From the Jazz Point of View, Story Had to End This Way

The Utah Jazz have watched the entire Dennis Rodman-Laker soap opera from afar, and just happened to be in L.A., beating the Clippers, when the inevitable finale was announced.

Rodman released? Of course, it had to happen that way, said Utah Coach Jerry Sloan, whose team has defeated the Lakers in the playoffs the last two years and faces the Lakers on Saturday in Salt Lake City.

“You want to know the truth? I was shocked when they put him on the team,” Sloan said Thursday night, after Utah’s victory. “That was my shock. . . .

“I won’t have to talk about him any more. For crying out loud, is that all anybody talks about any more? . . . If that’s what winning is about, I’ve got this [stuff] all wrong.”

With Rodman, the Lakers won in Utah on March 7, the fifth consecutive victory with Rodman.

Does Sloan think the Lakers will be easier to defeat without him?

“I don’t know,” Sloan said. “We have to wait and see.”

Forward Karl Malone, a frequent competitor and one-time wrestling partner with Rodman, torched Rodman for a 12-for-12 shooting performance in their last meeting, a Utah victory at the Great Western Forum on April 6.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” Malone said of Rodman’s release. “I wear this uniform. And that’s what matters to me.”