Dropping The Ball On Ortiz
Boston Globe Sep 7 2003
Peter May writes, "The numbers still jump out at you, a week after the fact: 21 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, and 7 blocked shots. Which leads to one question: Why has Jose Ortiz been unwilling or unable to land a job in the NBA for the last 13 years?" "It's pretty simple," said Warren LeGarie, Ortiz's longtime agent. "He wanted to play in the NBA. But teams would never guarantee him. People made up their minds about Jose when he left Utah and, for whatever reason, they never changed their perception. A lot of people in the NBA are not receptive to changing their minds because then it would admit that they were wrong in the first place. So it's better just to exclude it." The man universally known in Puerto Rico as "Piculin" is 39 years old but has a body right out of the Gold's Gym calendar. He can still run the floor. He can rebound. He can set screens. Watching him at the Tournament of the Americas, you could come to no other conclusion than that the 6-foot-10-inch Ortiz could do very well in the center-challenged NBA, especially as a backup, where his minutes would be monitored. Ortiz had his near-quadruple-double against Canada in the cutthroat bronze-medal game at the Olympic qualifier. Simply, the winner went on to Athens, the loser went home. Canada may have had a team pretty much consisting of Steve Nash and 11 salmon fishermen, but Ortiz simply overwhelmed them. And you left wondering why, even now, no NBA team has called to bring him aboard. Ortiz last played in the NBA with Utah in 1988-89 and part of 1989-90. "Maybe if he had come to us a little later in his career, it might have worked out better," said Scott Layden, the former Jazz GM who signed Ortiz. "Jose was a great player, the Pac 10 Player of the Year [over Reggie Miller] and he had great size and could really run the floor." LeGarie said last week he had not received a single call about Ortiz. Maybe he's right. Maybe the NBA made up its mind a long time ago about Ortiz and is collectively resistant to change. LeGarie said he was close to a deal once with New Jersey and Miami, but things fell through. Can you imagine a guy like Ortiz playing in Miami? He'd be huge. He certainly was against Canada. "He was always good and agile and now he's an even more intelligent player," said Canada coach Jay Triano. "A lot of NBA teams could use a guy with that kind of size who also can pass it the way he does."

September 06, 2003