Utah Jazz Roster 2013: Where is your home sweet home?

The 2013-14 Utah Jazz will play 41 (at least) games at the EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Late City, Utah this year. The squad will not be homeless during the season. But very few guys make their full-season home in Utah. We don't really need to be worried about this though, where you file (or don't file in the case of our coaching staff) your taxes doesn't mean you are any more or less loyal to the franchise. Sure, it's a nice sign when a player buys a big house and lives in the #801 all year long -- but we Jazz fans shouldn't be threatened if a guy does not. After all, many players today look at this as a job, and they are professionals. If we win it'll be easier to plant roots here. But until we become a 'destination' franchise I don't think you need to worry about players renting for their first year here. (After all, what would DeMarre Carroll have to do now if he spent bank on a big place, and we didn't even offer him a free agent contract?)

It's nice to know where a player lives, but for me I take great interest in where a player has come from. They're all going to be here for the season. I could care less what they do during the off-season. (Maybe I'm a little jaded because I've lived in so many different countries and haven't been any less loyal to where I was working because my 'home' was far away...)

So let's look at where these guys are from (where they are born) on the map. Because, well, it would be dumb not to (with the geography) I've also included some guys who aren't on the team right now -- but in a perfect world should be.

Yeep. Raul Neto and Ante Tomic aren't on the team right now, but whatever. This is better

• Alec Burks (Grandview, MO) and Brandon Rush (Kansas City, MO) were born miles apart, but Rush did his high school in Durham, North Carolina and not in Missouri like Burks did.
• Marvin Williams is from Bremerton, WA, waaay up there in the Pacific Northwest. He's from so far up there, his latitude is actually higher than the Capitol of Canada, Ottawa.
• Richard Jefferson is from Los Angeles, CA but went to Moon Valley High School in Phoenix, AZ, and would then later on go to the University of Arizona
• John Lucas III was born in Washington D.C., which only makes sense because back then his dad John Lucas II or John Lucas Jr. or just John Lucas was playing for the Washington Wizards back when they were called the Bullets. He also went to high school in Durham, North Carolina. (But a different high school than Rush)
• This season we only have three "Southern" guys in Derrick Favors, Jeremy Evans, and Ian Clark. Favors is an All-Atlanta product being born there, going to high school there, and then college there. Evans, from Crossett, Arkansas, grew up there and went to high school there right on the Arkansas and Louisiana border. Ian is from Memphis, Tennessee and went to high school a few miles down the road in Germantown Tennessee.
• Gordon Hayward (Indianapolis, IN) and Trey Burke (Columbus, OH) are midwest guys. Hayward played his high school ball in Brownsburg, IN, then went to college in Indianapolis as well. Burke played his high school ball in Columbus, OH. At least he got it right by going to Michigan for college. Seriously. As a Michigan guy myself I ain't got no love for Indiana or Ohio. Screw those states. #NEVERFORGET
• Yes, Enes Kanter is Turkish, and raised there, but he was born in Europe (Zurich, Switzerland) -- and he did high school (Simi Valley, CA) and "college" in the USA.
• Rudy Gobert is from Saint-Quentin, France; Andris Biedrins is from Riga, Latvia (which was then part of the USSR); and Ante Tomic is from Dubrovnik, Croatia (which used to be Yugoslavia). Yes, we apparently are outsourcing all of our centers.
  
• And I used to think that Rio de Janerio was the sexy part of Brazil . . . but now I think that it's Neto's hometown of Belo Horizonte.

Except for Tomic and Neto, for the 13 other dudes their address for the next season will be Salt Lake City, Utah. They may have other homes, but they're all professionals. And I expect them all to be professionals this year as we win some games.