The Utah Jazz | as seen by Basketball John

 
Jazzbots.com, the official blog site of the Utah Jazz is online.  Yes, the same blog site that turned me down.  I’ll hold off on any comments until it’s had time to mature.  But we should get some interesting behind-the-scenes stories.

On his whirlwind tour of Utah and Idaho for the Jr. Jazz program, Dee stops off for some fishing.  Apparently this is his first time.  And being from Idaho/Utah, the idea that someone hasn’t done something as simple as fishing before, when I’ve done it pretty much my whole life, is baffling.  I know he’s from Chicago, but there’s Lake Michigan.  And it can’t be too far to find a stream or something.  But I know a lot of people that come out here from NY, Chicago, etc. are amazed at the cows on the road and things of that nature.  Here’s an older post from his tour a couple months ago:

The long drives are beautiful, there’s people from where I’m from (Chicago/Maywood) that would never believe what I’m seeing. The view of the mountains, trees, deer in the middle of the road, buffalos, horses on the side of the road, driving through National Parks, driving through tunnels in the mountains, being 9600 ft in the air driving through the mountains and clouds.

If course if I went to a big city, I would be walking around staring up at the buildings all day while everyone there would be yelling at me to look where I’m going (or rob me blind).  Heck, I don’t even remember seeing a black guy in real life until I was 10 or so.

Amazing how much you’ve never seen or done in your life.

On a related note, the Bucks matched Charlie Bell’s offer from the Heat which means Dee won’t be signing with them.

In Friday’s edition of the Sports-Express, Andrei Kirilenko states:

I would like to continue my career in Russia as I want to be where people need me and I can feel that my country needs me now.

He doesn’t want to go back to Utah because Sloan told him at the end of the year that ‘”we will be still playing the way we did [last year].”  I take that to mean that AK would still be the third or fourth option on offense.  Yet Andrei goes on to say:

Yet I don’t want to be traded: I don’t want to be part of this system.

Is he talking about getting out of the NBA all together?  There have been rumors that he could still make an eight-digit salary playing for a Russian or European team professional team.  It seems like he doesn’t want to be part of the NBA at all.  In fact, he states:

I would like to continue my career in Russia as I want to be where people need me and I can feel that my country needs me now.

If by some chance he does go back to playing in Russia or Europe, it would certainly be one of the first times that an NBA-caliber player has voluntarily left the NBA.  It is possible with the NBA/FIBA/Europe agreement, but how could one of those teams possibly be able to buy out AK’s contract from the Jazz?  It wouldn’t have to be for the full amount I’m sure, but it would still have to be a significant amount I would think.  It would have to at least protect the Jazz in some way so that if AK changes his mind in a year or two, he can’t just sign somewhere as a free agent.

It sure seems like he’s been homesick or something for a while.  He stated that he talked with KOC before the tournament about getting traded and that it didn’t have an effect on his decision.  But you have to believe that winning the tournament and the rock star status that has been bestowed upon him sure reinforced his decision.

I still think that Masha is the biggest factor behind this whole thing.  Like another recent departure, I believe the wives are calling the shots for the most part.  I know that if my wife didn’t like where we were at, I would hear about it every day and eventually I would probably cave in.  Wives have been the subject of rumors for other Jazz men departures and also for failed bids to bring players in.

I don’t see AK reporting for training camp come October 1st.  He’ll hold out until he gets what he wants.  But until then he won’t be able to sign anywhere that has an agreement with the NBA.

Is it too late to return my Kirilenko jersey?