Salt Lake Tribune: Rockets did make a run for Ostertag

http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_2379299

'Tag out: Center joins Kings
Longtime Jazz player signing with Sacramento
By Steve Luhm
The Salt Lake Tribune

Greg Ostertag, a nine-year veteran of the Jazz, announces his deal to play for Sacramento. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune)

The Jazz offered Greg Ostertag $2.3 million a year to continue his NBA career in Utah.
It wasn't enough.
Ostertag, the Jazz's enigmatic center for the last nine years, announced Tuesday that he plans to sign a free-agent contract with Sacramento.
Ostertag's new deal will be worth $4 million next season, league sources said. He will also own an option on returning to the Kings in 2005-06.
"I'm pumped," Ostertag said at an impromptu press conference at Thanksgiving Point, where he talked to the media after participating in a benefit golf tournament.
"It's going to be difficult, leaving. I'll probably have a tear when we roll out of Utah. But I'm excited. . . . You've got to put Sacramento in the top three teams in the West."
It is unclear how badly the Jazz wanted to re-sign Ostertag. But vice president of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor said his recent contract offers to restricted free agents Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur - deals worth a combined total of $118 million - limited what Utah could offer Ostertag.
"We wish Greg the best," O'Connor said. "There just wasn't a whole lot else we could do."
Said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan: "We hate to see Greg go. We're going to
See OSTERTAG, C6

miss him. But we had a decision to make and money was a factor."
Ostertag was Utah's first-round draft pick in 1995, and he was a starter on teams which reached the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998.
But Ostertag was plagued by inconsistency during his career. His play was especially disappointing in recent years and reached a low point last season, when Ostertag ended up as a sporadically used reserve despite playing on a team begging for solid post play and veteran leadership.
"I didn't meet everybody's expectations," Ostertag said. "But I think I had more good games than bad games. . . . The bad ones just stand out a little more."
Ostertag's stay in Utah will also be remembered because of his public spats with Sloan, who described their relationship as "unique. . . . We banged heads with each other from time to time. But I'll always think very highly of Greg."
Ostertag said he "had no regrets" about the years he spent with the Jazz, "even though there were times me and Jerry locked horns."
Ostertag called Sloan on Tuesday, a couple of hours before


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he spoke to the media.
"I just wanted to thank him for all the good times we had - and there were some good times," said Ostertag.
He characterized his many run-ins with Sloan as differences that arose between "two stubborn guys who didn't want to give ground sometimes."
In recent weeks, Ostertag has been courted by several teams, including Milwaukee, Toronto, Phoenix, Houston and Sacramento. He picked the Kings, partly because they just lost veteran center Vlade Divac, who signed a free-agent deal with the Lakers.
Divac's departure should translate to playing time for Ostertag.
"I'm going to have a good opportunity," he said. "I'm going to get plenty of time to prove myself and maybe get a better contract" for 2005-06.
Ostertag knew his chances of returning to Utah diminished when Boozer and Okur signed offer sheets that the Jazz do not believe will be matched by Cleveland and Detroit.
"I understand what happened," he said. "There are no hard feelings. They tied up all their money in two guys."
Ostertag's final choice of new teams came down to Phoenix, where he has built a home, and Sacramento.
"It's been back and forth with [the Kings] and Phoenix for about a week," Ostertag said. "Phoenix had a good offer on the table, but they wanted me to wait until the end of the month. . . . If things had fallen through, I would have been out in the cold. And I was afraid of losing a good thing."
Houston was also in the late running for Ostertag, but his role as a backup to emerging star Yao Ming made him hesitant about joining the rising Rockets.
"Houston was in there tough," Ostertag said. "But one thing I was scared of there was playing time. There just wasn't going to be a lot of playing time. . . . They came in with the most money. But playing time was a big issue with me."