After receiving opinions from three different doctors, Jazz big man Keon Clark has decided to have surgery to remove the chip of a bone spur and smoothen the remaining spur in his right ankle.
"They all said it would be chronic if he didn't get it done," Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz's senior vice president of basketball operations, said Saturday night, "so we're gonna get it done as soon as possible."
As a result, Utah placed Clark on its injured list Saturday and activated rookie center Curtis Borchardt, who made his NBA debut in the Jazz's 96-89 win over Memphis on Saturday night at the Delta Center.
Clark's surgery is expected sometime this week, though O'Connor said who will perform it, where it will be done and precisely when it will be scheduled has not yet been determined.
Regardless, the Jazz anticipate Clark will be out six-to-eight weeks — a disappointing development for the 28-year-old, six-season NBA vet.
"One thing I hate is watching basketball, especially when I'm three feet away from the wood," Clark said. "So, it's gonna be a test for me. It's gonna be a test for my work ethic — because I've never been in a position where I've got to work to get where I already was, if not better."
Clark, in fact, missed no more than two games due to injury and/or illness in each of the past four seasons.
That track record of durability was considered, O'Connor said, when the Jazz acquired the 6-foot-11, 221-pound Clark from Sacramento last August as reinforcement for a front court depleted when power forward Karl Malone left Utah for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Clark said he has lived with the spur for about 10 years, dating back to his junior-college days: "I've been playing with it my whole career."
The spur chipped, though, during the Jazz's final preseason game, at Orlando on Oct. 24.
Clark sat out Utah's first two regular-season games, then — afte a cortisone injection last week - played the next two. The shot proved ineffective over the long-term, though, prompting Clark to eventually decide on surgery.
"I'd rather get it done," he said, "than be limping around when we're making our playoff run, you know what I mean?
"Hopefully," Clark added, "I'll be able to come back and regain my position. . . . I just want to hurry up, and get back to helping."
By activating Borchardt, the Jazz gave the rookie from Stanford a break he actually wanted.
The 7-foot former first-round draft choice missed all of last season, sitting out due to pin-replacement surgery in his already stress-fractured foot.
But early in training camp last month - just when it looked like he finally was ready for the NBA - Borchardt sustained a non-displaced fracture below the index finger in his left, non-shooting hand.
He was placed on the injured list prior to the start of the season, and engaged in his first full-contact practice just three days ago.
With Clark out, Borchardt saw his first real NBA action against the Grizzlies, entering late in the first quarter as a sub for starting center Greg Ostertag.
"This is the first step," Borchardt said before finishing with two points and three rebounds in 18 minutes.
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com