SAN ANTONIO — Veteran center Greg Ostertag, the last remaining player link to the Jazz's 1997 and '98 NBA Finals teams, said Monday that he will retire from basketball following the franchise's season-ending game against Golden State on Wednesday night.
The Texas native played 11 years in the NBA, all but one — he played last season for Sacramento as a free agent — in Utah.
"Come Wednesday, when I walk off the court," the University of Kansas product said, "it will be the last time I walk off the court as an NBA player.
"And I'm fine with that. I'm fine," added Ostertag, who turned 33 years old last month. "I get to end my career as a member of the Utah Jazz, and that's the way I've wanted it to be for a long time. That's a great honor — for me to be able to end my career where I started."
Taken No. 28 overall in the first round of the 1995 NBA Draft, the 7-foot-2 Ostertag never lived up to the expectations of many in Utah, a reality of which he seems to be fully aware.
Yet he exits with no real frustrations.
"I finish very happy," Ostertag said prior to the Jazz's final road game of the season, Monday night's visit with San Antonio. "I've had my ups and downs — hopefully more up than down. I've had the fans on my side; I've had them against me. But hopefully I helped them (the Jazz) accomplish, to a degree, what they wanted.
"We went to the Finals twice. Fell short . . . But even going to the Finals is something some guys in this league will never see."
Ostertag rates the Jazz's two series against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls as one of two career highlights.
"The Finals, and playing with Karl (Malone) and John (Stockton)," he said. "I played with two of the best to ever step on the floor."
Ostertag and Malone actually became rather close toward the end of The Mailman's career in Utah — despite Malone's earlier criticism of Ostertag for having reported to training camp one year in less-than-terrific shape.
Ostertag also had something of a love-grate relationship over the years with longtime Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, including a locker room run-in as recently as this season.
Still, the two — one an avid outdoorsman, the other a farmer from Illinois — remain quite tight.
"I think I'd go hunting with him," said Sloan, who actually was responsible for bringing Ostertag back to Utah from Sacramento as a part of a trade made last summer. "Maybe a couple weeks ago I wouldn't have — I'd be afraid he'd shoot me.
"I appreciate what he's done here. ... He helped us get (to the Finals)," the Jazz coach added. "We've had our ups and downs, but I still like Greg as a person. I've told him that — regardless of what we've knocked heads about."
And they did do their share of knockin', Sloan always trying to get more, Ostertag not always having it to offer.
"We've had our spats," Ostertag said. "But we always seem to make up in the end, and we're fine.
"I respect Jerry a hundred percent. I love him to death. I wouldn't trade playing for him. ... I'll be one of the most teared-up people at his funeral. I truly love the guy."
Ostertag who in the past has been painted as someone not particularly passionate about playing also maintains he's hated not being able to give Sloan more this season.
He has contributed sparingly in the second half of his final season, and did not play at all — coach's decision — in 14 of Utah's 17 games prior to Monday. In fact, Ostertag has just one point a free throw in Sunday's loss at Dallas, which officially eliminated the Jazz from playoff contention since March 3.
Not that Ostertag, who never averaged more than seven points per season, was ever known for his scoring.
Rather, shot-blocking, shot-altering and rebounding were more his forte, and what he will miss most after moving his family, which now resides in the Phoenix area, to Texas.
"There is nothing more I enjoy than being on the court in a close game and getting a big blocked shot, or getting a putback or a dunk — to hear the crowd go crazy," he said. "That is an experience that most people will never be able to experience. It gives you chills up and down your spine.
"So, I do love the game. I do have an extreme passion for it. I just don't want to do it anymore."
Especially not while being used so little.
"I'm just not a guy that can sit on the bench and collect a paycheck," said Ostertag, who made $4.4 million this past season, the second year of a two-year deal that followed an expired contract extension that had been worth $39 million. "I can't do that."
"It's not about the money for me. I've made plenty of money. I don't need the extra money ... People have said, 'You've got a couple more years in you.' I'm sure I do. But mentally I don't. I am gassed out."
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com