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What if Rony Seikaly Showed Up?
Posted by: Danny Hansen on August 24th, 2010
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.
On February 16, 1998, the Utah Jazz and Orlando Magic had agreed on a trade that would send Chris Morris, Greg Foster, and a first round pick in the 1998 draft for center Rony Seikaly. It was seemingly the move that would elevate the Jazz above the Chicago Bulls, to whom they had lost to the previous year in the Finals. At the time of the trade, the 32 year old Seikaly was averaging 15 points and 7.6 rebounds a game. On paper, it looked like a great trade. However, on paper is the only place Jazz fans would see that trade happen. Rony Seikaly never reported to the Jazz and the trade fell through. Over a decade later, we can look back and speculate. Was Rony the missing piece that would give the Jazz a championship? Where would the Jazz be now if that trade happened?
Would the Jazz have won the championship in 1998?
The Jazz knew their weakness in that 1997-1998 season. It was their center spot. They were trying desperately to upgrade at center. Greg Ostertag was battling injury problems and not performing as he had the first two season of his career. He averaged only 4.7 points and 5.9 rebounds per game that season. Greg Foster was mediocre, averaging 5.7 points per game. Not too bad, but it seemed like Foster looked to shoot every time he touched the ball. Antoine Carr was an excellent option off the bench, but was playing out of position at the center spot. Other trade rumors had the Jazz trying to obtain Kevin Willis, but the trade came for Seikaly.
In the 1998 Finals, the Jazz’s wings were being outplayed by the Bulls’ wings. Malone was doing his best in the post, but he was getting zero help from the center spot. Three different players started at the center position in that series. Greg Foster, Greg Ostertag, and Adam Keefe all got their shots to start. Unfortunately none of them were able to produce. Below are the statistics for each against the Bulls.
Jazz Centers Stats Per Game vs. Bulls in 1998 Finals
| points | rebounds | blocks | assists | steals | |
| Greg Ostertag | 2.2 | 3.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Greg Foster | 1.3 | 2.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| Adam Keefe | 2.8 | 3.4 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Combined | 6.3 | 8.9 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.6 |
| Seikaly 97-98 w/Magic | 13.3 | 7 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 0.5 |
It is clear that the Jazz couldn’t have done much worse at the starting center spot. The three players had a combined 33 points in 6 games. Seikaly would have drastically improved that. A Seikaly and Malone combination in the post may have been too much for Rodman and Longley. The post play of the Jazz would have been able to produce perhaps more than the wings for Bulls. You have to think, given the dreadful center play the Jazz got in the Finals, that Seikaly would have given the Jazz the extra points they needed to win close games and possibly the series.
On the other hand, you have to wonder what kind of player would refuse to be a starter on one of the top two teams in the league. They say that he didn’t want to live in Utah. But wouldn’t a player that wants to win be able to put that aside for a year or two to win a ring? I would think so. Perhaps Rony Seikaly didn’t have the drive to win and would have wilted in the Finals. It is also clear that since not coming to Utah in 1998, Seikaly’s career dwindled into oblivion. Perhaps the reason the Magic were willing to give up Rony was that they felt his career was done. Maybe physically he wasn’t in a position to help the Jazz. Later in 1998, he was traded to New Jersey and never heard from again.
Where would the Jazz be now if that trade happened?
The key for the future Jazz in the Seikaly trade was the first round pick going from the Jazz to the Magic. When the trade didn’t go down the pick was returned to the Jazz. In the upcoming draft the Jazz used to pick to draft Nazr Mohammed, but they eventually traded him to Philadelphia for a pick in the next year’s draft. That pick was one of three the Jazz owned in the first round of the 1999 draft. That exact pick was used to draft Quincy Lewis. However, the pick’s real impact was that the Jazz were able to take a risk with one of those three picks. With one of the three, the Jazz selected Andrei Kirilenko. And though often forgotten, Kirilenko is extremely important to Jazz history. He is the player that bridged the franchise from Stockton/Malone to Williams/Boozer/Jefferson. He helped keep the team competitive in those pivotal years. If Rony had showed up and the Jazz gave up that first round pick, would the Jazz had taken Andrei Kirilenko with one of their two first round picks in 1999. I think the chances of that were slim.
So whether you think that Rony didn’t want to be in Utah or the Jazz changed their minds after learning of Rony’s injury concerns, it is clear that Rony not showing up to Utah changed the direction of this franchise.
