LOS ANGELES — Traded Feb. 18 from Utah to Memphis, ex-Jazz starting shooting guard Ronnie Brewer partially tore his right hamstring one night later against Miami, his first game with the Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies on Friday shut down Brewer for their final eight games of the season, news met with glum expression from some who know him.
"He really didn't get to show (in Memphis) what he really could do," Utah power forward and good friend Paul Millsap said before Friday night's late-starting visit with the Los Angeles Lakers.
"It's really unfortunate, because we respect ... the kind of work he did in the summer to make himself better," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan added. "And I hope that that carries over for him. We wish him good luck."
Brewer initially missed 13 games with the injury, and he's only played in four since, the last being March 22 at Sacramento.
He averaged 8.8 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.57 steals in 58 total games with Memphis – which also shut down starting center Marc Gasol (partially torn neck muscle) on Friday – and Utah.
Brewer is eligible for NBA free agency this summer, and Millsap, for one, is confident the injury won't adversely impact the one-time Jazz lottery pick's hopes for a lucrative, long-term deal.
"He's gonna come back ready to play," Millsap said.
HEADPHONES WAR: Back in February, at the NBA All-Star Game in Texas, Lakers star Kobe Bryant presented his Western Conference teammates – including Jazz point guard and first-time All-Star Deron Williams — with a custom-made and high-performance Beats by Dr. Dre Studio Monster headphones.
Fancy ones, too – worth $349.95 retail, and according to ESPN.com embossed for an extra $100 apiece with each player's uniform number.
Williams, however, claims to not be using his.
"I'm with Skullcandy," he said, "so I don't do the Beats by Dre."
Translation: Williams endorses a different headphones brand.
Most expensive pair found on Skullcandy's Web site would be the SK Pro at $149.95. The Snoop Dogg Skullcrushers go for $79.95, and Williams' Hesh DWill can be had for a mere $49.95 — same price, incidentally, as the Hesh Lakers.
BREAK TIME: The Jazz don't play again until they host Oklahoma City on Tuesday, giving them a three-day break for the first time – not including All-Star Weekend in mid-February – since late December.
Sloan, however, is leery of the chance to rest, so he'll practice his club Saturday and Monday.
"Sometimes you take that big, deep breath," he said, "and you get hit right between the eyes if you're not careful."
RUMOR MILL: The New York Daily News reported this week the Knicks are a team that will pursue Jazz backup shooting guard Kyle Korver in the NBA's summer free-agency market.
Here's another that may, should Korver not remain in Utah: New Jersey.
The Nets also are known to be curious about 3-point specialist Korver as a long-distance shooter who can help spread the floor for big man Brook Lopez.
HE WROTE IT: Longtime NBA writer Fran Blinebury, in an NBA.com feature on Sloan and the Jazz: "Way back in the middle of November, after the Jazz had stumbled out of the starting blocks 4-6, their coach perched comfortably on (a) courtside press table following a morning shootaround and was calmer than a Hindu cow.
"There are no complicated offensive systems, no stacks of sabermetric numbers, no high-fallutin' philosophies to explain the way Sloan coaches basketball. Play smart. Play hard. Next game.
"Sloan's way has been working now for 22 years in Utah and maybe never better than this season, when he's kept the Jazz from jumping off the tracks and turned them into an unlikely force near the top of the Western Conference standings."
HE WROTE IT II: ESPN.com's John Hollinger, in an ESPNInsider story hailing the Jazz as NBA title contenders: "Their small market and disappointing recent history have made it hard for them to get into the national spotlight, but if this isn't a serious contender then I don't know what is."
e-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com