TGRTNS Podcast

Hey folks, we're introducing the tgrtns podcast, available here (Pt. 1) and here (Pt. 2). This week we discuss the trade deadline, coach of the year, Blake Griffin, NBA punks, and feature the great Carlos Boozer. We're hoping to make it a weekly thing. So stay tuned and enjoy.

Careful, now...

As Jazz fans, we are all devastated to see Deron go. We have watched him grow and flourish. He has gone from absurdly underrated to league-wide appreciation under our watchful eyes. And now he is gone. It is too bad, but as a fan and as a Utah native, I will still cheer for the Jazz. To me, the team is not constructed of any number of specific players or coaches, but rather as a collection of those two as well as fans, memories, perceptions, and emotions. No removal of any one piece or of any combination of pieces changes that meaning, which spans across multiple dimensions and is manifested in different materials.

One concern I have is the backlash against Williams. Was he frustrating at times? Certainly. Was he uncomfortably close to the Sloan retirement? Yes. He was also, however, a Jazz player and a champion at heart. He had a great relationship with fans, tried hard, was incredibly competitive, and did not mix with national media. What is more Jazz than that? Let us remember the good times and not blame him for a trade that he did not ask for. Furthermore, I do not like the tone of many rebukes aimed at Deron. From slcdunk.com, the premier Jazz blog for content, there have been a number of posts that discuss putting Deron in his place, demanding that he respect the front office and the state of Utah and so forth. These paint him as some LeBron character, who held the franchise hostage. That is absurd and revisionist. It is a convenient narrative to paint over a painful reality. Kevin O'Connor is actually very mediocre. He drafts horribly in first rounds, and drafting is the only thing that has made the Jazz good in the past. Furthermore, he does not take responsibility in interviews when the team plays poorly and instead blames coaching and player effort. None of this is very Jazz like. It was his decision to shop Deron and it was he who called Miller to push the trade. So please leave Deron out of it.

I also will not stand for what I consider to be racial undertones throughout this process. Forcing Deron to show respect to the state and to respect a front office (one that has not earned any respect from my perspective) and other quips of this nature seem to me echoes of an earlier and uglier time in Jazz history in which white players were loved for their hard work, loyalty, team spirit, and dedication, and black players were begrudgingly accepted due to their natural basketball talents. LeBron's backlash was deserved to some extent, but not the racial slurs that people threw at him via twitter. Deron's trade was neither self-initiated, even if that narrative is more comfortable to deal with, nor was it due to some characteristics in which he did not show proper respect to the state or to management. It was an unfortunate mismanagement that led us here and let us remember history as it actually happened.

Deron Williams Trade: What Exactly Am I Rooting For?

This Deron Williams trade left me even more shell shocked than Sloan's retirement. I spent the day avoiding thinking about it, trying alternatively to convince myself of and talk myself out of the notion that it was a prank, and listening to break up music. I spoke to a few friends about it and they essentially said the same thing. This is what sports is all about. You're being tested. They weren't going to win a championship anyway. And, the most common refrain, you have to stay loyal to the team.

At the start of this season things were exciting for us Jazz fans. A lot of the team had left during trades and free agency, and we had signed a lot of new players. This season was wide open. We were probably going to be worse than we had been, but maybe we would be as good, and there was a slim chance we would be better. Things started well. Then we hit a wall. Our team slumped. And slumped and slumped. Although I made excuses for a while, it became apparent to me that this team was just no good. At least we still had Jerry Sloan and Deron Williams, though. Then Sloan quit. This was distressing, but it had to come. At some point, the guy was just going to give out. And it just happened this year.

But trading Williams was terrible, terrible news. The Utah Jazz were a team with one amazing player, a top ten player who was arguably the best at his position -- something that is very, very hard to come by -- and a bunch of others below league replacement. That wasn't fated, however. The mediocre cast that surrounded Williams was the product of a number of bad decisions made by our General Manager Kevin O'Connor. While he probably could never save Boozer, he could have tried to trade him two years ago when it became obvious he was leaving in free agency. He could have avoided giving away Eric Manor and Ronnie Brewer, or if he had to give them away, he could have tried to pair them with Kirilenko's bloated contract, so as to free up some cap space. He could have made an effort to keep Korver and Matthews, but he didn't. He didn't do any of those things. And when things blew up, he tried to rebuild on the fly. And when that failed, Williams and Sloan both fell on the sword for him.

