To work the television broadcast of the Jazz -Spurs game.

Last week, Harpring announced he would not be able to play this season because of lingering knee and ankle injuries.

In all probability, his 11-year career has ended.

Harpring, who averaged only 11 minutes in 63 games last season, spent the summer at his home in Atlanta. He saw "a lot of doctors" while trying to rehabilitate his injuries.

"Just doing a lot of different things to make this ankle and knee better," Harpring said. "But it's come to the point where I didn't want to lead the Jazz on.

"I'm sure people were asking them every day, 'Where's Matt, where's Matt?' That's got to make it hard to move on and I didn't want to put Jerry [Sloan] in that position."

Harpring made his announcement 16 games into the season "because I just had to be honest with them and with myself and say, 'I would love to play until I die. But it just can't happen anymore.'"

It appears that Harpring has played his final NBA game after stops in Orlando, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Utah.

"It's sad," Harpring said. "It's been a struggle for me the last six months. But it's something, in the back of my mind, that I'm realizing is part of life and you deal with the cards you're dealt and you move on with your life."

Harpring's future could include more TV work, perhaps even with the Jazz .

Having already done some studio work for NBA-TV, Harpring said doing color commentary on Utah-San Antonio for Fox Sports gave him "a little experience" at "doing a live game -- something I always wanted to do."

He continued: "Now that I'll have this year to not play, I want to do something with my life -- be smart about it and figure out Plan B."

TV work "keeps me in the game," Harpring said, "and this is a game I love. I've put in a lot of sweat, hours and tears into it and it's something I know."

In other words, television might be the perfect avenue for Harpring's life after Basketball: "I've always heard, when you go out in the business world, figure out what you want to do -- what you love -- and then it's never work."

luhm@sltrib.com Matt Harpring's numbers

Matt Harpring's year-by-year statistics as a member of the Jazz :