No, not as in excrement, but as in the casino game.

That's exactly what it is, a matter of luck, of chance, of rolling the dice and watching the wrong numbers come up. I like my casino games cheap, so I've never played craps. Seems like you either win or lose a lot of money. Never understood throwing a lot of money away on nothing. The penny slots are just fine, with a little 21 thrown in now and then when I'm flush.

But that's not the reason I'm writing this. It's about injuries.

Why in heaven's sake have the Jazz been cursed the last year and a half? Never in Jazz history has a streak of bad luck happened like this. Is it a matter of luck, or are there other reasons for it? Let's look at it a little.

Every Jazz fan knows that Karl and John played for upmteen years without serious injury, and sometimes played even when hurt with injuries that would keep normal human beings off the court. No, John and Karl were not aliens. They were lucky enough to be blessed with a combination of genetic chance that blessed them with strong joints and flexible muscles, ligaments and tendons, and blessed them with something else. A work ethic that was seldom matched by any pro athlete in any sport. They were fanatics at keeping themselves in the best possible shape. Everyone knows about Karl's off season regimen, how he worked out so hard when he came to camp it was almost like taking a rest. John wasn't far behind him, but because John is and was so private not much was heard about it. This has all been documented and talked about a thousand times. They were freaks of nature in the NBA, fanatics at conditioning, and blessed with a will to play and win at whatever cost.

For the Jazz of their era, they were the cornerstone, the foundation, and the very heart of the franchise. Simply because they played almost every game, it gave the impression that the Jazz were injury free. That is not the case. Players got hurt around them all the time, but they were just pieces in the puzzle, cogs in the gears, substitutible and replaceable, expendable in the scheme of a team unmatched in Jazz history, and for that matter, in NBA history. A case can certainly be made that Karl and John were and are the two best players in the history of the game playing injury free.

Ok, we all know this. We take it for granted, just as we did when they were playing. We show up for a game, and Karl and John are going to be playing that night. What else is new? Same old story. Nothing changes. Nothing, until Karl and John retire.

New players, new team. And suddenly, these players are not indestructable, don't fly over tall buildings with a single bound, and actually have to miss games. Last year was a year unmatched in Jazz history. We lost more players to injury than any other Jazz team, by an incredible margin. Nothing like that has happened to Jazz fans who take it for granted that their players are going to show up, play, and then take off their super hero costumes when they shower.

They're bums, hypochondriacs. They don't want to play here despite taking all that money, so they must be faking it. How else can you explain the sudden rash of games lost to injury?

I wish I really knew the answer, because the Jazz would reward me handsomely. Perhaps I do know the answer, or in reality, a bevy of reasons for our woes.

One, John and Karl have retired. They no longer play for the Jazz. Memo, Carlos B., AK, Harp, Giri, while good players in their own rights, are not John and Karl. That's obvious. So why do we hold them up to the two most injury free superstars in NBA history for comparison? It's not fair, just or right.

Two, I think we're just having a run of bad luck. Luck is as good a term to describe what's happened and is happening as any other. Some years teams lose players to injury, some years they do not. Look at the Patriots in football this year, or for a better example, the Eagles. How do you go from a Superbowl team to the doghouse like that? With basically the same players starting the year? Injury. Then the doubts set in, fiascos like TO beset the team, and it all falls apart. Gee, that sounds like the Jazz last year, doesn't it? Carlos A instead of TO?

The same thing happens in the NBA. San Antonio goes from a good team to a lousy, first pick lottery team in one year. Then they get Tim Duncan, presto! They're a great team again. Again, in one year.

I've been accused of being overly optimistic, looking through Jazz colored glasses, a homer, not being realisitic, and none of it worries me or bothers me in the least, simply because I believe that this team will be a good one when it gets healthy.

It will get healthy. The rash of injuries will slow down, and we will experience stretches of the season where the same lineup actually shows up for the game. Why? Because it is chance. It is luck. Luck blesses everyone, if you're just patient enough.

Anyone who plays at games of chance, or even pays attention to the vagaries of life that beset all of us, know that there are ups and downs, good streaks and bad streaks, it's just the way it is.

This doesn't mean that this year will turn out to be completely injury free when and if Carlos comes back. Just like the guy who put a hundred down on black and dared red to come up twenty times in a row, the laws of chance and life can go against you over and over again. But............It will change. Just be patient.

One more thing. It isn't the trainers, Jazz management, or anyone in the organization doing anything different than that which existed when Karl and John were here. Do you think for one minute that the Jazz wouldn't have thought about that? Wouldn't have hired anyone at any price to solve this rash of injuries? They've lost over twenty million dollars........That's right, twenty million dollars of players salaries to games that have been lost. That buys a whole lot of excercise gear, whirlpools, trainers, and anything your heart desires.

So where do the Jazz go from here? Home. Do the same things, train the same way, sign the players that instinct tells them to, do the same damn thing they've been doing for twenty odd years. It's worked before, it will work again. Many of you haven't been alive long enough to realize that there are downs in life. They will come, sure as shootin', and it's how you react and handle them when they do come that determines what kind of person you are. Some give up. Some fight and overcome whatever obstacles exist. Sometimes.........You can't win. Life deals you cards that are too much, too overwhelming. Then, it's how you live with what you're dealt. Then you just have to get up in the morning, put on your clothes, and live.

That's one of the reasons we love sports and our teams. Unlike people, teams have a chance to change their DNA, draft new players, trade for different blood. Each year the team is born anew, reincarnated in perfect form. That's why I am a Jazz fan. I know that good things can happen, should happen, and will happen. It's just a matter of time and the realization of chance.

Keep the faith.