The only company in the hotel room is a television. Room service closes at 11. The bed might be way too soft or too hard, the pillow too thin or too thick.

Across the street, a nightclub beckons with entertainment that goes on all night.

Your wife calls to complain that she wants you home at Christmastime.

And of course there's the hostile crowd.

Life on the road has its problems for any NBA team, but particularly the Jazz. For some of the young players, being out of town for more than a couple of nights is a new experience. Now the surprising, improving Jazz are embarking on what amounts to an urban survival trek: a six-game, nine-day road trip, the longest of the season.

"You have to see the obstacles. You think the world's against you, but all you can do is go play," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. "You've got to depend on everybody who's out there with you, you've got to believe."

Is this basketball or a forced death march?

Is there a difference?

Pack up the DVDs and paperback novels, toss some stuff in a garment bag and kiss the wife good-bye.

It's time for One Big Roadie.

"Road trips are 6-9 days and suddenly you're thinking more about home than the mental part of winning the game," said Jazz assistant coach Gordon Chiesa. "The mind drifts. It's always fun to see the last game of a road trip. If you win, it shows heart."

For now, though, the Jazz are looking only at the first game.

That would be this afternoon in Philadelphia, where they meet the team with the best record in the Atlantic Division. Soon to follow are games at Washington, New Jersey, Boston, Detroit and Chicago — a fairly comprehensive tour of the Rust Belt.

The good part of the trip is that it's in the Eastern Conference. It's not like they're playing in the West, where seldom is heard an encouraging word. They're playing in the part of the country where good teams are few and far between.

On the other hand, the Sixers are once again a playoff contender, the Nets are coming off two straight trips to the NBA Finals, Detroit is still four games above .500 and Boston just kicked the Jazz 102-80 in the Delta Center.

Sloan and Chiesa say the Jazz can learn how to win on the road quickly. But history disagrees. So far the Jazz are 11-3 at home but just 1-7 on the road. The good news for the Jazz is they played such teams as the Lakers and Rockets close in road losses. However, they lost at Dallas by 25 and San Antonio by nine.

Road success was a long time coming for the Jazz. They had a losing road record for the first 19 years of their existence. The formula was simple: Jazz + Road = Loss.

In the late 1980s and early '90s the Jazz were averaging nearly 53 wins a year but couldn't get to .500 on the road. It was frustrating, even daunting. Then came the breakthrough. Midway through the 1993-94 season they traded Jeff Malone and a draft pick to Philadelphia for Jeff Hornacek. They went 20-21 on the road that year, their best to that point, and then won an impressive 27 road games the next season. Thereafter they had six straight winning road seasons.

They actually got to where they expected to win road games.

It didn't taper off until 2001-2002, but by then they weren't nearly so dominating at home, either.

But for a time, the Jazz had the road figured out. They played good defense, shot well, controlled the pace and often put the opposing crowd to sleep with their style. They got proper rest, ate a balanced diet and found the pillows just fine.

Oh, and they had three great players.

"It took a great free throw shooter in a guy named Hornacek, and a great three-point shooter named Hornacek and a ball-handler who could get the ball to Stockton and handle the ball on the perimeter, named Hornacek," said Chiesa. "It took a third scorer."

View Comments

Now, Chiesa contends, the Jazz have two consistent scorers in Andrei Kirilenko and Matt Harpring. The third could become DeShawn Stevenson, Carlos Arroyo or Raja Bell.

Heck, it could be Maurice Williams.

Whoever it is, he needs to bring his game in his suitcase.


E-MAIL: rock@desnews.com

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.