Good article on the financial impact of the Jazz in Utah (via Deron's Facebook). You do have to register to view the whole article but there doesn't seem to be any verification. Here's the part that stood out to me,
The Utah Jazz does more for the Beehive State than keep basketball enthusiasts happy. The Utah Jazz has a winning economic and community-building impact on the state. In fact, it's estimated that each at-home Jazz game brings in approximately $1 million to the state. That's because when people attend a game, they often make it a night out on the town, spending money at local restaurants, parking or taking public transportation, and buying other Jazz-related merchandise.
I'm guessing they're not including ticket prices in that number. If you have a sellout crowd, we'll round up to 20,000, then that's $50 per person that's spent. Now, you don't have to go to a game obviously to spend money. In fact, the article mentions places where people gather to watch the game downtown.
Still, a million bucks every game is quite the boon to the local economy.
Is Wesley Matthews in line to make the rookie first team? I think he's a lock to at least make the second team right now. If you look at the rookie rankings on NBA.com, he's up to the #6 spot. I realize those have zero to little bearing on the final votes that come from the coaches, but he's right up there.
Given that he's the starting two-guard on one of the best teams in the west, I think he might make it, especially when you look at the other rookies. What's interesting as well is that since the all-rookie team doesn't have the "you have to vote for 2 guards, 2 forwards, and a center" restrictions that the all-star game vote has, we could see a lineup of all guards this year. You have Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry, Darren Collison, Brandon Jennings, and maybe Matthews.
Given today's NCAA festivities, I got to thinking and we have or have had quite a few players from the championship game. Deron Williams, Dee Brown, Carlos Boozer, Goran Suton, the KOOF (NIT), Thurl Bailey. Who else is there? That's just off the top of my head.
I don't know how much more the Knicks pick is going to improve. NY does have quite the gauntlet of games to finish out the season.
Here are the teams below them, Philly, Detroit, Sacramento, Indiana, Washington, Golden State, Minnesota, and New Jersey. We'll cross GS, Minny, and NJ off the list. They're not going to "pass" any of those teams.
So that leaves us with the fourth-best chance at best. Still not bad at all. However, you have Philly, Detroit, and Washington that are just playing putrid right now. They're going to go into tank mode if they haven't already. You might even think they're in tank mode despite them maybe not even being in tank mode. They're all bad.
Indiana and Sacramento should play relatively good to close out the season so NY could pass them. But I think we're looking at the 7th or 8th worst record in the league. Still, not a bad pick at all and we might get a little luck and move up a bit.
Easy poll today