four free-agent signees — point guards Carlos Arroyo and Mark Jackson, and swingmen Matt Harpring and Calbert Cheaney — and two rookies who will start the season on the injured list, point guard Raul Lopez and center Curtis Borchardt.
It is a curious mix that seems to leave Utah with "uncertainty" written all over it.
"Just how good we'll be," Sloan said, "we have to wait and see.
"It's tough to say, but I like what I've seen, because I think we'll have some guys who are gonna play hard," he added when asked at the start of camp if the Jazz at least look improved on paper. "Hopefully they'll play hard 82 games. If we can get that, and keep everybody healthy, I think we'll be competitive. I really do.
"Now, will that make us a better team? Will we win more games? I can't answer that question. But I'll take my chances if I have guys that are going to compete harder."
Salary-cap and luxury-tax constraints as long as Stockton and Malone are around contribute to keeping the Jazz from being real players in the NBA's free-agent market, leaving them with signees — like Harpring, Cheaney and Jackson — who started elsewhere last season but weren't necessarily wanted back by their former teams.
"You're not going to get, obviously, guys who are gonna be playing in an All-Star Game when we're in the (financial) situation we're in," Sloan said. "But hopefully you'll get guys who understand playing together, and somewhere along the line they've played in a team-concept that gives them a chance to win. I think there's still guys in basketball that like to play that way."
Sloan didn't really like the way last year's Jazz played, especially with so many free agents playing out the final year of their contracts.
He thought some created distractions that kept the Jazz from being as good as they could.
Yet even now, with things changed as they are, the Jazz coach can't say he has a true feel for what sort of team he will have.
"I never do have," he said as the preseason wound down last week. "People ask me that question — I don't know anybody can know what 82 games are going to develop.
"Nobody could tell me how many injuries you're gonna have. I don't know have many wives are gonna be sick. I don't know how many agents are gonna be involved. All those things, you have no control over. So how do you know who you are?"
Good question.
The constant, of course, remains Stockton and Malone.
"Everyone knows this is an old team with Stockton and Malone, but I'll take those two 'old players' over pretty much anyone in the league, I think," said Harpring, who came to Utah from Philadelphia. "That was a big selling point for me — coming to a team that has veteran leadership, being with guys like Stockton and Malone, who have been to the Finals and know how to get there."
No one wonders how good those two are — only how much longer they will be.
"Karl and myself — we're not getting any younger. Everybody knows that," Stockton said. "But to try to (rebuild), and remain competitive, and give a team a chance to win while you're doing it, is difficult. I think they (management) have done a good job, and hopefully this will be the best job they've done. We'll see."
Yes we will.
But precisely what it is we'll see is anyone's best guess.
Judging from some of the whispers, though, expectations from outsiders suggest the level of pleasure for the eyes may be more along the lines of Dali than Monet.
But that won't stop Sloan — or Stockton or Malone — from trying to fill the frame with another signed-and-numbered effort worthy of perusal.
"I don't know who (other) people think we are. I mean, we're not the world champions. We haven't been," Sloan said. "We're trying to make the playoffs, trying to be as good as we can be.
"Yeah, we're going to win some games. I don't think too many people have us winning 70 games this year, but I think we can still compete and be a good basketball team," he added. "That's what I'm hoping for. That's our first and foremost concern, because that's what it's all about.
"I don't know how good of a basketball team we are, but if you work hard you have a chance to be as good as you can be. And then you go home."
Or, in the Jazz's case, you play a postseason series, or two, or three, or four, before going home.
Not just 82 games.
Whispering doubters notwithstanding, Malone suspects this season won't be any different.
And if you believe otherwise, he suggests, you best do your shhhhing elsewhere.
"As long as I'm here, and Stockton's here, we are going to be competitive. And we're not going to lay down for anybody. And I'm just going to tell you that right now," Malone said. "How many games are we gonna win? I don't know. But as long as 12 and 32 are here and Coach Sloan's here, we're going to be competitive and we're gonna play hard.
"And I don't care if I'm 39 years old, or whatever, that's just the way it's going to be — because that's what I have inside in me, and that's what Stock has, and that's what Coach has."
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com