Jazz center trying to be brother, not hero

Utah Jazz center Greg Ostertag doesn't want anyone to see him as a hero, though later this month he will give one of his kidneys to his ailing diabetic sister.

"I'm just trying to be a brother," he said Monday.

Ostertag's sister, 26-year-old Amy Hall, has had Type 1 diabetes since she was 7 and began having kidney problems in 1999. Her kidneys failed in March, but tests showed Ostertag was a perfect match as a donor.

"I was 6-for-6 on the matches. We're basically twins, except she's 2 1/2 years younger than me," Ostertag said during a news conference at the Delta Center.

The operation is scheduled June 27 at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, where Hall lives. The 29-year-old Ostertag played high school basketball in the Dallas area before going to Kansas.

"He has never thought twice about it, never looked back, never said, 'I shouldn't be doing this because it could mess up my career,"' Hall told the Dallas Morning News this month.

The 7-foot-2 Ostertag often is criticized around the NBA questioning his competitiveness. That happens even in Salt Lake City because of his $36 million contact and maddeningly inconsistency.

"Maybe now people will look at Greg in a different light," Jazz vice president Kevin O'Connor said.

-- AP