One of the big reasons why I think Boozer never endeared himself to Jazz fans were that his interviews and such seemed to be no more human than what Cleverbot spits out. When asked by ESPN what his goal was for the coming season, he replied, "A championship." He then goes on to give the following,
With our combination of what we have on our team, with myself in the post, with D. Rose at the point guard spot, Joakim [Noah] plugging that middle up, Luol Deng being very versatile on the wing, I think we have a team that can rival anybody. I think we'll be able to compete against every team in the league.
That should sound familiar because it sounds just like everything he's said while he was with the Jazz. He told the DesNews when he signed that his goal with the Jazz was a championship. If I had dug up the following quote, it would sound just like Boozer,
With our combination of what we have on our team, with myself in the post, with D. Will at the point guard spot, Memo plugging that middle up, Ronnie Brewer being very versatile on the wing, I think we have a team that can rival anybody. I think we'll be able to compete against every team in the league.
I don't expect him to not have his goal as winning a title and not competing against every team in the league. It always seemed that he would input questions, run it through some sort of algorithm based on what he thought the person wanted to hear, and spit back out an appropriate response.
I'm looking forward to the honest opinions and talk we'll get from Big Al.
In case you haven't read the AK interview posted as a FanShot, here's my favorite quote from that story. When asked about whether the Jazz wanted him to stay out of the FIBA tourney, he replied,
Incidentally, none of the NBA club is unable to prevent basketballer to play for the team. So it is entirely my decision. But we must take into account: "Utah" gave me all the things you can only dream of. Many readers might think: in the "Jazz", they say, gathered by the bourgeoisie and the capitalists who are not interested in anything except money. (Laughs) Of course, the money they are interested.
It's best read in a broken Russian accent voice. If "Let's play the basketball" ever gets retired, "Jazz... capitalists who are not interested in anything except money. (Laughs)" might be the new tagline.
Here's our logo for the Dodge Barrage
We used beaches because you can't have any swears in your team name. The palm trees are for the beach and the nuclear cloud for the boom. Thanks to Kurt for the idea for the BOOM.
You gotta get out on that,
Karl Malone: Owning the Spurs (via KarlMalowned32)
Thursday poll. The Bulls finished 41-41 last season but added Boozer, Korver, and Brewer to their lineup. They'll improve on that record. Last season, the Jazz finished 53-29. They lost Boozer, Korver, and Matthews. The west is also a tougher conference during the regular season. Given that, who will win more games this season? Leave your win total predictions in the comments.
Now, I’ve only been a Jazz fan since Mark Iavaroni was my age (and bringing 4.5 ppg and 3.3 rpg to the table as a starter in 71 games) but we all need to have a talk. This is specifically, the 300 pound gorilla in the room. Actually, more specifically, it is clearly the absence of a 300 pound gorilla. Or Wookiee, or whatever, I’m not picky at this point in time - I just want our team to have a big guy who can bang on the inside and possibly intimidate protocol droids into throwing games of Dejarik. (get well soon @ticktock6) You know, the basic things all teams want from their centers.
Since my time as a Jazz fan I can rattle off a number of solid position players seen in our uniform. Point guard, historically a position of nearly unrivaled Jazz strength, featured: Michigan great Rickey Green; point god John Stockton; the steady Howard Eisley; the big huge jerk Mark Jackson; former All-Star Mo Williams; and this Deron Williams guy. (Honorable mention: Hispanic Heartthrob tag-team of Carlos Arroyo and Raul Lopez) Point guard isn’t the only good spot in our history. For example, we sure do complain about our wings a lot, but teams can do much worse than: Pistol Pete; Adrian Dantley; Jeff Hornacek; Darrell Griffith; Dell Curry; Andrei Kirlenko; Bryon Russell; Matt Harpring; Kelly Tripucka; Blue Edwards and so forth. I’m not going to go over every spot on the floor here lest this become a puff piece. Warm feelings from a trip down memory lane aside, we have a serious problem. And it’s been a central issue of concern for a while now.
Our centers have really, outright sucked.
And when they don’t, they fail at key tasks in their job description. Usually they are effective enough at guarding the paint, but are so abysmally poor on offense that the team is playing a virtual handicap match of 4 on 5 on offense. Alternatively, they may be adept at scoring or passing but not bring much to the table on defense. Sadly, the vast majority of the centers on our roster have just plain sucked at both parts of the game - leaving the coaching staff scratching their heads in attempts to win despite their bigmen, instead of because of them.
