The Bitter Pill 5: #TankNote Backfires

It's a tough life, being a Utah Jazz fan. The past four or five years have been particularly miserable, from Rudy Gobert's contraction of coronavirus shutting down the NBA to the outright implosion of our roster (resulting in the trades of Gobert to Minnesota and Donovan Mitchell to Cleveland). The Jazz have dwelt in the absolute basement of the NBA standings for some time now, with Utah's CEO Danny Ainge thinking that the best path forward is to trade away our best players and amass a truly insane amount of second round draft picks. Needless to say, watching the Jazz get continually pummeled by 30 points and lost almost every night has not been fun. In fact, for all intents and purposes, I've stopped watching.

Stopped watching, I say, to the extent that my four-year-old firstborn son (named Stockton) has occasionally thought that the Utah Jazz were a hockey team.

Well, the Jazz finally did it this year. We finally came out on top... or bottom, as it were - winners of the ludicrous "tank-a-thon" race to the worst record in the league. Allegedly, this earned the Jazz the highest odds to get the number one pick in the upcoming 2025 draft. The odds, they said, were a 14% chance that the Jazz would get the best pick. But I had to wonder... isn't that just a nice way of saying that there was an 86% chance that we wouldn't get the number one pick? I mean, look at what happened to the Detroit Pistons last year: they were almost historically bad, then fell all the way to the fifth pick. The worst-case scenario for the Jazz before tonight's lottery would also have resulted in sliding all the way down to five, so, naturally, that's where I assumed that Utah would land. I tried to convince myself that I was just being a pessimist... but only time would tell.

I'll cut to the chase. We fell to five. Worst-case scenario. I KNEW IT.

(Also, side note - please, someone, explain this to me: how on earth does it make sense that the Jazz had a 47% chance of getting the fifth pick in the first place? Like, just flip a coin and we'll see if we're #5? That makes zero sense to me. Shouldn't those odds basically be inverted, almost? Of course we got the fifth pick! So dumb.)

Now, another one of the many things that are so stupid about this is that the three teams who ended up in the top three had no business being there.

• Philadelphia is a perennial Eastern Conference playoff contender that had an unusually bad year. They had less than an 11% chance of getting the third pick. Who are we to doubt "The Process" that resulted in drafting Joel Embiid at number 3 in 2014, Jahlil Okafor (lol) with the third pick in 2015, and Ben Simmons (lol) with the number one pick in 2016? Haven't they been rewarded enough??
• San Antonio, who just won the lottery two years ago and has already been the center of some NBA conspiracy theories (like getting the number one pick to select Tim Duncan after their hall of fame center David Robinson got hurt), had a 6% chance of getting the second pick this year. Perhaps, this was one final gift to the franchise, after their long-tenured coach Gregg Popovich announced his retirement a few days ago.
• And Dallas, who made the play-in tournament and barely missed the actual playoffs this season, had a 1.8% chance of getting the number one pick.

What makes this even worse and much more suspicious is that Dallas just made one of the worst trades in the history of professional sports three months ago, when they dealt likely future hall of famer Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for the absurdly injury-prone center Anthony Davis (who promptly injured himself several times after becoming a Maverick). Unsurprisingly, social media and basketball fans at large mocked Dallas for the transaction, and Mavericks fans serenaded their home team with chants of "Fire Nico" (Harrison, the Dallas general manager) chants just four seconds into the first game of their post-Doncic era.

Could this be the most recent instance of the NBA rewarding a team and fan base that notoriously lost a megastar? LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers with his infamous "Decision" press conference in 2010, then Cleveland got the number one pick three out of the next four years. (Honestly, I forgot how egregious that was. Insane!)

Another eyebrow-raising draft lottery was in 2019, when the New Orleans Pelicans got the top pick after the aforementioned Anthony Davis publicly demanded a trade (and was ultimately traded to Los Angeles, where he played until being traded for Doncic). The Pelicans would go on to select the draft's prospect, Zion Williamson, that summer.

Of course, the most popular theory that points to the draft lottery being rigged is the 1985 NBA draft, which brought Georgetown center Patrick Ewing to the New York Knicks, one of the biggest media markets in the league. Similarly, one could argue that Dallas sending Luka to Los Angeles (another of the league's hottest destinations) then being rewarded with the top pick in the subsequent draft could have been a conspiracy.

But another layer to this whole fiasco that hurts for Jazz fans is that Utah facilitated the trade that allowed the Luka-AD trade to happen in the first place! And, on top of that, Danny Ainge claims that he wasn't even aware that he was helping the Lakers! DANNY! WHAT WERE YOU DOING??

If nothing else, tonight's draft lottery disaster should prove that tanking doesn't work. Here was an interesting stat tweeted out by ESPN's Field Yates:

I have never been a proponent of teams losing on purpose, nor do I think that teams should be rewarded for (intentionally) playing badly... but that's just how the NBA is set up. Tanking is incentivized, unlike any other professional sport, and I absolutely hate it. But, if those are the ground rules, if that's the way this world works, and if the Jazz really went to all that effort to claim the worst record, why couldn't it have just worked ONE TIME??

