The Utah Jazz | as seen by Basketball John

Almost caught up…

On the sixth day of Christmas, the Utah Jazz gave to me…

Dee Brown’s gone

Sad news spread across most of Jazzland when they announced that they were signing Jason Hart and Ronnie Price.  Those two signings led to fan-favorite Dee Brown’s last days as a Jazz man.

Dee Brown went into the summer of ‘07 without a guaranteed contract from the Jazz.  They offered him a qualifying offer and a chance to make the team through his performance in the Rocky Mountain Revue.  But some say that they really had no intention of signing him to a guaranteed deal.  And that the real reason he was on his way out was because Larry Miller thought that he was a bad influence on Deron Williams.

While I can’t think of a single person that didn’t like Dee, some fans didn’t seem to mind that he was leaving.  They didn’t think he quite had what it takes to be in the NBA.  And to back up their statements, Dee wasn’t picked up by any of the other 29 NBA teams either when he was let go.

Others were infuriated and scared.  Why did they release (effectively) one of the most popular Jazz players?  Surely Brown was at least a competent third PG who knew Utah’s sometimes complicated offense?  He’s probably not as good as a shooter as Price and Hart (although this season might show otherwise), but he’s mainly a pass-first PG with speed who could run the offense should there be an injury or foul trouble with Williams.

But probably the biggest reason for concern in a lot of fan’s eyes was that by letting Dee go, and not treating him well in the process, that they would tick off his best friend Deron Williams.  What effect would this have on Deron wanting to re-sign with the Jazz once his rookie contract was up?  It wasn’t worth it.

As it turns out, Deron stated that he didn’t have a problem not playing for the Jazz, but he couldn’t understand why he couldn’t catch on with any NBA team.

So Dee was off to Turkey to play for the Galatasaray at the recommendation of Turk Mehmet Okur.   And so far he’s been playing pretty well there.

And despite knowing that he probably wouldn’t be returning to the Jazz, he still went on the Jr. Jazz tour throughout Utah and surrounding states, dropped a new CD, and participated in Deron’s charity golf tournament.   Couldn’t ask for a nicr guy.  Now if we only could have gotten him married when he was here in Utah.

The only thing lamer than a 10 days of Christmas list is a 10 days of Christmas list that doesn’t get updates daily. So without further ado, ….

On the 7th day of Christmas the Utah Jazz gave to me…

1000 wins

Even though this didn’t happen in 2006, let’s pretend that I blogged about the Jazz last December and I would have written about the 10 days of Christmas, this would have been since that last time.

On December 11th, 2006, Jerry Sloan picked up his 1000th win as a coach, as the Jazz beat the Mavericks. When asked what the win meant to him, in typical Sloan fashion he replied,

Well, I wish we would have hustled out there a little more. I didn’t like how we played defense during that 39 second stretch in the second. We’ll take the win, but I’m not happy with it.

Actually though, he said,

I would not have made it this far in my career without the support of those around me. This 1,000th win is not mine alone, it is due in large part to Larry Miller’s confidence in my ability to coach. Larry has given me an opportunity that no other coach in the league has had in terms of tenure with the Jazz. In addition, having the opportunity to work with such talented coaches as Phil Johnson, Tyrone Corbin, Scott Layden, and the others on my team, makes milestones like this possible.

Sloan should get another 1000 win milestone in the 2008-09 season (that he just signed on for) when he will win 1000 games with one team. And should he walk away after that season, the 09-10 season should start with with the above picture translated to a bronze statue outside of the ESA. What would be great is if it could be fitted with a speaker at the base where you could push some buttons and hear classic Sloan phrases coming from the bench. Of course, you would have to be 18 or be accompanied by an adult to participate.

So that only gives Sloan a couple more years to win a COY and a championship. What would his reaction be in the post-game interview if he ever won that elusive title? Discuss…