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He is older now, the hair and cheek he touched before each free throw a little grayer, a little more wrinkled.
And he is wiser, too.
The pain of losing is plenty fresh for Jeff Hornacek, who was fired by the Phoenix Suns a year ago and has coached a disappointing New York Knicks team to 43 defeats this season. So the former Jazz marksman is all the more appreciative of just how special his time was in Utah.
"It doesn't come around too often. You take it for granted," Hornacek said Tuesday, a smile on his face as he reminisced about halcyon days. "In this league there's a ton of talent on every team. Sometimes it just fits. That team we had just fit. We could look at each other and nod your head and we all knew what the next step was going to be."
You can bet there will plenty of smiles and knowing nods Wednesday as most of the Jazz team — everyone from players to coaches to support staff — that reached the 1997 NBA Finals gathers at Vivint Smart Home Arena for a 20-year reunion celebration.
Led by Hall of Famers Jerry Sloan, Karl Malone and John Stockton, the Jazz won a franchise-best 64 games during the regular season then beat the Clippers, Lakers and Rockets in the playoffs before falling to the Chicago Bulls in six games. The Jazz would return to the Finals the next season, only to be stopped again by Michael Jordan and the Bulls.
Two decades later, however, those squads remain the most successful in Jazz history, the years since only amplifying the magnitude of the achievement.
"That's the nature of basketball," said Stephen Howard, a backup guard on the 1997 team who now works as an analyst for Fox Sports. "There are things you have to overcome to be a champion. We just weren't able to overcome that. That doesn't take anything away from our journey and our ride and what it took to get there."
Former players have been landing in Utah over the past few days, some already meeting up to share memories and rekindle bonds that were galvanized over the course of a 64-win season.
"Our locker room, our camaraderie," Howard Eisley, Stockton's backup in 1997 and now one of Hornacek's assistant coaches in New York, said when asked for his fondest memory of the season.
Utah's big three led the way on the court. Hornacek shot better than 48 percent from behind the arc. Malone earned his first Most Valuable Player award. And Stockton's 3-pointer in Houston will live forever in franchise lore. But the Jazz also received important contributions all the way down the line: Bryon Russell's improvement from second-round pick to the starting lineup's 3-and-D specialist, Eisley's collected play as Stockton rested and Antoine Carr's energy, sprinting to the scorer's table whenever his number was called.
"You always want to preach as a coach that you need to be tougher and you need to play together and work hard," Eisley said. "We weren't the most athletic team, but we really competed at a high level. We played together. I think that's what made us successful."
As he works now to try to build up the Knicks, Hornacek knows how hard it can be to get the pieces to click.
"You'd like it to just fit in, just like that," he said, "but it took years" for the Jazz to do it.
Hornacek joined the Jazz in 1994, providing a proven third scorer to complement Stockton and Malone.
"For John, Karl and I, the big question when I got traded there was how long would it take for me to figure all this stuff out," he said. "Fortunately for me, I think we played Utah 50-60 times prior to that."
But it wouldn't be until May of '97, when Stockton's bucket ripped the net in Houston, that they would break through.
"We we were working our tails off for three years prior to that trying to get there," Hornacek said. When he jumped with joy on the Rockets' court, he said, he was celebrating for a community. "Not just for the guys, but for the coaches, for the city of Salt Lake and the state of Utah to have that team finally get that."
All these years later, Hornacek still keeps in close touch with Stockton. Former Jazz forward Chris Morris, now a juvenile detention officer in Houston, keeps up with Russell and Carr, a fellow Texan.
But for many on the '97 team, this week's reunion will be their first contact with the men with whom they formed friendships during that memorable season.
"It will be fun, a chance to catch up with all those guys," Morris said. "We were like a family. We'll get a chance to say that we love each other."
Back in Utah 20 years later, Greg Ostertag toured Salt Lake and Park City this week. Back in the place he used to call home, the former Jazz center said he has fond memories of that Finals team, though he still has regrets about how it ended.
"In the big picture, we fell short twice. It was a great experience, but the ultimate goal was to win, and we didn't do that," Ostertag said. "We did have a hell of a run. We just weren't able to pull off the ultimate goal. It's a great thing to come back and celebrate, but it would have been even better to celebrate the 20th year of the championship."
Hornacek, meanwhile, was busy preparing his new team this week with hopes of taking down the Jazz at Vivint Arena on Wednesday night. As he works through the ups and downs for his first season in New York, the coach said he tries to pass along a lesson he often heard from Sloan.
"If you can lay it all out there, come in the locker room and look in the mirror and say, 'Yeah, I put it all out there,' that's the best you can do," Hornacek said. "Win or lose."
Twitter: @aaronfalk —
Jazz vs. Knicks
P At Vivint Smart Home Arena
Tipoff • 8:30 p.m.
TV • ROOT
Radio • 1280 AM, 97.5 FM
About the Jazz • Have sputtered of late, losing three straight games. … Gordon Hayward is coming off a career-high 38-point performance in Indianapolis. … Beat the Knicks in New York, 114-109, in November.
About the Knicks • Former Jazzman Jeff Hornacek is having a tough first season in the Big Apple; the Knicks are 27-43 overall. … Carmelo Anthony leads the team in scoring (22.8 points per game) but second-year big man Kristaps Porzingis is the future of the franchise. … Point guard Derrick Rose is averaging 17.8 points and 4.4 assists per game.