The idea was to sit back and enjoy, one more time, the seemingly age-old, cat-and-mouse confrontation between the old-guard guys: the Jazz's John Stockton vs. the Sonics' Gary Payton.
   
What we got Wednesday night in Utah's 95-80 shellacking of Seattle was some good, old, edge-of-the-seat pyrotechnics from the Jazz's whirling-dervish rookie center, Jarron Collins.
   
It was a made-for-TV performance that wasn't on the tube in Utah.
   
But bet that Collins, almost not a Jazzman, got some pub on Wednesday night's SportsCenter and on replays today.
   
That kind of attention is natural for a guy who leads all scorers -- including Dream Teamers Stockton, Payton and Karl Malone and 2000 Olympic gold medalist Vin Baker -- with 22 points.
   
And when he posts his first career double-double by adding a game-high 10 rebounds, well, you make the highlights. And you dominate the postgame interviews, just at the time this 21-17 Jazz team has more questions from critics than answers from players.
   
You know Collins played one hell of a game when Jazz coach Jerry Sloan takes the first five minutes of his postgame comments to extol the contributions of a player who wasn't even on the team's active roster when the season began.
   
All you have to do to play for Sloan is throw yourself into the trenches with abandon. "He doesn't play like he's bored," said the Jazz coach, a not so oblique slap at onetime Jazz starting center Greg Ostertag, whose totals were no points and two rebounds, plus some embarrassing moments against a Sonic center named Art Long.