Even before Andrei Kirilenko played his first regular-season NBA game, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan paid the Russian rookie quite a compliment.

"A guy that likes to play keeps doing things. He seems to have that ability: to keep doing things, and keep playing and having something happen for him," Sloan said during the preseason. "That's been the interesting part about him . . . Actually, in all honesty, he reminds me a lot of John Stockton when John was young ? my first year here with the team. He likes to play. He's having fun with it. It's not a job.
     
"You know, he's going to make some mistakes, because he's really just 'wound up' . . . and that's good," he added. "Because he has a lot of things you can't teach in the game of basketball. It's been fun to watch him."