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The Hot Rod is a Showman Edition - The Downbeat - #979

1993 All-Star Game, giving stuff up for Lent, and UDQMs

To piggyback on what Diana said yesterday about how players and their families must feel seeing quotes from the front office saying, essentially, that they're not good enough yet to warrant playing time as well as continually listing their ages as reasons why it is not their time yet, you have to wonder how the Jazz's chances of re-signing them are affected by how much time their peers are getting.

Derrick Favors, for example, was chosen to the U.S. Select Team last summer to scrimmage against Team USA.

7 of the 13 players on the team (Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Jrue Holiday, Paul George, DeMar DeRozan, and DeMarcus Cousins) are full-time starters for their teams and average at least 30 MPG. Since returning from injury, John Wall has returned to the starting lineup for Washington. Of the 13 guys on the team, the only ones playing fewer minutes than Favors are DeJuan Blair and Lance Thomas. Blair, Thomas, Favors, and Taj Gibson, meanwhile, are the only players on the team that are playing fewer minutes than Gordon Hayward.

It bears mentioning that of the 11 non-Jazz players on the team, five play for winning teams.

Now let's take a look at the top 15 picks in the 2011 draft class (Enes Kanter was drafted No. 3; Alec Burks was drafted No. 12).

Enes (14 MPG) is tied with Jimmer Fredette for second fewest minutes among the 15 players, with only Jan Vesely playing fewer minutes. Based on Alec Burks' season average pre-Mo Williams injury, he would be ranked dead last. Based on his current season average, he still ranks fourth from the bottom.

Just five of the 15 players (including Kanter and Burks) are playing for winning teams. At the same time, six of the 15 players are averaging over 30 MPG on five teams and two of the teams are winning teams. I guess it's up to y'all to decide whether the losing teams among the bunch are losing because they are playing their young guys so much or because they are bad teams, period.

Despite the number of sell-outs that have been announced by the Jazz this season, the Deseret News reports that the Jazz have only sold out three home games this year so far.

While it certainly isn’t at a crisis stage, the Jazz are well aware of the attendance decline and expressing some concern.

“It is significant, but not to any real degree that it raises any red flags,’’ says Jazz president and CEO Randy Rigby. ...

Rigby says roughly 40 percent of the seats in the arena are under corporate accounts with the other 60 percent under individuals. He said the Jazz management is constantly looking at ways to improve the product and to provide a “clean, safe environment” for “fun family-friendly entertainment.’’

There was some great discussion in Diana's DB yesterday about attending games. Between all the empty green seats, fans arriving late, and quiet crowd most nights, can the Jazz still claim to have the best fans in the NBA?

A look back at the 1993 All-Star Game held in Salt Lake City:

The best part of the video might be last part, which has some rare footage of the Legends Game held that year. The roster included two hometown favorites, 46-year-old Ron Boone and 58-year-old Hot Rod Hundley. I loved seeing Hot Rod in particular--consummate showman and entertainer.

One of my favorite times of year for TBJ coverage is All-Star Weekend. I love watching the videos of Skeets and Melas going around asking NBA players questions. One of the questions they asked this year was "What would be the hardest thing for you to give up for Lent?"

Jeremy Evans' answer was his wife, lol.

What would be your answer?

Our very own Yucca Man has a gift like no other when it comes to UDQMs. He also has awesome reactions when his UDQMs are pointed out. Here are Yucca's Greatest UDQM Hits (and responses). Which of the following gets your vote for best Yucca UDQM ever?

1) Al the Conquerer from Tyrone Corbin's playbook:

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P.S. This also happened today:

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