There is now very little that connects the Utah Jazz as it's currently constituted with the team I rooted for last year, or as a child. The only major connecting element to what came before and what currently exists are the General Manager and the Owner (even here, the beloved Larry H. Miller is gone). Everything has changed. The coaching staff is different. The players are different. Even the uniforms and team logo are different. Kevin O'Connor and Greg Miller are the only connecting elements. One of them can't do his job. The other called Deron Williams after the story had already leaked to ESPN to inform him that he wouldn't be playing for the team any more. He didn't ask for his input. He didn't give him any warning. He just told him to pack his stuff. That phone call lasted 30 seconds. I realize I'm not privy to what went on behind closed doors and that Williams very well might have left anyway. But none of that excuses that kind of behavior. That is cold blooded and cruel. Worse than what LeBron did to Cleveland.

Rooting for the Jazz boils down to rooting for Miller and O'Connor, as they are the only two Jazzmen (with minor exceptions) who have any kind of established identities as Jazzmen. One is incompetent at his job. The other ruthless, or, best case scenario, an unfeeling buffoon. Why should I root for them? Why should I root for this team?

ESPN's Version of Williams' Part In Sloan's Resignation

I've read enough stories to have a pretty good sense of what happened between Sloan and the Jazz. He clashed a lot with Williams, they had a rocky relationship, and it got to the point where it was no longer worth it for him. You could say that the whole ordeal was Williams' fault, sort of. But what you can't say is that Williams forced Sloan out by going to the management. That is, unless you're ESPN. If you're ESPN you can conjecture about that in multiple stories, none of which site a source in Utah (though they may find sources who say things like, "99% of the players were happy," while an indictment of Williams, it doesn't follow from that source that Williams went to management and said, "Him or me"). Yet nevertheless, columnist after columnist has taken to the website and the idiot box to offer this conjecture. Last night they printed some e-mails from Jazz fans that threaten Williams with being booed and the like. Why this total disregard for the truth (or at the very best, wild, damaging speculation)? Because it makes good copy. As I think they discovered with the LBJ situation, uppity sports star doesn't know his place, is a headline everybody can get behind (did he push Spoelstra, did he wait outside of Spoelstra's house with a knife? we have no reason to think so, but what if he did?). Pretty ridiculous and disgusting. Pretty stupid, too. There's a reason sport has a reputation as, how shall I put this, less than brilliant. Can you imagine this sort of thing in the New York Times? Did Obama help plan the crackdown on Egyptian protesters? A source close to the White House said, "The administration is upset about what's happening in Egypt," so we have proof. Sloan leaving is a sad event made pathetic by this bullshit. "Reporting" pure conjecture is not really reporting. Gleefully choosing the most dramatic story for its drama is not news work, its gossip. I thought sports writers got into the game because of their love of athleticism, doubtless that's true for many. But some just couldn't get jobs at the National Enquirer.

On Jerry Sloan's Retirement: The End of an Era

It's weird to write this post. In a sense, I'm grieving. But it's far different from real grief. The stakes are a lot less high, the feelings concern a man I've never met personally, and my life will not be affected too much, one way or the other. I know all that intellectually, but it's still hard to escape the feeling that we lost something today. Not just us Jazz fans, not just followers of the association, or even sports fans in general, but Americans. Jerry Sloan really did represent that Hoosiers attitude. The belief that if you just tried hard, learned how to play basketball right, and respected the game, you could accomplish anything. He really was a no bullshit guy. He never got lauded all that much in the media, never coached an all star game, never won coach of the year, or an nba title. And he didn't create any really good basketball innovations. He kept coaching the same offense, season after season, decade after decade. That is, however, exactly what is so wonderful about him. He kept the Utah Jazz up to a standard. His greatest accomplishment, I think, is that the Jazz did not plummet off the face of the earth after Stockton and Malone retired. He was able, almost single handedly, to rebuild the franchise and have them back in the playoffs in no time. Because of all that consistency the Utah Jazz produced a very specific type of player that is highly uncommon in professional sports today. That player is the no nonsense guy. The guy who hustles hard and tries hard on every play, who doesn't expect everything to be given to him, who works at it every day, and does so modestly. These guys are scrappers, pushers, but not fighters. They are the antithesis of what loud drunks disparaging the NBA claim that all basketball players are. They are not in it for the money. They do not demand to take the last shot. Paul Millsap is a player like that. So is Karl Malone. So are countless other guys. Our organization has been stocked with guys like that for decades. They're Utah Jazz players. They're Jerry Sloan players.

