The Joys of Jazz Fandom

Thanks to best friend of the blog Matt Thomas, USB had the opportunity to witness the heart breaking thriller that was the Jazz’s loss to the Hornets. Although the loss was devastating, we came away with a few observations and comments:

A)     Basketball is 10x more exciting in person, 100x more exciting on the 8^th row (thanks again Matt!), and 1000x more exciting when Hayward blocks Chris Paul on a break-a-way layup.

B)     You know that kid in high school that feels he is the best person on the court and because of this he feels entitled to get special treatment from the refs? That is Chris Paul. He complained at an above average rate, even for NBA players, who are notorious for arguing with the refs. He was borderline throwing temper tantrums every other play.

C)     Chris Paul is not the best person on the court. We’ve read a lot about how Paul has lost some of his speed since his injury, but it was ever so apparent last night. Now, we love Earl Watson, but he won’t be in any argument for best point guard in the league. Yet, Chris Paul couldn’t beat him off the dribble and on multiple occasions Watson blew past him to find an open man or lay it up himself.

D)    Paul Millsap is the best person on the court. His is now officially Nate’s favorite player. Matt said it best, “He gets no love.” It is so true, even at home where you would expect a few calls to go his way; he routinely got fouled with no call. He also was the only player on the court that when he put up a shot, you knew it was going in. You had no doubts. The only other player that came close was Al Jefferson and his turn around one handers from ten feet out. Millsap also made two circus shots. Were we surprised they went in? Of course not.

E)     The Basketball gods hate the Jazz. We’ll have to devote an entire column to this later, but there is no way that against any other team Okafor’s get his shot off in time, let alone makes it. What did we do to deserve getting our hearts wrenched out game after game, season after season!?

F)     Fans that leave before the end of the game deserved to be punished. Either ban them for a season or forever. I prefer the latter. There is no excuse to leave early. Sure we lost by four, but that game wasn’t over until the time was gone. People had left and we were still in it! Watson and Millsap missed a free throw each. Hayward missed a three. That’s five points! We could have just as easily won as we lost! There was no reason to leave! What message does that send to the players, quitting before it’s over!? They are the Carlos Boozer of Jazz fans. You should be ashamed.

G)    Don’t be like Red Sox fans. The only MLB game I have been to was between the Red Sox and the Padres. The Red Sox won and after the game they were chanting, “Yankees Suck!” Now don’t get me wrong, I completely agree, but what did that have to do with anything?! I lost all respect for their fans at that moment. Last night during an injury timeout it was quiet and someone yelled, “BYU sucks!” Seriously dude? We’re in an injury timeout in the NBA and you yell that? Hours after the game is over? He looked like a complete idiot. That was until someone replied, “Oh yeah? How far did Utah get?” Comments at games should only be directed at one of the two teams playing. The end.

We want to end with one more point. The future is looking bright for the Jazz. You know they are in a good position when Matt can ask a question like, “What are we going to do with two first round draft picks?” Matt also had a great point, give this team an offseason to get comfortable with each other and we will be back in the hunt for a championship.

Which we will somehow lose with Jordan-esque push off by Dwayne Wade/Derrick Rose/Paul Pierce.

Oh the joys of Jazz fandom. 

Things of Genius. Things of Beauty. Utah Sports Bot.

"Genius is like a road trip to California.  It takes time." -Matthew Thomas

I feel like this is reminiscent of Utah Sports Bot.  Yes, we love sports.  Yes, we love the Jazz.  And yes, we waited until there's under 15 games left in the regular season to start our blog.  Why?  Well, Matt said it best.  Things of genius take time.  This being the case, it only seems appropriate to recap the Jazz's season thus far.

The Jazz had a decent off-season, drafting Gordon Hayward and Jeremy Evans, and picking up Al Jefferson.  But it's quite apparent that their biggest accomplishment pre-October was acquiring Matt Harpring as the co-play-by-play man (Keep in mind that the Jazz beat the Laker multiple times preseason as well.... despise Kobe, always).  His catchy phrases, knowledge, and overall knack for announcing has made even the toughest times for Jazz fans bearable.  Thanks Matt.