Replies: 12
Views: 1481
12 Responses
Give me the one shot at the ring that season, and I’d give up AK – perhaps we would’ve gotten into the lottery with our 2002-03 performance (Stock’s last year/7th seed in playoffs), or, received a better pick the next when we missed the playoffs by a hair at 41-41 (2004-05)
2003 Draft of course was epic: LeBron, Dwyane, Bosh, Carmelo, Kaman in the top 6 – where we drafted at #19 w/Sasha Pavlovic.
The 2004 draft featured: Dwight Howard (1), Ben Gordon (3), Devin Harris (5), Josh Childress (6), Luol Deng (7), and Andre Iguodala (9)- whereas we drafted #14, selecting Kris Humphries.
Talk about what-ifs! Who knew Rony Seikaly was so pivotal in our franchise history!
How can a player just refuse to report to his new team? This I don’t understand? he is under contract. If his contract is traded he is legally required to go there. He just can’t say “no, I don’t want to”
Stuff like this leads me to believe David Stern controls aspects of the NBA. “A player that could help the Jazz beat The Bulls and M.J in his final season? The best player in the NBA? No, that won’t make money, I’ll put a stop to this right now”
Reaks of fish to me.
I have been doing a little researching here about it and from what I have read Rony was injured with his foot in a cast. He spoke with Karl Malone who told him the injury would kill the deal if the Jazz doctors thought it would keep him out more than 4-6 weeks.
Interesting…….
this still doesn’t change my opinion of Stern though. He’s crooked and still is.
If Rony Seikly shows up, the Jazz get a title, but miss out on Kirilenko? That is a real interesting what if. Now reports are that Seikly didn’t care about the playoffs, so maybe he wouldn’t have helped, but he sure wouldn’t have been a downgrade. Now the Kirilenko thing, that is interesting. Never thought about it that way. To me, the fact that Rony Seikly refused to show up said a lot about him and I am glad that we didn’t trade for him.
To me, one of the most interesting parts of this whole argument is the fact that Jazz fans automatically discount the injury as a viable reason why this deal didn’t go down. It is never “the trade fell through because he was hurt”; it is always “the trade fell through because he didn’t want to play in Utah”. Truth is, none of us know all of the details, and the latter argument speaks more of our insecurites pertaining to the state then it does about what actually happend.
When the Seikaly trade was announced, I was excited, but it turned out Seikaly was “Sickly”, and wanted to go to the hometown NJ graveyard to die.
He was supposed to have so much money that his NBA salary mattered little. He really had no incentive to play hard.
He would have been a difference maker, if he could have played, but as it ends up, long term, it worked out better for the Jazz.
The Jazz probably take AK anyway, even if they only have 2 draft picks. They were very high on AK.
Jazzaholic
I remember being so excited about the Rony Seikaly trade also. I felt so bad for Chris Morris and Greg Foster having to come back the way they did.
I still don’t get how he turned down the trade if it was because of an injury but you do always hear about how he turned it down.
I’d have to go with the Championship over AK despite him being the bridge, keeping the team competitive etc. Who knows like Jazzaholic said maybe we still would have drafted him.
I can’t imagine what JC said thought about not making the playoffs Stockton’s last year. That would have been so sad for him to make it 18 years and not his last.
With his health issues at the time, and his having only had a couple months to adjust to playing with the Jazz before the playoffs that year, it’s quite doubtful in my mind, that Seikaly would have made the difference in the Finals against the Bulls. I mean whose to say he might have come here and totally disrupted our team chemistry (which was terrific at the time…the Jazz were really in a groove).
I don’t remember this trade probably because I was too young, and I’m not going to pretend to know exactly how the team was run management wise. However, doesn’t it come as a surprise to some people that the Jazz even wanted to make this trade given the type of person Ron Seikaly was? While its possible that the Jazz didn’t know he was a selfish player who only played for the money and didn’t want any part in extra game (the playoffs) where you don’t get paid to play in, it surprises me that the Jazz wouldn’t have looked into this first. For as long as I can remember the Jazz have been about getting quality players with great attitudes. Players who want to win more than making the All-Star team or MVP or whatever the award. Maybe I’m looking into this too much but it just surprises me that they OKed this trade when they would be receiving such a narcissistic blockhead who had no interest in actually winning unless it got him paid.
Dang it, Eric, you stole my thunder! That was exactly my thought. Anyway, to reinforce the idea, see this post from Steve Luhm on the Trib’s Jazz blog:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogs/jazznotes/49996012-62/seikaly-playoffs-utah-salley.html.csp
Haha sorry about that Ken. To be honest I’m surprised no one said anything about it earlier.
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