What will it take?

by Yucca Man on Dec 1, 2009 9:50 PM MST

Sports Monogamy in Utah

It was a Friday evening in June, 1997. My mom was on her way home from work, and she had to stop at KMart for a couple things. When she went in, it was empty. There was one other customer in the entire store, a man from out of town.

He asked my mom where everyone was. The empty store was creeping him out. My mom told him the obvious reason: the Jazz were playing the Bulls in the finals, and everyone was watching the game.

Then my mom excused her because she was missing the 1st quarter and wanted to get on her way. The man looked at my mom like she was crazy.

And if you think about it, maybe she was. Maybe we all were.

I recently watched a bunch of Stockton and Malone highlights on YouTube. The comments were a wistful gaggle of nostalgia, probably best put by one dude writing about a Stockton video: "Man, those were the days. Sigh."

When you think about it, it's a kind of funny thing to feel. They went to two NBA finals, but no championships. I don’t see quite as much sentimentality from comments on Hakeem Olajuwon highlights.*

But we loved that Jazz team. Everyone I knew did.

* The only time I've noticed similar wistfulness and nostalgia is on Clyde Drexler and other early 90's Blazer highlights. I really think that living in a one-sport-town creates a unique kind of fanhood. It’s like all the passion Bostonians have for the Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins, and Patriots condensed into a single team and a single sport.

My grandma faithfully watched every game. She had never been interested in basketball—or any sport outside of her grandkids’ soccer games—but there she was cheering on John and Karl and Horny (you can’t imagine how funny it was hearing that nickname out of her mouth), setting her schedule around each game, fuming every time the Jazz played on national TV because "those guys [the announcers] always favor the other team." (her words).

My high school statistics teacher was famous for her Jazz devotion. The bonus question on every quiz had to do with either the previous night's score or the upcoming game.

I could go on.

But the real point is that neither my grandmother, my former teacher, or any of the other hundreds of unexpected die-hards I knew during the glory days of Stockton and Malone follow the team today. I wonder if some could name more than one or two players on today's team.

I couldn’t stop thinking about how dead the crowd at ESA seemed during the Memphis game. I know it was against Memphis. I know it was a blowout. But back in the day, the place still would have been buzzing. And some of those dunks by Ronnnie B. and those moves by Fess would have brought down the roof.

Watching a blowout is still a hell of a lot of fun when you love the team. During the Utes’ 2003-04 run to the Fiesta bowl, I had such a blast watching them blow out team after team after team. Every week I was glued to the game, hoping they’d hit 50 points and win by 35 again. Every time Urban Meyer called a trick play when his team was already up by 40 — it was awesome.

When the Jazz blowout Memphis at ESA it ought to be buzzing. The crowd ought to be chanting “We want the KOOF! We want the KOOF! We want the KOOF!” when the 4th quarter starts. We ought to be going crazy for 5 straight minutes when Fess pulls out the moves like he did against the Grizzlies. When Ronnie B. gets as many crazy dunks as he did that night, the excitement is supposed to build exponentially every time: Cheer a 2 on the first, a 4 on the second, an 8 on the third, a 16 on the fourth, and so forth.

I’ve been to Jazz games, back in the Stockton-Malone-Hornacek era, when they blew out the Clippers and this kind of thing happened.

But it’s not happening right now.

We don’t really love our team.

So here are the questions:

1. Who and what about the team do get you excited, no matter what the final score is?

2. What do you need to see for you to get as devoted as you were before—and what do we all need to have the entire community rocking with the Jazz like before? What will put the Jazz in the community consciousness enough that my grandma watches all the games again with the same gusto she once had?

All comments are the opinion of the commenter and not necessarily that of SLC Dunk or SB Nation.

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Comments

1. ak47. dunks with authority (i’ll take those over acrobatic highlight dunks any day). hustle. emotion. and lately, a backcourt of deron and e3.

even before i set my fingers to the keyboard, i know i’m going to sound like an old fogey but here goes my answer to 2:

i definitely feel the nostalgia when i watch old videos or even see old pictures of stock and malone standing side by side in their old school uniforms. i just think that there was something really relatable about those teams—not just because stock, horny, eisley, tag, foster, crotty, jeff malone, russell, etc. didn’t look like nba players and could have been your next door neighbors, but because with those teams, you got the sense that they were winning because they were working hard for it, and not because they were superior to their opponents somehow. like the rest of us, they went to work even when they weren’t feeling well/were injured. also, this was before salaries became so outrageous (it’s all relative).

with the team we have now, yes, they are exciting and throw crazy passes and they can sky, but sometimes—even during wins—you feel like they’re just going through the motions and/or are doing things not to win but to raise their own stock. and it doesn’t help when you see players sitting there in their suits and looking bored or nonchalant (i’m not talking about anyone in particular) while raking in more money than most of us can even imagine.

i know what you’re thinking. it’s amazing that i’m 200 years old and still alive.

anyway, i think there’s just some sense or aspect of “team” missing—if it’s a bunch of individuals or cliques within the team, if you will, out there playing, why would you get behind them and root for them? final thing for me is that boozer is the first jazz player i’ve ever disliked, and when he sucks, i’m so focused on how much he sucks that i lose track of the game.

by moni on Dec 2, 2009 2:52 AM MST reply actions

I hear you on the Boozer dislike

I never even disliked Ostertag. The dude was way too entertaining. Who didn’t love his spats with Sloan?

O checks in
O gets 3 fouls in 34 seconds, has a shot blocked, and tripped over Malone on the defensive end
Sloan sends O to the bench.
O: What?
Sloan: Get your $^#!@^!! but to the bench now
O: What are you talking about? I’m playing awesome!

But Boozer’s problems, when he’s gunking it up, just seem to suffocate the entire team.

by Yucca Man on Dec 2, 2009 3:46 PM MST up reply actions

I think that one constant that Jazz fans were spoiled by during Utah’s heyday was the passion and dedication that Stockton and Malone exhibited every time they put their shorts on. I remember in the playoffs one of the last years that Stockton was around, him fouling out or nearly doing so in an elimination game against the Kings. By those years the Kings were clearly a superior and more complete team, and even if Stockton’s desperate attempts to create something on the defensive end could extend the series, anyone could see that the Jazz were unlikely beat the Kings and make it to the second round. But that didn’t matter, Stockton, Malone and some of the other players were going to give their all regardless of the outcome.
The current team does have some exciting and very talented players. I love watching AK fly around, creating havoc and baskets off ridiculous passes, Deron work the pick and roll or his killer crossover, Memo hit a dagger three and shuffle down the court afterward. But there are nights when it seems that they just don’t care, think that this loss to the dregs of the NBA is just one game in 82, no big deal. I don’t remember questioning the heart of any Stockton-Malone team or even the Bell/Harpring teams that missed the playoffs. They didn’t win but you could see they cared.
I think this is shown in the microcosm of our current power forwards. It is obvious that Boozer is a vastly superior talent to Milsap, but Milsap seems to try so much harder – something we respect. Boozer has the talent that we are accustomed to seeing on the court but Milsap has the heart that endears him to us.
If there is any doubt that the team cares as much as we the fans, support will waiver, especially in our current economic situation.

by leapin'leaner on Dec 2, 2009 4:14 PM MST reply actions