The Utah Jazz | as seen by Basketball John

Before some links for today, I just wanted to post a late follow up on the AK pictures from Masha’s blog.  Ross Siler was finally pressured into comment on the “provocative” pictures from the Kirilenko’s New Year’s party.  According to the chaperone, “all of the photos were staged.”  He also said that there were kids running around and that he had brought his mother-on-law to the party.  But as the kiddies on the internet say, “Pics or it didn’t happen.”  That may have all been true, but I’m sure they were all tucked away. 

And if an invitation to next year’s party isn’t a contest on utahjazz.com, I’ll be disappointed.  Wouldn’t a live blog of next year’s party be in order?

And on a related note, the deadspin link was to this site.  It took me down in less than five minutes.  I survived a TrueHoop link, but deadspin showed me what high traffic was.  After a few hours of back and forth with my webhost, I finally got back up.  They wouldn’t unsuspend my account until I had fixed it to not use so much CPU.  But they locked me completely out and I couldn’t fix it.  Anyway, here’s the traffic since it hit Deadspin:

The 14th probably would have been higher if not for that downtime.  Anyway, on to some links on a slow Jazz news day:

• 4%? - Isn’t Ron Paul polling better than that?
• AK and Masha visiting the Huntsman Cancer Institute - It’s amazing how much a visit from a Jazz player can boost the spirits of those that are going through something incredibly tough.  Masha’s rockin’ the
• Kemp > Malone? - The all-90’s team from a Sonics fan
• Lang’s Links - Another All-star ballot.  Is it wrong that I’m hoping Deron gets left off?  I would absolutely love to see him go on a vengeance tour for the second half of the season.
• Harpring’s series of tubes are clear to move internets around again (Reference for those that don’t get it)
• Turkey isn’t the only bird Memo likes
• He didn’t give Korver the “Hard Worker” seal of approval yet, but it looks like Jerry’s got another disciple.
• How Carlos handled Carmani’s situation
• Are Carlos and Deron taking away votes from one another?
• 8>3, Can’t wait until 2/4/08
• Super Sophs

I don’t usually try to rip on writers too much because it’s easy to take something someone has written and try to find things you can tear apart or find contradictions. Second, it usually doesn’t add anything to the article or question.

That said, I think Steve Luhm for the Trib has grumpy old man syndrome. His “Ask the Expert” columns have become condescending and defensive. A side note… Shouldn’t his column be called “Ask Luhmy’s opinion?” It’s like the “Everybody Loves Raymond” title. Ray Romano didn’t like it because it put too much pressure on the show. If you’re claiming to be an expert, you better expect to be challenged on things.

That goes for writing overall. Once you’re out there, you’re out there. You’re going to be scrutinized, whether fair or not.

Anyway, in his latest “expert” column, he gets asked a question about whether AK or Brewer should get some minutes at the PG position. I don’t know if he just didn’t read the email all the way, but here’s the question:

Since Jason Hart has struggled as the backup point guard, could Andrei Kirilenko, Ronnie Brewer or any of the players logjammed at shooting guard and small forward play the point position?

He’s obviously talking about having someone play some backup minutes to Deron because Hart hasn’t been effective this year. Yet here is Steve’s response:

If you are asking whether the Jazz have any player on the roster other than Deron Williams, Jason Hart or Ronnie Price who could play 30 minutes a night at point guard, the answer is an unconditional, “No.”

That’s not what he was asking at all. He was talking about backup minutes. Hart gets about 13 right now. Could some of those go to AK or CJ or Brewer? That’s what he was talking about. But Luhm went off on something else and tried to make the it sound like a ridiculous question.

The other most recent example is from this blog post where he goes after a fan who questioned his complaining about having the press box moved. There are some great responses from the fans there that pretty much sum up my feelings about it. Luhm almost stooped to a personal attack on the guy that made the comment by implying he was some rowdy, drunk fan.

If he’s really writing for the fans though, shouldn’t he be listening to criticism? He should be giving the fans what they want. And I have to agree with them that for the most part, we don’t get any insider info.

I don’t know how much mail Luhm got before the internet became popular and he was a print-only journalist, but now that fans have access like never before, and can send an email in two seconds, he’s bound to get a lot more feedback. But I hope, for his sake, that he starts taking a lot of it in stride and realize how the fans are changing media. And now that he has finally discovered Deadspin, maybe he’ll lighten up.