Bleacher Report's HBO parody Game of Zones is . . . hilarious?

B/R has spent some money to hire some talent to produce these Game of Thrones animations that document the NBA. You don't have to be familiar with the books/show to know what's going on if you are an astute NBA fan. (Which you are, by the way!) It does help, though.

The San Antonio Spurs as an ancient force that seems unstoppable sounds about right. The fact that the simpleminded Hodor is played by Carlos Boozer is a fun little quirk. Making allusions that suggest Chris Bosh is some sort of dragon / dinosaur / reptile is a staple of the internet by now. But for me the main take-away was that once again the Utah Jazz were insignificant enough to not even be a mention or throw away joke.

Our franchise has no stars, no powerful Hall of Fame coach, and so far from contention that the playoffs, something the team made almost by accident for years, are just as far away as the title is. Our team is at their bottom, I feel, and it will be a long, slow climb back to the top.

I'm in it for the long haul. Before the slights came from not having our All-NBA players or All-Stars promoted enough in NBA league commercials. Today the slights are that of omission. The Utah Jazz are not on the collective, general, radar of the NBA, the NBA decision makers, the NBA marketers, and the general NBA fans.

Other teams give away free gifts to tastemakers in order to promote their players (Trail Blazers gave away ipods called iRoys for Brandon Roy, Charlotte Bobcats (now the Charlotte Hornets again) gave away paint to help garner votes for Al Jefferson this year), they make the effort to make our players look better than they are. Our franchise seems to try to make the players look worse than they are by limiting minutes so that they will be cheaper to sign as free agents. This may not be the case, but it's not something that makes the average NBA fan want to go out and by a Derrick Favors jersey.

I enjoy Game of Thrones a lot, it's just so funny that a throw-away video from another sports outlet makes me reflect on how out of the picture the Jazz are. Like, we can't even be wildlings? Our team has a lot of work to do, on the court, and apparently, the marketing / PR departments have a lot of work to do too. Back in the John and Karl days they totally would have been in something like this, even when they got bounced from the first round 5 different times.

It just underscores the point that we need a star, which is probably why it was so important to scuttle this entire 2013-14 season for the hope of a Top 3 pick. I guess when you play the game of zones you win the lotto or you become a forgotten franchise that is mired in the mid to late lotto and never ever get better.

Brace yourselves Jazz fans, mediocrity could be coming.