The Kevin O’Conner Philosophy of Recruiting

Leftover from Steve Luhm’s Sunday feature on Kevin O’Conner is the key to the Jazz GM’s philosophy:

“We’d lose a recruit and I’d get down,” O’Connor said. “But he’d say, ‘Hey, if the guy doesn’t want to wear [our] uniform, move on to the next one and go to work. Try to outwork people.'”

O’Connor has applied the advice when recruiting free agents for the Jazz.

“Everybody is always worried about free agency,” he said. “But, being a small market, there are certain players we just aren’t going to get. So it’s, ‘O.K., let’s move on.’ … You can get good players anywhere. You can compete. I look at it as a challenge.”

Referring to Deron Williams and Jerry Sloan, O’Connor continued: “I can’t make Utah any warmer in the winter or move it any closer to L.A. But if somebody understands they are going to play with a great point guard here, for a coach who’s going to put them in position to succeed here and play in front of the best fans in the NBA here, then we have an ability to get guys.”