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.

Hate Up

Deron Williams told the press, “I hate the Lakers. They’re so good. I hate them because they win all the time. They’re a tough team. … We definitely talk about it. It’s not a secret. We hate the Lakers.”

I guess that's better than where we were a couple of years ago, but it doesn't leave me generally inspired. It strikes me as the kind of desperate, surrendering hate of a crazed populous movement whose members know they're about to loose at the polls. Or the kind of hate you might have for a guy who rudely pushes past you at a bar but could clearly kick your ass. You would love to yell at him and demand he develop some manners and apologize, but are unfortunately bound by the Nietzchean laws of physical morals: he who controls physical pain controls moral pleasure. -- the best revenge, they say, is living well. But I'll take this guy and his ability to inflict a Bad News Bear like ending in which Kobe at least gets knocked the fuck down and everyone runs off waving their middle fingers.