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"I hope they don't boo me like they did LeBron in Cleveland," he said slyly, referring to his return to an arena where he played three seasons. "But I don't think so."

"This is a good place for me," he said last week outside the Jazz locker room at EnergySolutions Arena. "Not much to do at night. Stay focused. Stay out of trouble. It's perfect. There are a lot of good places to go fishing here, the mountains are beautiful. When the season's over, I'm looking forward to trying a lot of stuff, except skiing.

"I'm not skiing."

"I'll be 26 next month, and I just didn't have the energy to go through another two, three years of losing before they'll be a playoff team, which I think they will be," Jefferson said. "We both agreed on that. David Kahn could have traded me anywhere. Most teams don't trade their best player within the same division, same conference. You hardly ever see that.

"They did right by me, and that's what I appreciate. I had good times there. Fans were wonderful. They supported us even though we didn't give them much to support. I tell ya, I never have anything bad to say about Minnesota. I love Minnesota. I miss my teammates. There's always going to be love there, except when I come to Target Center and Kevin Love and Darko try to go at my head."

"If you're looking at it, I'd take 17 points a game and winning over averaging 20 and 10 and losing any day of the week," said Jefferson, who is averaging 16.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.7 blocks that tie his career high. "In Minnesota, I was the guy, but we weren't winning no games. That's no fun. If you're in it for the money or just to score points and don't care if you win or not, that might be fun. Like with Kevin Love right now. I know he's going through it.

"I know Kevin. I know he wants to win. Even though he's having a hell of a year right now, I know those losses are hurting him. It's not fun, especially when you want to win and do something special."

"I always knew it was fun to win, but I didn't really know that until now," Jefferson said. "Know what I mean? We play on ESPN, play on TNT. We ain't do none of that the last three years, or really the last five years if you include Boston. That's a new experience for me, to be on the main stage. The only bad thing about it is now when we do lose a game, it stays on me a lot longer, until we play again.

"Last year, losing felt like normal. Now it hurts. That felt strange at first, but I'm getting used to it. I'd rather have that any day. Trust me, I know."

ut_jazz wrote: I wish the best for Kosta Koufos, we didn't play him enough I think, hope he does well for you guys.

UK-Wolf wrote:Though I kinda lost respect for big Al for the comment about moving from a "Kia to a Bentley" or something like that I still respect him hugely from his time here. Them comments sum up what kinda' guy he is.

I'm gonna' stay up for this one tonight I think, Jazz win and Deron Williams to have a career night.

skydragonslashs wrote:Who'd boo Jefferson?... And he's hoping its not like Lebron and Cle? lol