The Jazz started strong, finishing November 14-5.  Unfortunately, the Jazz would go 8-6, 7-9, 3-9 and 4-4 over the next four months, respectively (At least we didn't lose to Cleveland...haha Lakers).  Amidst all of this, our beloved Commander-in-Chief Jerry Sloan retired, and our best player Deron WIlliams was traded.  Although, he will be back as discussed in our previous post.
Sometimes being a Jazz fan isn't easy.  Having your heart ripped out night after night isn't fun.  Fortunately, things are looking up for our Jazz.  Devin Harris, C.J. Miles, Andrei Kirilenko, Derrick Favors, and Big Al look like the choice starting 5 for now, with Hayward, Raja, and others coming off the bench.  Don't forget Millsap, who we hope will be back soon, and Okur, if he ever gets healthy. On top of that, the Jazz have potentially three first round draft picks this coming draft, as well as our most expensive contract (overpaid Andrei Kirilenko - over 17 million a year) expiring.  What does this mean?  The Jazz could pick up another star or two or three to support our already developing team, not to mention Deron coming back soon...ha!  Lets just hope the Jazz make some better draft choices than those of the past.

Moral of the story, hang on Jazz fans.  The future is bright.
Some final thoughts...Jimmer Fredette is a robot.  He's like one of those aliens from Space Jam that stole the NBA player's talent.  No wonder Reggie Miller retired.  Robo-Jimmer stole his talent.  7 times yesterday we saw him activate his 3 point laser, the other 5 misses he was obviously toying his opponent.

Go Jazz, get us a win tonight!

It's all part of the plan...

One of the first theories that inspired us to start this blog was the idea of Deron Williams coming back. We weren't fast enough to get the blog up when the story was relevant, but today ESPN reported this story http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nba/news/story?id=6235536 about Deron Williams possible sitting out the remainder of the year. As soon as I read it I knew this theory had to get put out there again. D-Will sitting out is all part of the plan to get us a lottery pick and get Williams back in 2012. The following is what we wrote back when the story was breaking-

It was a shock. Deron Williams traded to the Nets. At first, I was a bit disappointed, but I remembered that when Jerry Sloan left with rumors D-Will ran him out of town, I took Jerry’s side and was a bit bitter toward Williams. As the details of the trade unfolded, I was very happy. In my eyes, Deron was going to leave us because we weren’t building a team around him. Once free agency rolled around, he was gone. So, getting Harris, Favors, two first round picks, and cash was a great deal. But in reading various sports articles and the comments that followed, an idea surfaced that I feel is true. It was all a plot. Williams and the Jazz front office have this all planned out. Trade Deron for some missing pieces and draft picks, and when free agency come up in the summer of 2012, we re-sign him. It was a great idea, but as the days went on, it gained some validity. Deron himself said, “It all depends on how the next year goes.” He also said, “It's going to be a tough situation and it's going to be a tough year. There's so much that can go on between now and 2012 to even really discuss it…I won't know what I'm going to do until then ... So I can't give you guys an answer until then. The easiest way will just be to go out and play basketball and not worry about it." To USB, this translates to, “We just scammed Jersey, I’ll be back in Utah ASAP!” It’s no question that D-Will was getting on the Jazz fans’ bad side. What better way to win us over than to pull the greatest scam in sports history since the BCS? It’s a flawless plan, see you in 2012 D-Will! 

Welcome to UtahSportsBot!

Welcome to UtahSportsBot(as in Utah sports and robots, our two biggest material obsessions), hereafter USB. This is the official sports blog of Nathan F. and Douglas W. We wanted a place to express our opinions and views of the sports world as we see it. This is not ESPN. We are not professionals. We are fans though. We don’t care if you think we’re wrong, in some cases we probably will be. This will mostly be our opinion, so actually we’ll be right all the time because it’s our blog and our opinions. We welcome feedback and fun debates but this isn’t a place for arguments. So to start there are some things you need to know: We are Jazz fans, we love them with all our heart, even though they break them every year. We will always favor them. We have respect for some Eastern conference teams, but we hate every Western conference foe. Especially the Lakers. And the Spurs. And the Mavs. And Rockets. And the Nuggets. Anyway, we love the Jazz, and they can do no wrong here. Unless we say so.
We will also comment on other things, make up rumors, spread theories, and comment on the general sports scene as we see it. It’s kind of ironic that we named our blog after robots when the point of this blog is to break the cookie cutter world of sports commentary. We hope you enjoy the blog and that you love the Jazz as much as us, because enjoying this blog will be dependent on how you feel about the Jazz. They go hand in hand in this blog.
N8                          Doug E Fresh