While a power forward from the past was downstairs planning his going-away party, Kevin O'Connor was upstairs in his Delta Center office, putting the final touches on a trade for a power forward for the future.
The swap: The Jazz send a future second-round draft choice to Sacramento for two future second-round draft picks and skinny Kings big man Keon Clark, who at 6-foot-11 is bound to take some of the many minutes vacated when 18-season Jazz vet Karl Malone signed with the Los Angeles Lakers last month.
Known for his toothpick-thin legs, Clark has never been a full-time NBA starter, but has averaged 8.2 points, 6 rebounds and 1.63 blocks in 351 games for Denver, Toronto and Sacramento.
"We thought this was a pretty good fit, especially because he can play (power forward)," O'Connor, the Jazz's basketball operations senior vice president, said while sitting in the same Delta Center room where just a few hours earlier Malone was announcing details of his Friday farewell affair.
"We like his athleticism, we like his length," O'Connor added. "We like the fact that he can run the floor, (and) I think his ability to defend at the 5 and at the 4 position can help us."
Clark, 28, will be joining his fourth NBA team in six seasons after stops at two junior colleges, including Dixie in 1995-96, and another two seasons at UNLV.
That busy resume does not scare O'Connor.
Nor, apparently, does the fact Clark was ticketed last summer for having a small amount of marijuana in his car — a citation that later, according to O'Connor, was dismissed. About two years prior to that, he was cited in a similar marijuana possession case. Clark also was suspended for five games after reportedly testing positive for marijuana use during his senior season at UNLV.
"If you look at all this past year . . . he had no problems," O'Connor said.
According to an Associated Press story from last month, however, Clark faces a Sept. 17 trial date on a domestic battery charge in his home state of Illinois. According to the AP, "Prosecutors said he hit a family member . . . He pleaded not guilty, posted $300 bail and was ordered by a judge to have no contact with the victim or the victim's residence."
Also last month, Clark's father was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of an acquaintance in Clark's hometown of Danville, Ill. According to an AP story, "John Earl Clark argued with Clarence Cunningham III about a bicycle, then left (an) apartment complex . . . and later returned with a revolver, prosecutors said."
O'Connor, though, suggested he expects no trouble from Clark.
"We did a lot of homework from the teams he played with," the Jazz exec said. "He had no problems. Wasn't late. Wasn't a problem with the coach. Played in all of the games. All of those things are a positive."
Clark did play in 80 of 82 regular-season games for the Kings last season, missing one due to a sinus infection, the other with a groin strain.
He has played in 80 or more games, in fact, each of the last three seasons, averaging 6.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.88 blocks for Sacramento in 2002-03, and a career-high 11.3 points and career-high 7.4 rebounds for Toronto the previous season.
"There's some liabilities," said O'Connor, referencing Clark's 64.5 percent career free-throw shooting.
But, he added, "He seems like the kind of kid that wants to play."
The Jazz actually were involved in serious negotiations with Clark when he was a free agent last season, but the marijuana possession citation prompted them to instead focus on signing forward Matt Harpring.
Clark, meanwhile, signed with the Kings, then earlier this summer exercised his second-season option with Sacramento.
The Kings, though, decided they needed to dump Clark's $5 million salary for 2003-04 — especially after they recently acquired Indiana center Brad Miller and his new seven-year, $68 million contract, a deal that put Sacramento further over the NBA's team payroll salary cap and luxury tax threshold.
"This was a very difficult decision, but we have to consider the overall economic ability of our team in this market," Sacramento basketball operations president Geoff Petrie said in a statement issued by the team. "With this trade, we think we found a good situation for Keon, while reducing our economic exposure for the upcoming season."
The move works financially for the Jazz, who still are about $15 million under the league's $43.8 million cap for next season.
Utah, in fact, is not done dealing.
Additional front-line help is on the way, said O'Connor, who earlier this summer tried, but failed, to acquire, among others, both Miller and Los Angeles Clippers power forward Elton Brand.
"I don't want to be in a position to where we are left very thin up there," O'Connor said. "Obviously that was one of the reasons for Keon, and I don't think we'll stop there."
The Jazz — whose four other front-liners include two youngsters, Jarron Collins and Curtis Borchardt, both rehabbing from major surgeries — may make another addition as early as today.
One possibility: 6-8 power forward Michael Ruffin, who played two seasons with Chicago, part of one with Philadelphia and this past month with Utah's Rocky Mountain Revue summer league team.
JAZZ NOTES: O'Connor would not commit to a starting role for Clark, even though the Jazz have no obvious candidate at power forward. "We'll let Coach (Jerry Sloan) make all those decisions," he said. . . . O'Connor also scoffed at an ESPN.com rumor suggesting New York was interested in acquiring Jazz starting center Greg Ostertag. "I don't know where that came from," he said. "I really don't." . . . The two second-round draft picks sent to Utah from Sacramento in Thursday's trade must be used sometime in the next four years, and the Jazz's pick that went to the Kings will fall sometime in the next five years. . . . O'Connor had little comment regarding a potential buyout for big man John Amaechi, saying only, "John's under contract." It's possible Amaechi may even have to report to fall camp . . . O'Connor would not comment at all regarding a potential offer to either of two free agent guards, Jason Terry and Stephen Jackson, neither of whom seems close to any sort of deal with the Jazz.
Keon Clark facts
Power forward/center
6-foot-11, 221 pounds
Age: 28. Born: April 16, 1975, Danville, Ill.
NOTES: Attended Irvine Valley (Calif.) College, Dixie College and UNLV . . . Selected No. 13 overall by Orlando in 1998, but never played for the Magic . . . Played for Denver, Toronto and Sacramento in five NBA seasons . . . Single-game career highs are 19 points, 14 rebounds, eight blocks . . . Wore No. 7 in Sacramento . . . Full name is Arian Keon Clark . . . Nicknamed "Tree" as a youth.
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com