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If you are an old person like me you remember the time from back before there even was a Rookie game at All-Star weekend. (There used to be a "Legends Game" which would feature great players past their prime getting injured and diminishing their own memories.) The first game, back in '94, was called the Rookie Challenge -- and the teams were randomized with rookies. The '96 season had it split between conference. Then because of the lockout robbed a class of this event, the changed it to Sophs vs. Rooks back in '00. Then TNT got more involved and the teams were picked by either Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Webber, or Grant Hill.
Of all the changes the constant seems to be that Jazz players are few and far in-between. There have been 20 games and only 11 Jazz representative. Bryon Russell (1994), Andrei Kirilenko (2002, 2003), Deron Williams (2006, 2007), Paul Millsap (2007, 2008), Ronnie Brewer (2008), Gordon Hayward (2012), Derrick Favors (2012 -- as an injury replacement), and Trey Burke (2014). Mind you, these are all the lotto picks the Jazz have had over the last twenty years. Only a few that had some level of return on the (meager) minutes investment put into them. More of these players get in as Sophs than Rooks -- and this seems to be a Jazz system problem with development + low exposure. (Both of those are influenced by minutes, but hey, let's not get into that again...) (Of the 8 potential games, the C4 only had reps twice -- despite all of them being lotto picks on bad teams.)
AK-47 and Deron were beasts. Trey Burke was okay, but less efficient compared to the Jazz calculated average for those 11 players. It will be interesting to see if Trey returns to the game -- or if someone else from the team is asked to participate.
Obviously we have high hopes for Rudy Gobert -- but it's with a whimper that we even mention Ian Clark, and the four rookies Dante Exum, Rodney Hood, Joe Ingles, and Elijah Millsap. Burke hasn't gotten much better, and there's always a slew of new point guards who come into the league. It will be good for him if he gets to return, after all he is the Skills Contest winner and Burke should get a chance to defend his title.
Anyway, do you think one of our qualifying players (Rookies and Sophs) should go? The Rosters are 9 deep, so we have to be lucky to have one (or more) of the "best" 18 players out of the 2013 and 2014 classes.