Unfortunately (and extremely predictably), the Jazz were as unlucky as possible tonight, and it will almost certainly result in another "rebuilding" (AKA "tanking") season in 2025. We're really going to try to do this all over again next year. I feel so bad for the Jazz players. It can't be fun to be a part of this process, and it seems as though there is no end in sight. Ugh.

I, for one, have no interest in that at all.

Go Utah Hockey Club Mammoth!

*****

If you've got nothing else going on right now and feel like reading about some of my other most painful sports memories, consider checking out these old posts:

• Utah Jazz, 2021 - The Bitter Pill 4: Another Playoff Choke
• Utah Utes and New Orleans Saints, 2019 - The Bitter Pill 3: The Pass Interference Special
• Utah Jazz, 2016 - Another Bitter Pill: Kobe drops 60 against the Jazz
• Texas Rangers, 2012-13, 2015; Chicago Cubs, 2003; New Orleans Saints, 2010; Utah Utes, 2010; Utah Jazz, 1996-98; WCW Bash at the Beach, 1996 - The Bitter Pill: My worst sports memories

All right, somebody take away my technology. I've had enough for the day. I apologize profusely to my family for being a giant, breathing waste of space since 5:00 PM this evening. I promise, I'll make up for it tomorrow.

But the pain will last a lifetime. The pain will never fade. At least I saw it coming.

The Bitter Pill 4: Another Playoff Choke

It's a well-documented fact that I am cursed as a sports fan. Cursed as a human, really, because I discovered at a very young age that I like sports. And sports end in disappointment 99 percent of the time. In my 34 years of life, sports teams for which I have an active rooting interest have won championships two times:

• 2009 New Orleans Saints
• 2019 Washington Nationals

Oh, and then there was Real Salt Lake, which won the Major League Soccer Cup in 2009, and although that's my local soccer team, I wouldn't classify myself as an actual fan because I rarely watch them play.

The University of Utah beat Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl, but I didn't start attending The U until that fall, so I wasn't technically a student at that point.

I became a fan of the Texas Rangers the year after they lost in two consecutive World Series, and they haven't come close to making it back any time since then, 10 years ago. However, Rougned Odor landed a really solid punch on Jose Bautista in 2016, which was cool.

I stopped cheering for the Chicago Cubs after following them for my entire childhood about two or three years before they finally won a World Series. It got to a point when I just couldn't handle all the losing anymore.

Of course, there are my beloved Utah Jazz, which lost to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in back-to-back NBA championships, but that's another story for another time.

"This Could Be the Year"

This year, I really thought the Jazz had a chance to go all the way. I really, truly did. There was a stretch of the season where we won, like, 23 straight home games, I think, and we were just blowing fools out by 20 points every night. It was so much fun to watch. Honestly, if the Jazz didn't go up by 20 at some point in the game, it was almost disappointing to me. I remember that there was a point in time - I think it was February 25 or something? - where I actually had the thought, "This could be the year."

Yikes. For the first time in my life, I actually thought those words.

But can you blame me? The Jazz were the best team in the National Basketball Association for nearly the entire 2020-21 season, finishing with the outright best record in the league for the first time in franchise history. This earned them the #1 seed for the playoffs and home court advantage throughout.

There was some speculation and discussion about whether the Jazz would keep playing hard through the end of the season to clinch that top seed - and whether they even should. It sometimes becomes a controversial strategy for teams to "tank" (intentionally lose games) to position themselves in a favorable postseason matchup, sometimes to the ire of basketball fans. Such was not the case for this year's Utah Jazz; I was proud to see that we kept fighting to the very end, securing the best record by a half game over the Phoenix Suns.

I thought, if nothing else, we could hang our proverbial hat on the fact that we were, statistically, the best team in the league this year. We played really well all season - despite nagging injuries to several key players - had three All-Stars for the first time since the 1980s, and ultimately had a Coach of the Year finalist in Quin Snyder; two finalists for Sixth Man of the Year, Joe Ingles and eventual winner Jordan Clarkson; and the now-three-time Defensive Player of the Year, Rudy Gobert. Without a doubt, this regular season was one for the record books. And it felt good. Really good.

The Injury Bug Strikes... But Would it Even Matter?

One of the few major concerns, heading into the playoffs, were injuries to the Jazz's two most important offensive players: Donovan Mitchell, who missed the last 16 games of the regular season due to ankle pain; and Mike Conley, whose recurring hamstring soreness kept him in and out of action throughout some stretches of the regular season and forced him to miss Game 1 of the first round, against his former team, the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Jazz would go on to lose Game 1 against Memphis, at home, which was quite disconcerting. In my mind, Memphis was a great matchup for the Jazz; we beat them three times in a six-day span during the regular season (no exaggeration), but my prediction of a four-game sweep in the first round did not come to pass..