Jerry Sloan represents a nearly lost world, just barely visible from where we stand today. A world in which star athletes and third string guys are treated the same. Where you get the credit if you do your job, and you take the blame when you don't. He feels like a relic from the Harry Truman era, where the buck stopped with someone. Indeed, Sloan often took the blame in press conferences insisting that, as coach, if the team didn't win, he was to blame. He also did those press conferences next to a plastic garbage can, a good midwestern kid, he was unafraid of a little trash. He also said things that sounded like they could come out of a sports movie, here's some highlights from his hoopedia.com article:

"These guys have been criticized the last few years for not getting to where we’re going, but I’ve always said that the most important thing in sports is to keep trying. Let this be an example of what it means to say it’s never over." -- After advancing to the finals

"Size doesn't make any difference; heart is what makes a difference."

He'd also get after guys relentlessly and say things like this (from the same source):

"I don't care if he's 19 or 30. If he's going to be on the floor in the NBA, he's got to be able to step up and get after it. We can't put diapers on him one night, and a jockstrap the next night. It's just the way it is." -- on CJ Miles' inconsistency

That kind of John Wayne grit is really beautiful. There's a sense in which it's old fashioned, conservative, and anti-intellectual. But there's something so honest and beautiful about Sloan talking about heart that it transcends all the cliches. That's what we lose with Sloan, we're done with the last of the real feelings. From here on out sport will be all self-aware and ironic. Its members must, like everybody else, move into the twenty first century. And some of that is good. The silver lining of Sloan leaving is that the Utah Jazz, an organization that ten years ago seemed to go out of its way to draft white players over better black ones, now has an African American for a head coach. That makes me really proud and happy for the team. And there's an extent to which the Sloan ideals are still alive. Greg Popavich and the Spurs play no nonsense basketball. Tough minded basketball. Utah Jazz basketball. Unfortunately, I can't say whether or not the team in Salt Like City will. I don't know Ty Corbin really well, I'm rooting for him, but I'll miss Sloan. Watching the Utah Jazz recently has been exactly the same as it always was throughout my life. I've consistently rooted for the same team, with the same ethos, while things have changed around me. Iverson came and went, and the Jazz were still the Jazz. So did Stephon Marbury. Everyone in the league got twitter accounts, but the Jazz were still the Jazz. LeBron had his Deciding moment; he finally and fatally bought into his own hype, but nothing changed in Utah*. The Jazz were still the Jazz. That's all over now. Jerry Sloan was the Utah Jazz. Like it or not, whatever comes next is something none of us have ever seen.



* Some people, especially at espn.com, are saying that this was all Williams' doing. They claim that Williams threatened O'Connor with his leaving if Jerry didn't get out. Him or me, they speculate he said. I'm not sure what to make of the truth of this rumor. If it is true, what a shame. I thought better of Williams. If that is the truth I blame LeBron for permanently changing the league and giving control to the players. It's not that he intended for that to happen. The problem with LeBron James isn't that he signed with a new team, countless players did that in the past, even those who were the best of the age. No, the problem was that everyone was paying attention to him, everyone was hyperfocused on what he would do in free agency. It was like the obsession with balloon boy, just a phase that swept over America. Only when LeBron spoke, many millions tuned in. He had everyone's attention and he believed he deserved everyone's attention. He used that attention to build a player friendly super team in Miami. Since everyone watched, everyone came to the same realization at once: Wait a second, the super stars are in charge. This is a genie that can't be put back in its bottle. It's as if everyone in the country suddenly realized they could cheat on their taxes and proceeded to do so. Why show loyalty to a team that is just using you for your skills? Why pay my hard earned money to the government? Why should we strive to engage our political opponents honestly? Why not just say they hate the country, it's far easier? Indeed it makes sense not to follow conventions, as not following them gives you an edge. Only breaking the rules has its consequences. If we don't pay taxes, roads can't be built. If players always leave, teams can't exist, franchises mean nothing, and consistency is gone. If Williams killed Sloan's career, then the real culprit is LeBron, the quintessential 21st century basketball star. I wish James the best, but his rise necessitates the fall of those who came before him. We are now in LeBron James' America, which will be a great country in many ways. It will never again, however, be Sloan's America. The values he stood for up until last night are nearly all gone.

