They once were the standard of excellence. Now, the Boston Celtics find themselves, once again, as something quite different in the eyes of some. A virus. A staph infection. As in, 'we don't want what happened to them to happen to us.'

	Still tough players, Malone and Stockton aren't ready to retire yet.

It's not like the Celtics are, well, doomed. But the franchise made a series of decisions in the late-1980s and early-1990s which basically made them the team they are today: striving to be mediocre. They decided they would not trade any of the Big Three -- you may remember them as Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish -- and would allow the trio to finish their careers in Boston if the chose. Bird and McHale did. Parish did not.

There were tempting offers for all three in those days, but the Celtics refused to bite. The retiring players were replaced, but in name only. Xavier McDaniel took Bird's salary slot. Dino Radja took McHale's. Dominique Wilkins took Parish's. All three are long gone and so are the Celtics' championship aspirations. The team hasn't made the playoffs since 1995, has not had a winning record since 1993, and has not won a playoff series since 1992. That's why everyone says they don't want to do what the Celtics did.

That brings us to the Utah Jazz, who now face a similar dilemma with franchise icon Karl Malone. Does owner Larry Miller pull the trigger on a deal for the 38-year-old Mailman and initiate the rebuilding process for a team which looks like it will miss the playoffs for the first time since 1983? Or does Miller do what Red Auerbach and the Celtics' owners decided to do: allow their icons to retire with the team and then try to rebuild?

Hastening the Utah decision-making process has been the abysmal play of the Jazz. Who knew Olden Polynice was so indispensable? Utah basically brought back the same cast from last year's 53-29 ensemble -- minus the wacky Polynice and the much-traveled Danny Manning. Look at them now. They have gone Grizzlies on us overnight.

Their loss Monday night to Phoenix was their fifth at the Delta Center in eight home games. They lost five home games all season in 1998, the last time they graced the NBA Finals. They have the second-worst record in the Western Conference. Jerry Sloan dressed like Tony Soprano on Monday night and it still made no difference. (As Tony might say, end of story!)

The signs of slippage in Salt Lake have been visible to even the untrained eye. There were 13 home losses last season. There was a late-season swoon and then the unthinkable: blowing a 2-0 lead to playoff neophyte Dallas in the first round. Malone and Stockton are signed through next season, by which time Malone will be closing in on the big 4-0 and Stockton already will have been there. They have no shot at that elusive title and, by now, that should be clear to Miller, Malone and everyone else.

	Bird was a Celtics hero, and they never did trade him and rebuild.

So what do you do? If I'm Miller, I let Malone make the call. The two have had an on-again, off-again relationship, but, lately, it has been pretty solid. If dealing Malone brought in a decent player and some draft picks and/or younger prospects, it would be foolish not to strongly consider it provided that the Mailman endorses it.

The Celtics always defended their decision to hold on to Bird and McHale because they felt that trading Bird would have incited riots and that dealing McHale would only have accelerated his retirement. Neither one wanted to go anywhere else and there was a franchise history of the great Celtics finishing up as Celtics. Plus, they each had three rings. The Celtics could not have envisioned the death of Reggie Lewis or the set-back-the-process series of moves by Rick Pitino which have them where they are today.

What does Malone really want? Does he want to retire in Utah? Or does he want to be Ray Bourque or Clyde Drexler, longtime players in one city who decided, at the bitter end, to go for a championship elsewhere? They lucked out. But there are no guarantees in the NBA, unless, unless, of course, Malone is dealt to the Lakers. Malone has always said that he doesn't want to be judged on titles, which is smart, given the fact he has none, but on his two undeniable championship traits: durability and productivity.

And Malone can't be choosy. There aren't going to be a lot of options because of his humongous salary as well as his advancing age and the fact that he isn't exactly Mr. Congeniality. (We can rule out the Nets, right?) Maybe money-be-damned Mark Cuban in Dallas will take the plunge, serving up Juwan Howard and some draft picks. Portland has big salary players as well.

Malone would absolutely flourish in the power-forward challenged Eastern Conference, but who's got the money and the inclination to make it happen? The Knicks? They'd have to part with Latrell Sprewell or Allan Houston for starters and they're not that deep to pull it off and be a contender. The Sixers? They'd have to surrender Derrick Coleman and others and Larry Brown always is in the tinkering mode. You have to think he's already made a call to Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz personnel boss who was on Brown's staff at UCLA as well as with the 76ers.

It won't be an easy decision, but, if Malone is willing, and says so publicly and unequivocally, it's a no-brainer. We always wondered when the Utah window was going to close. Well, it's slammed tight and winterized. When you start losing at home, that is a sure sign that things are not as they should be. Or, in Utah's case, as they once were. Malone surely sees that as we all do.

If Miller needs any further evidence, all he has to do is look at the Central Division standings and see the bottom-feeding Bulls. You may recall that, towards the end of the Chicago dynasty, owner Jerry Reinsdorf said he wouldn't allow his team to suffer the way the Celtics did in the rebuilding process.

Well, they haven't had anyone die on them. But they make the Celtics look like Bob the Builder.

Starting from scratch is a long, tedious and thankless process which the Bulls now understand. So do the Celtics. Miller can take steps to ensure that the Jazz aren't in that group, although downward spirals can be tough to stop, let alone reverse. Dealing the best player in the team's history might get Malone closer to a ring and the Jazz closer to where they're used to being. But Malone has to be on it. And he and his boss have to know to be careful what they wish for -- because it actually might happen.

Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.