As the search for a new head coach of the Denver Nuggets drags on, Jazz assistant coach Phil Johnson has opted to take his name out of the running for the vacant position.
     
"Although the Nuggets never offered me the job, the longer the process took, the easier it was for me to make the decision to remain with the Jazz," Johnson said Wednesday. "I was never sure that I would leave, even if the offer would have been extended to me. It would have taken a lot for me to leave a situation I feel very good about."
     
Johnson's Utah colleagues had continued to back his bid for the post.
     
"We'd hate to lose him, but they'd be smart to hire him," Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz's vice president of basketball operations, had said Tuesday.

There was a time, not long ago, when the Jazz were one of the NBA's oldest teams.
     
But with five players 23 or younger anticipated to be on board next season ? Jarron Collins, Andrei Kirilenko, Raul Lopez, Curtis Borchardt and DeShawn Stevenson ? it's time to strap in the car seats.
     
Because, as Jazz basketball operations vice president Kevin O'Connor put it Tuesday, you don't want "too many babies in diapers" playing alongside old-timers John Stockton and Karl Malone, aged 40 and 39, respectively.
     
To that end, enter Denver Nuggets free-agent Calbert Cheaney, who, as expected, was signed to a one-year, $1 million contract by the Jazz on Tuesday.

The (AP) reports: Utah Jazz assistant Phil Johnson said Wednesday he has withdrawn as a candidate for the head coaching job with the Denver Nuggets.

"Although the Nuggets never offered me the job, the longer the process took, the easier it was for me to make the decision to remain with the Jazz," he said. "I was never sure that I would leave, even if the offer would have been extended."

Johnson reportedly was one of two finalists in Denver, along with Dallas assistant and former Lakers coach Del Harris.

For the past 14 seasons, Johnson has been the top assistant to Utah coach Jerry Sloan. He was the NBA's coach of the year in 1974-75, leading the Kansas City-Omaha Kings to a 44-38 record and second place in the Midwest Division. He coached the Kings from 1973-78 and the Kansas City-Sacramento Kings from 1984-87.

RealGM Note: This could open the door for Harris to get the Nuggets job. Usually when a canadiate for a Head coaching job withdraws, it means that he wasn't going to get the job. Then again, it has been said the Del Harris really likes being an assistant in Dallas and even if he were to think about leaving, Mark Cuban might bump up his salary again to convince him to stay. Stay tuned to Wiretap for more on the Nuggets Head Coaching situation.

Calbert Cheaney grew up in Evansville, Ind., where Jazz coach Jerry Sloan was a college star, so he knows a little something about his new boss.

Cheaney doesn't know much about Sloan as a player, but he does know about Sloan the coach.

"I'm just going to play hard, because if you don't play hard here, you don't play at all," Cheaney said. "That's coach Sloan's motto."

Calbert Cheaney and the Jazz believe they have similar outlooks on pro basketball, alike enough that Utah offered the 6-foot-7 guard a contract for next season. But their views differ slightly on one topic: 44 wins.
   
For the Jazz, that victory total last season was unacceptable, the worst performance in a decade, and one of the reasons the team went shopping for a veteran shooting guard. But for Cheaney, 44 wins and a playoff berth as the eighth seed represents a pinnacle, the best season in a career spent playing for sad-sack teams.
   
Is it any wonder that Cheaney was willing to accept the Jazz's minimum-pay offer for a chance at winning more than once a week?

Negotiations were difficult, even nasty at times, but the Jazz were confident that they could wait out their reluctant free agent. After all, Utah's offer, though far less than the player's agent had demanded, was considerably larger than any other team had dangled.
   
If that scenario sounds familiar, Jazz fans have reason to wonder: Is Donyell Marshall another Shandon Anderson?
   
As negotiations with Marshall fester -- "They've definitely gone backward," according to Dwight Manley, Marshall's agent -- the prospect of an Anderson-like outcome will grow. While Marshall has remained quiet, his agent has begun raising the possibility that the eight-year veteran could make a decision based on the Jazz's attitude, not its checkbook.

Payroll of the 2002-03 season as it stands today

Re-signing Marshall ? their second-leading scorer and rebounder, and a man who made $6.51 million last season ? is the Jazz's top priority of the NBA's offseason free-agency market.
     
Marshall started the summer seeking a pay raise and a long-term deal in Utah.
     
The Jazz initially offered Marshall a three-year, $21 million contract starting at $6.75 million ? a modest raise but too short in length for Marshall's liking. Then the Jazz took that offer off the table. Later, they replaced it with a four-year deal worth roughly $23 million ? starting at $5 million, averaging $5.75 million.
     
Since then, negotiations have been acrimonious.

The NBA will make sure next season that last-second shots really do beat the buzzer.
   
The league on Monday approved the use of instant replay beginning with the 2002-2003 preseason, just months after some controversial last-second calls in the playoffs.
   
It comes too late for Baron Davis, but Reggie Miller and Samaki Walker benefited from the wait.

There is a barrel roll twist, squat move at the end of a dance that nearly seven hours into the auditions for the 2002-03 Jazz Dancer Team is giving a few of the women fits.
     
Director and choreographer Jan Whittaker is trying to explain the movement to 62 young women who remain of a crop of 267 who made their way to the Delta Center early Saturday morning ? with hair and makeup "performance ready" ? for a chance to be one of Utah's 17 Jazz dancers.
     
" . . . It's accent six, here seven, land on eight," Whittaker tells the group from her microphone as she demonstrates on stage.