"Andrei Kirilenko's Jazz era ended strangely, like something out of those Russian spy novels he liked to read in the locker room prior to games.

The team signed free-agent forward Josh Howard this past weekend, implicitly canceling any plans to bring back Kirilenko for an 11th season in his only NBA home. There would be no announcement, no transaction, just a mysterious exit that resembles the way he unobtrusively dressed and hustled out of arenas after games.

Kirilenko is playing professionally at home in Moscow, to be pried away only by the kind of contract that was not sensible for the Jazz to offer him. He'll be remembered as a player who ranks high on several of the franchise's all-time statistical lists, but with a legacy spoiled by too much money and not enough fulfilled promise."