Good insight on what's going on in Andrei's mind, you'll obviusly have to use Google translate or something of that sort. But what I got out of it is he is very very appreciative of the Utah Jazz organization (so he doesn't just put on a show for us when he's here in the US), he truly loves the organization. Therefore anything close to a reasonable offer from the Jazz I have a feelng he will definitely accept, he mentions it in the interview that he's completely not in the mood of having to go through any kind of switch in teams and also money is definitely not the issue, quote of how he said it in the interview "can't chase/get all the money in the world you know.." Being a big fan of what he brings to the team (of course for reasonable money and not 18mil lol) I was very very happy to hear him say everything that he said in this interview. Let me know if you have any questions that come with the crazy Google Translations that they come up with.
Jerry Stackhouse ladies and gentleman (via BDL),
Sixers @ Jazz 3-20-96 Jerry Stackhouse Fights Jeff Hornecek (via RareAir310)
This isn't the only time Stack has fought with a member of the Jazz. He and Kirk Snyder got into it after a Jazz loss in Dallas back in 2005. Stackhouse has a rep of getting into altercations with other teams as well.
Sounds like Andy (Hayward) will be heading back to Utah this weekend to start working out. CJ said the first part of September is when he would be back as well. I imagine that everyone else will be filing back in to town as well shortly. We're getting closer.
Deron Williams may very well end up leaving in a couple of years, but not for any of the reasons listed by this Dime post. Here's a list of the reasons given and my counter argument.
HoopsHype is reporting that free agent Francicso Elson is leaning towards signing with the Jazz,
If you're like me, I'm sure you said, "Fransicwho?" He's a journeyman right now with unimpressive numbers for a big man. He's a 34-year old 7-footer who doesn't score much nor blocks many shots.
There will be rumors like this that float around, but if they were to sign him, wouldn't that have an impact on Fesenko and Jeremy Evans?
Open-ended Wednesday poll... Who is the team's most-improved for next season?
We live in a world full of critics, better statistics and technology that allows better visual access to, well, almost everything. Twenty years ago, if Pamela Anderson or Kim Kardashian make a sex tape, it might be disappointing to their families and communities and copies might be found in a few thousand adult stores. I would guess that 10 or so clicks of the mouse would get you a copy straight to your computer if you were into that kind of thing. Ten years ago, critiques of films ended with "what did you think of movie X?" and Roger and Eberts TV show. Now I can google reviews of Inception and read summaries and explanations for 3 straight hours. You can even go to Youtube and see ratings and comments on a kid who just went to the dentist. The same is true for analyzing sports and athletes. We are better at it. For the most part, fans and analysts can tell what players help their teams and what players just shoot every time they have the ball. And yet there are a handful of myths that still exist in NBA circles all over America. Let's discuss.
Hat tip to Salt City Hoops for catching this, but it looks like the new floor for the ESA looks like this:
As some wisely pointed out before, we could see the green paint and two-tone wood floor from the NBA2K11 screen shots posted earlier. It looks like we will be getting the new logo for center court. I thought I had read that it was still going to be the mountain logo because it had to be the primary logo on the court.
I'm a fan though. My hope in all of the jersey/color/floor changes is that they leave it as is and don't change things again down the road. There's something to be said about teams that have had the same jersey/logo since their inception.
Another question is why haven't they unveiled the new court yet? It was supposed to be done a couple of months ago on draft night but then got put off. We have yet to hear anything on when it will be unveiled officially.
Thanks to moni for this link. In moni's words, it's "AK either launching new shoe or starring in community production of Cinderella,"
It's all in Russian (where Google Video Translate when you need it?). My biggest question is did they purposely use Eye of the Tiger as the intro music? Really?
Anyone that can translate?
I don't know what to think of this video of Stockton highlights (via SLAM). Behind the back passing? Alley-oops? A freaking spin move? Worlds colliding.
John Stockton - The Ultimate Point Guard (via memoismoney)
Gordon Hayward with the question of our time,
If you want to start a fake Hayward twitter account, there's your idea: Deep thoughts by G Hayward. Other questions you might ask: Why can't snow be warm? Why can't vegetables taste like chocolate? Why do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near?
Tuesday poll,
Big Al kool aid
