A similarly warm response came before the game against Boston on Thursday night.

Maybe there's hope for Carlos Boozer, after all.

When it comes to dealing with and renovating a damaged name, Kirilenko is the single Jazz player qualified to show Boozer the way out of the darkness, to give Boozer some valuable advice.

He's been where Boozer is: loathed, ridiculed, ripped, either misunderstood or too well understood, and nearly disregarded, and he's risen above it.

Fans actually like him now.

He's suddenly seen again as one of the Jazz's most valuable players, not the crybaby, the absolute waste of money, which he was considered just two seasons ago.

Remember that?

After Kirilenko broke down and wept between playoff games in Houston, tearfully claiming Jerry Sloan wasn't using him correctly, he absorbed all kinds of public disdain - even from teammates. He wanted out of Utah because he couldn't coexist or coincide with Sloan. Basketball was no longer fun.

Now, people love him, although many still think he's ridiculously overpaid.

Boozer's struggles with injury, his dispassionate attitude toward playing for the Jazz, his opaque comments about his bad knee and its progress in healing, his proclamation that he would opt out after this season and get a raise no matter what, have combined to make him the subject of scorn around here.

He makes money for nothing, looks forward to making more money possibly someplace else, all while his battered team does its best to stay afloat in his absence, and that ticks people off.

It's not just the injury, it's Boozer's seemingly self-centered mercenary approach to his business.

Kirilenko and Boozer, then, are the only Jazz players who, in Kirilenko's case, could have or, in Boozer's case, can drive their own versions of what I call the Karl Malone Game.

Malone was the inspiration for the game, and its all-time master and catalyst, with his penchant for being comically outspoken, for playing great Basketball at times, and scattering key free throws all over the joint in those NBA Finals games against Michael Jordan. Nobody put the spark in the Karl Malone Game quite like Karl Malone himself. Greg Ostertag had a wide enough berth, and was just plain goofy and dopey and aggravating enough, to fill in nicely after Karl headed for the coast.

Kirilenko bridged the gap to a new generation.

And now, it's Boozer's turn.

The game is easy and you've probably already played it without even trying. It requires a minimum of two players and a maximum of 19,911. Here's how it's done: Walk up to another person or into a crowded room of people, preferably Jazz fans, and say the name: Carlos Boozer. Then, sit back and watch the expressions on people's faces and listen to their declarations of support or, much more common, disgust.

It's a gas, a gas can of emotion.

Try it at the office, or at a party, or at church. Lob out Boozer's name, and see what happens. Watch the bombs go off.

Colorful clusters of criticism explode in every direction.

Boozer is a public-relations nightmare.

But there is a way out, if Boozer is willing to stay on the path and make the climb.

Kirilenko will tell him, all he has to do is give good effort when he's actually on the court and act like he really wants to play when he's off it. Communicate that openly and effectively to fans, and they'll love him, too. Throw out the egocentricity and throw in a more adamant statement, preferably genuine, about enjoying playing in Utah, and the free flow of good feeling for him will flood out the negativity of the present.

The irony in that is this: Boozer's eagerness to play and his desire to play here, and the overall resultant positive effects, would make him more attractive to potential suitors elsewhere. Instead, he comes across as untrustworthy and as a malcontent.

It will be interesting when Boozer finally returns to the Jazz lineup how fans here will react. A Kirilenko-style standing ovation? Doubtful. Boozer has the advantage, in his name, of having boos soaked up and cloaked in the approving chant that used to greet him.

But the ultimate playing of the Carlos Booooooooozer Game, all maxed out at EnergySolutions, is approaching. Fittingly enough, nobody is quite sure when.

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GORDON MONSON hosts "The Monson and Graham Show" weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m. on 1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com