@KingJames LeBron James

Man its gonna be crazy and weird seeing anyone besides Jerry Sloan walking the sidelines for the Utah Jazz! Jerry ... http://tmi.me/6Czry

The Unasked Phil Jackson Question

We here at True Greatness have long assumed that Phil Jackson is a master spinner of basketball reporters, fans, players, managers, refs, and even other coaches (although his ability to "spin" everyone is painfully obvious to anyone who has ever watched any politician and his actual PR skills are around the Christine O'Donnell, Sharon Angle level of sophistication). He says Durant gets a lot of foul calls he doesn't deserve right before the Lakers play the Thunder (he's fined but the refs call less fouls than they might of). He says Steve Nash carries the basketball before the Lakers play the Suns (this didn't necessarily change anything, but it could have gotten into Nash's head or the heads of the refs; whatever the effect, the Lakers won the series). These tactics don't always work, but they frequently do. And everyone else in the basketball world, commentators and the members of other teams alike, seems to agree with us, or go even further, viewing him as a sorcerer; someone who can magically and mysteriously bend reality in the Lakers' favor. While the rest of us may notice his magical abilities, we are powerless to stop them. Everything he does seems to feed into the elusive notion of genius. If it seems a little weird that he makes players perform zen meditations before games, or gives his dudes a book to read that will spark their basketball understanding, well... Einstein wore the same suit every day. So are the bizarre trappings of Genius and you can't argue with the man's results.

There is, however, another interpretation of Phil Jackson's success. It's roughly analogous to the way that many governors in the late nineties were considered by the establishment to be total bureaucratic wiz-kids and brilliant administrators. What made these governors so brilliant? They were able, through what many conjectured to be their brilliant understanding of government and budgeting, to cut taxes and raise spending. Of course, in retrospect it's obvious that what allowed these governors to do these things was the rising economic tide of the nineties which increased capital so much (and by extension government revenue) that some of it could be given back and there would still be more to spend than there had been a few years before. These governors, however, were not only lauded, they actually began to believe the hype. Thinking themselves some of the best and brightest ever to serve in public office.

One could argue that the same thing has happened with Jackson. A man who has been given unprecedented wealth (instead of the internet boom, his involves the luck in having MJ, Kobe, Shaq, Gasol, and Pippen, not to mention several other ridiculously amazing players, on his team) and has begun to think, as all inheritors of fortunes inevitably must, that he is uniquely deserving of all those assets. Under this interpretation, Jackson is less a genius with a fealty to Zen, then a man who is smugly using whatever random facts apply to him to justify his unbelievable good luck. A man who ex post facto explains his record number of titles to himself thusly:

P1: I'm a great coach, but what sets me apart from other coaches?
P2: Obviously, Zen. None of those idiots are into that.
C: Therefore all my players should learn Zen meditation, which is by definition a great coaching technique.

Under this interpretation Jackson is emphatically not a genius and, moreover, has become, due to his good fortune, a buffoon. An idiot whose vision has been so distorted by his blessings that he can not help but see his own brilliance wherever he looks.

I'm not sure which of these two narratives to adhere to. I would guess the truth lies somewhere in the middle. When I read things like this, however, I get the feeling that the buffoon argument gained another data point.

"If we weren't always looking to benefit our team, we wouldn't be doing our business," Jackson said after shootaround Tuesday afternoon in preparation for a game against the Rockets. "So, it was a good calling card that Mitch threw out there."

When asked to clarify what he meant by the phrase "calling card," Jackson said, "The door's open for business."

Open for business? That sounds like the kind of smug, unintelligent statement Sarah Palin would make (see what I'm saying about comparable political figures?). It sounds like Jackson not only didn't understand the reporter, but dismissed him as if he were a total idiot. Those things, dismissal of your interlocutor's intelligence while simultaneously displaying how weak your own is, sure seem like the markings of a buffoon to me.

Before I go, I'd like to add another thing I've long considered strange. On the book reading list I linked to above, he told Gasol to read 2666, a challenging book about European intellectualism, the simultaneous interconnectiveness and distance between people, unsolved murders in Mexico, journalism, insanity, and an almost un-listable number of other things. It's a big, dense book filled with good literary themes and I wouldn't disparage the smarts of anyone who fully grappled with it. But one has to wonder, what does it have to do with Gasol? How exactly will reading this help Gasol's basketball game? Are global interconnectedness and questions of modern literary authorship and critique areas that interest Gasol? Would hearing Bolano's take on these topics help Gasol offensively toughen up against Garnett? Or did he just give it to him because both Bolano and Gasol lived in Spain and 2666 was celebrated that year by the literary world? Did the Zen master even read it himself? Just asking.