I would have liked to have read this story in the Globe or Herald , with the Celts the beneficiaries...

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

What a great insurance policy Mark Jackson would have been. Of all the point
guards mentioned this offseason, he's the one I think would have helped this
team the most. Oh well... would have been hard to take minutes away from
future all-star Shammond Williams anyway...



Patience is a valuable commodity in a point guard. Turns out, it's a real
asset in the front office, too. 
    By refusing to fill his backup point-guard vacancy until training camp
had already started, Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz's vice president of basketball
operations, managed to secure one of the league's all-time great passers.
The payoff for his patience? Mark Jackson, a 15-year veteran who agreed to a
one-year contract worth roughly $1 million with Utah on Tuesday. 
    "We were hoping this would fall into place," O'Connor said after Jackson
cleared NBA waivers and struck a deal with the Jazz. "It's a good feeling." 
    The same feeling that a blackjack player gets when the dealer goes bust.
O'Connor sorted through dozens of free-agent guards over the summer, looking
for a pass-first veteran who was still an offensive threat to back up John
Stockton. He watched as other candidates signed elsewhere, gambling that he
could land a big name at the end. He signed second-year pro Carlos Arroyo as
a long-term investment and short-term insurance, but hunted for something
bigger. 
    It worked out better than even O'Connor expected. When Jackson, traded
by the Knicks to Denver in a 
    
   draft-night deal, told the Nuggets last month that he preferred to end
his career with a winning team, the Jazz hit the jackpot. 
    "If this had happened two months ago, there would have been a lot of
other people vying for his services," O'Connor said. "But they have all
filled their slots." 
    Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe, a onetime teammate of Jackson
who agreed to cut the guard loose so he could avoid Denver's rebuilding
project, originally called O'Connor asking if the Jazz would be interested
in trading for Jackson. When nothing could be worked out, Vandeweghe decided
to buy out the final two seasons of Jackson's $4 million-per-year contract.
He gave the Jazz permission to approach Jackson about a new contract, and
all sides agreed to the transaction last week. 
    "It became a win-win-win situation," O'Connor said. "It made sense for
Denver because they are going with young kids and they save a little money.
It made sense for Mark because he wanted a chance to win. And it made sense
for us." 
    The timing, not to mention Jackson's minimum-salary contract for a
veteran, may mask the significance of the pickup, but Jackson could play as
big a role on the 2002-03 Jazz as free-agent signees Matt Harpring and
Calbert Cheaney. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound guard started every game for New
York last season, averaging 8.4 points and 7.4 assists per game. He's a
career 45-percent shooter who has three-point range, and at 4.0 boards per
game, he's one of the league's best rebounding point guards as well. And his
9,840 career assists rank behind only Stockton, Magic Johnson and Oscar
Robertson in NBA history. 
    "He'll be in our rotation," O'Connor predicted. "Last year, he played
extremely well. We know [because of his age], he probably can't play 40
minutes a night, but we're not asking him to do that. The fact that we've
got a guy who knows how to play, who has been in the wars, who is a big
guard -- it's all positive." 
    Jazz doctors will examine Jackson this morning, and if he passes the
physical, the St. John's graduate could be in uniform for this evening's
practice.