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Today is “National Left Handers” Day, and I don’t even know if that’s a real holiday. But as an actual real left handed person (DSM II probably classified us as degenerates or something), I had to made a post about it. Why? Because some of your favorite Utah Jazz players have been “Southpaws”. Looking it up (and this took longer than it should have), there have been about 25 left handers in Jazz franchise history. Two of these are iffy, one being AK-47. Kirilenko shot right handed, but off the court he’s a lefty. I am certain that there are others like him other there. The other is ‘Bazz, who was a Jazz player for a few minutes on draft night.
Anyway, if you excuse that you almost get a nice distribution between PG, SG, SF, PF, and C! (Amazing how nature exhibits itself at times.)
| Point Guards | Shooting Guards | Small Forwards | Power Forwards | Centers | |
| 1 | Derek Fisher | Gail Goodrich | C.J. Miles | Andrei Kirilenko * | Mark Eaton |
| 2 | John Crotty | Rodney Hood | Joe Ingles | Trevor Booker | James Donaldson |
| 3 | Freddie Boyd | Calbert Cheaney | Shabazz Muhammad ** | Keon Clark | Neal Walk |
| 4 | Carl Nicks | Elliot Williams | Allan Bristow | Aaron Williams | Andris Biedrins |
| 5 | Brooks Thompson | Terry Furlow | Chris Johnson | Stephen Howard | Todd Fuller |
There have been about 300 Jazzmen (269 who played a regular season game for the team, but many more who were traded for but never suited up). The fraction of 25 over 300 is only 8.3%, which is less than the agree upon world average of 10%. Interesting, right?
As for the talent of our Jazzmen who write their autographs with a left hand, there’s a big drop off after the Top players in each position. The first team has a Hall of Famer (Goodrich), a two time Defensive Player of the Year, an All-Star, a guy who has a lot of rings as a starting point guard, and I guess Calvin Junior. (Whom I personally love, but I am allowed to be a homer about such matters.) The second team, uh, well, they better hope Hood catches fire in intra-squad scrimmages.
Anyway, here’s some Mark Eaton for your weekend. Enjoy.