On the 4th day of Christmas the Utah Jazz gave to me... Deron Williams hurt.
Saturday, October 17th. The Jazz were finishing up the pre-season against the Bulls. And in a meaningless game, Deron Williams came down on Derrick Rose's (Public Enemy #1) foot and severely sprained his ankle.
What was expected to be a two to three week absence turned into 5+ weeks.
In what was suppose to be his first All-Star season, Deron would be sitting on the bench and logging more minutes speaking with Boler and Booner on the TV broadcast than handling a ball. This wasn't how the season was suppose to start out for the Jazz.
Their relatively easy early schedule should have put them near or at the top of the conference.
They did start out 5-0 on the season but have gone 12-12 since then.
The Jazz have had enormous luck under Sloan's watch in the injury department. Stockton and Malone averaged less than one missed game a season combined.
Apparently the cosmic balance decided to come back in 2008. Deron's injury was only the start to probably the worst season injury wise the Jazz have seen. Here's a list of the others,
- Carlos Boozer - Strained quadriceps - 15 games and counting.
- Andrei Kirilenko - Sprained finger, ankle, and back
- Jarron Collins - Elbow - January return?
- Matt Harpring - Head, shoulders, knees, and toes, knees and toes, knees and toes. Head shoulders, knees, and toes, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. Okay, so maybe it was only one of those things. But once the knees go...
- Brevin Knight - Fingers and a punch to the throat.
- Kyle Korver - Wrist
In addition to games missed for injuries, Ronnie B and Memo have both missed games due to personal issues.
So will the Basketball Gods finally let the Jazz have everyone healthy so that we can see what they can do?
Let's get this year (2008, not the season) over with so that we can get a fresh start.
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