I'll make this quick. Absolutely no offense to Utah Mormons, but many of us Mormons who are not from Utah - *do not want to live in Utah*. For many of us it would be the last place we would want to live.
Full disclosure: I grew up going to Jazz games as a kid. When I was 11, we moved to the EC and never looked back. I still can't shake the Jazz, but my Mormon experience outside of Utah was just what I needed. For me, its much more preferable, for reasons you can imagine. In fact, when kids from my Brooklyn ward go away to college at BYU, I worry for them.
Sure, Jabari is a Mormon, but he's also a kid from *SS Chicago*. I worry, not that he won't play well for the Jazz, but that he'll come to dislike the focus on his personal life. I worry that he won't be able to exist outside the predominant culture, like other players do. Does that make sense?
Get the latest Utah Jazz news on Facebook!