The Utah Jazz are bringing back the Milkman.
Tyrone Corbin, who thinks he was the country's very first milk-mustache pitchman back when he played three years for the Jazz and did dairy commercials to earn the "Milkman" nickname while he played alongside Karl Malone, is Utah's new assistant coach. He replaces Kenny Natt, who moved to Cleveland last month.
Corbin remembers his time playing for the Jazz as "special because of the family atmosphere there and the focus of being better every year on the team."
Corbin was traded to Utah by Minnesota for Thurl Bailey on Nov. 25, 1991, and was traded to Atlanta for Adam Keefe on Sept. 16, 1994. He scored 2,231 points and got 1,311 rebounds in 236 games in a Jazz uniform as a small forward.
"The three years that I had in Utah were very special years. Karl and John (Stockton) was there, and Jerry (Sloan) was the head coach. The camaraderie of the team and the love that the fans had for the Jazz, it was a special time in my life," said Corbin in a teleconference Thursday from his home in South Carolina. "We didn't win it all, but we went to the conference finals a couple times and had a chance."
During the last few years of his 16-season NBA playing career, Corbin said, "I started seeing . . . a lot of the younger guys that was coming into the league didn't really have the understanding of the fundamentals of the game to stay in the league for a long time."
This will be his first time as an actual coach.
He spent two seasons as "player mentor" with the Charleston Lowgators of the NBDL, the NBA's development league, and last season as manager of player development for the New York Knicks.
"I just enjoy the gratification of working with players and seeing a product grow from one stage to the next," said Corbin, who will work with the Jazz's big men while assistant Gordon Chiesa continues with the perimeter players. Both will likely do film breakdown, and Corbin expects to handle many of the duties Natt had.
Though Corbin is inexperienced as a coach, Jazz senior VP of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor said Corbin was a popular choice among the Jazz staff when members were asked to submit names of potential candidates. Corbin's familiarity with Utah, his engaging, enthusiastic personality and loyalty to the team were big factors.
O'Connor said he was impressed when he called his counterpart with the Knicks, Isiah Thomas, and Thomas told him he would give permission to speak with Corbin only if the Jazz position would be a promotion. That told O'Connor that Thomas thought a lot of Corbin.
"We had tremendous respect for him as a player," said Sloan. "He is an upbeat guy and is an exciting individual."
Though just 6-foot-6, Corbin said his playing experiences learning how to go inside against much bigger opponents will help him in this assignment. "I don't know everything about post play, but I know enough to teach the young guys."
Unless unrestricted free agent Greg Ostertag returns or the Jazz trade for an experienced four or five, Corbin would likely be working with forwards with three or fewer years in the league and should be involved with first-round draft choice Kris Humphries, a 6-9 No. 14 overall pick from Minnesota.
Corbin said he talked with Jazz management at the Chicago pre-draft camp last month, just after Natt accepted the Cleveland position, and likes it that Utah has had "a solid last 15-20 years" keeping its adjustments "in-house" but staying "with the pace."
The native of Columbia, S.C., has a 17-year-old daughter, Tyjha, who will probably remain in South Carolina to finish her senior season in high school. His wife, Dante, and son, 11-year-old sixth-grader Tyrell, will accompany him to Utah for the season. At age 38, Dante recently won the Mrs. Physical Fitness and People's Choice awards and finished third runner-up overall in the 2003 Mrs. South Carolina Pageant.
E-mail: lham@desnews.com