Less than two weeks after my "unknown hero" Jerry Sloan resigned, I found out that my favorite player in the NBA was traded to the New Jersey Nets via an instant message from a colleague in another city shortly after I got to work at 9 am. All he sent were the words "Holy $h*t" and a link to a National Post article. After reading the headline, I responded back, "That is crazy!" to which he replied, "wow wow wow wow." Exactly.
The first people I mentioned it to were The Grey Nathan and two of my brothers in a 3-way text message. Then I called my mom. Her question in response was, "Does this mean Jerry Sloan is coming back to coach?" Then I texted my wife. Her response made me proud, "What the heck!!! No!! Why did he get traded? Who do they get in place of him? I'm so sad!!" After answering her questions, her next response made me laugh, "I'm sad. He's my fav player. Now I have to learn new names. Sad." I had never realized how tough it must be to be female sports fan, or at least married to a hardcore fan...keeping up with all those new names!
Unlike my absolute shock when Jerry Sloan resigned earlier this month, the news of Deron Williams' being traded only affected me for a few short minutes. Of course I was surprised; EVERYONE was, including D-Will himself. It only took me a few short seconds to realize that I actually wasn't sad. This is my favorite player in the league on my favorite team; how could I not be sad? It boils down to the fact that I had already become accustomed to the idea that he would leave after next season anyway, once his contract expired. It just so happened that he left a year and a half before I expected. Apparently this is what the owner and GM of the Jazz both had in mind as well. Why be like Toronto, Cleveland and Phoenix as of late? Why not try to build for the future instead of keeping our fingers crossed and walk on egg shells for the rest of this season and next?
Is Harris as good as Williams? Of course not. If you'll remember, he was an All-Star not long ago. Who says he can't play like that again? And Favors still has tremendous upside potential according to a lot of experts. Maybe Jerry Slo....err....Tyrone Corbin can bring out the best in him. And 2 first round draft picks?? Both of which have the potential to be fairly high?? Bring it on! A lot of basketball fans think that the Jazz lost everything. A funny thing happend during my lunch hour at work today. We were watching the details of the trade being displayed on the TV screen in the lunch room: "Deron Williams traded for Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, 2 first round draft picks and $3 million." From his perspective, he actually thought the Jazz got the better end of the deal. "All that for ONE guy??"
I know the Jazz aren't better off today than they were yesterday but they're certainly better off than they would have been, come the summer of 2012. As I heard it said by one TV personality, "If you had told any Jazz fan 4 months ago that today both D-Will and Jerry Sloan would be gone, they would have jumped off a bridge." And he was right. But here I stand, nowhere near a bridge, with a more certain outlook for the Jazz' future than I have had in years.
Good luck Deron. We'll miss your hair.
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| This was the funniest picture of D-Will that I could find on the 'net |
I don't know why I feel this way, nor do I like the fact that I feel this way, but I secretly hope that D-Will will not succeed in New Jersey. If he fails, then somehow that means the Jazz "won," or got the better deal, in this trade. It's mean, and I hate saying that about a guy who I've absolutely loved for the past few years.
ReplyDeleteI guiltily rejoiced as I saw the Nets lose to the Spurs tonight by 10 points, while the Jazz won, and saw Williams only score 14 points (still pretty good, but nothing compared to his 20+ per game in Utah), although his 12 assists were impressive. My "favorite" stat though....his +/- rating was -14; the second lowest in the game. I hate this feeling....
Welcome to the club. I loved Bosh in Toronto, but now I hate him. He's one of my least favorite players. I want everything bad to happen to him (in basketball, not in life). Yeah I hated how he left, with all the self-promotion and the thinking he's more important than he is. But I think, like t-wah, that it's more about his not being there anymore. These guys have little pieces of our hearts (as lame as that sounds) and when they don't do with them what we want or hope, it hurts. It hurts more than we expect or realize. So I think the natural thing to do is hope for the worst for them. It's a nasty instinct, but I think it IS an instinct. It's weird how morals can get involved in being a sports fan (...maybe I'll write an article about that some day). But maybe it would be best to overcome that natural urge and cheer for these dudes wherever they go. But at the same time, we don't want to do that. It doesn't feel good. As if I want Bosh to be awesome in Miami... That would suck. But I would probably be a better person if that's what I did want.
ReplyDeleteIt totally doesn't make sense, how we treat these guys in our minds. We'll never know them. They're real people. But it's like they're living out some fantasy world that we vicariously participate in. Being a sports fan isn't just fun. I feel like it's a whole other realm of life. Of course that would sound extreme to a non-sports fan, but anyone who reads this will probably know what I mean. Sometimes I feel like I put too much into the sports universe, and sometimes that's probably true. But I don't think caring about these kinds of things is a waste of time. It's only dangerous when it gets in the way of more real and more important things, I guess.
But I really liked both articles about the new era of the Jazz. Especially the Jerry Sloan one. Very well-written and I could feel what it was like to care as much as you did. I think that's why no one has replied. We don't know what it's like, but we like hearing about it. It means more to you than anyone else (on the Pads) so we can't even really touch it. But I loved it.
So who was the person who sent you the original text? Wives are the best! Especially when they try to hard to be interested in what we're interested in even though they aren't. Great post. I think I would also be extremely interested in a post by The Grey Nathan about how morals can get involved in being a sports fan.
ReplyDeleteMy co-worker was Andrew Poetker. He works at a branch in Calgary but used to work at mine. He's a Suns fan so he loves the Jazz falling apart so the Suns can make a playoff run.
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