Dantley, an assistant coach with the visiting Denver Nuggets tonight, will finally have his #4 retired at halftime. To say this is long overdue is an understatement. It should have been one of the first to be retired. It will be nice to see Dantley get his recognition.

An even bigger negligence is Adrian’s absence from the Hall of Fame. Was he one of the first casualties of playing for a small-market team? His numbers speak for themselves:

Adrian Dantley @ basketball-reference.com

Things that jump out from those stats:

1. Of his 23,177 points, only 21 of those came from from three-pointers. I know he was more of a forward-guard, and I didn’t expect him to be a Jeff Hornacek, but that number surprised me.
2. From ‘79-’86, he was arguably one of the best scorers in the game, including leading the league in scoring twice and averaging 30+ points a game for four years in a row. And even after he was traded to Detroit and playing behind Thomas & Dumars, he still average 20 points for 3 years.
3. A good chunk of his points came from the free-throw line where he shot almost 82%. His 6,832 FTM accounted for nearly 30% of his total points.

Had it not been for the rise of Stockton & Malone, Dantley’s ending to his career would have been a lot different and possibly have been in the Hall of Fame already. Here’s to a great Jazz man.

Now a bit on tonight’s game. First AK is back. A lot of the Jazz’s offensive woes come from poor defense. AK should help with that and hopefully kick start the offense with some blocks and other defensive plays. Second, the halftime ceremony for Dantley will be great, but I hope it’s bitter-sweet for him because the Nuggets are down big. The Jazz need to come out and make a statement and blow out a resurgent Denver team to show that while they’ve struggled as of late, they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with. By winning these last 5 games, they will go into the playoffs with a lot of confidence. It’s crazy to think that after playing the Rockets on the last day of the season, they could have a long playoff series and possibly play them eight times in a row. Let’s hope it doesn’t go that far.