But Conley returned for Game 2, and the Jazz beat Memphis four straight times, eliminating the Grizzlies in five games. Because that matchup ended earlier than other Western Conference series, the Jazz were forced to wait six days for the winner of the Clippers-Mavericks series. Ultimately, the nationally acclaimed Los Angeles Clippers moved on, which didn't scare me at all. The talking heads on sports radio love teams from big markets like L.A. and always favor them in the postseason, so their words meant nothing to me.

Unlike the Jazz, the Clippers tanked their final few games of the regular season - most likely to avoid having to play their rivals, the Lakers, in the first round - and it took them a full seven-game series to squeak past the Dallas. Well, the Jazz were clearly a better team than the Mavericks in the regular season, so I figured the Jazz would win the second round series convincingly, in five or six games, and move on to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2009.

Meanwhile, LeBron James' Los Angeles Clippers got ousted in the first round by the 2-seed Phoenix Suns, which was hilarious, and the Golden State Warriors didn't even make the playoffs this season, so things were looking really good for the Jazz. Certainly, a Utah/Phoenix showdown in the Western Conference Finals was imminent.

The Jazz won the first two games against the Clippers, thanks to some incredible offensive performances by Donovan Mitchell and a Game 1-winning block by Rudy Gobert. What was better? The Jazz had done it without Mike Conley even lacing up his high-tops. The hamstring injury keep him sidelined for the first two games and, thankfully, it didn't hurt us. I did get a bit concerned, though, when Paul George collided with Donovan with seven seconds left in a game that was already out of reach for the Clippers. The game was all but over, yet there was our superstar, writing on the ground in pain. Donovan went down hard and looked like his ankle was really bothering him. However, he'd have a couple days to rest up and we'd be all right. Tired bodies notwithstanding, we were up 2-0 and things were looking good.

With injuries piling up for the remaining teams around the league, if we could just get our guys back up to full strength, we'd have an amazing chance at making a run to the Finals, and our best shot, arguably, ever to actually win it. "Rest up, boys," I pleaded, "and take care of business."

There Was No Way the Clippers Would Beat Us... Right??

Two games in, I was very excited. All I wanted was a split of the next two games in Los Angeles, and the Jazz would finish it off in five games, I told myself. There was no way the Clippers would beat this Jazz team four times out of the next five games. Not a chance.

The series shifted to Hollywood, and the Jazz got thumped in Game 3. It was ok, I thought. In fact, I wasn't even stressed at all! Just win Game 4 and bring it back home to close it out. Easy.

Game 4 was ugly. Conley remained out due to injury, and the Jazz just couldn't figure it out. The series came back to Utah, tied 2-2. The Jazz came out on fire in the first half. Bojan Bogdonavic seemingly could not miss. The Jazz shot upwards of 60 percent from the field in the first 24 minutes. But we went into halftime with a measly five-point lead. Shooting the way we did, you would have thought we'd be up by double digits, at least. Coming back out in the second half, it was like we forgot how to put the ball in the hoop. The Clippers kept pouring on the offense and the Jazz couldn't get any stops. We lost Game 5 in front of our notoriously loud home crowd and would have to head back to California for Game 6 with our backs against the wall.

Spoiler: Game 6 was very similar to Game 5. The Jazz came out blistering hot. I even tweeted, "The Jazz are not messing around." We built a 25-point lead at one point. It was glorious. "Stomp the throat," I texted my family. Just keep the pedal to the metal and bring it back home for Game 7. In the second half, however, the Jazz made some very interesting defensive decisions. And when I say that, I mean that we, for some dang reason, chose to let a Clippers player stand wide open in the corner on every single play. It's ok to do that sometimes if the guy you're leaving open can't shoot. But guess what? The Clippers COULD. NOT. MISS. They should have called me up and put me in because I totally would have stood in that corner with my hands up. That's more than anybody on the court was doing!

The villain this time around was not Michael Jordan. It wasn't even Denver Nuggets stars Jamal Murray or Nikola Jokic, like it was last season WHEN THE JAZZ BLEW A 3-1 LEAD. I DIDN'T EVEN BLOG ABOUT THAT ONE! No, no. It was some dude named Terance Mann. Like, I honestly didn't even know who this guy was a couple weeks ago. But we left him open time and time and time and time and time again and he lit us up for a career high 39 points. That's more points than he ever even scored in a college game. Now, the Jazz are notorious for letting random no-name players get career highs, but in an elimination game with our season - and possibly an NBA championship - on the line?!? Terance Mann?? He only missed six shots in the entire game, and he was shooting a lot. That's an incredible night, no matter who you are. And we let him absolutely wreck us.

Needless to say, the Jazz lost their fourth straight game to these Clippers -- a game in which their best player, Kawhi Leonard, did not even play, mind you! -- and we got bounced from the playoffs.

Let this sink in: we played our butts off in the regular season got beaten in the second round by a team that tanked, heading into the playoffs. Ugh. So dumb.

Also frustrating: we were back, somewhat, at full strength for Game 6, in the sense that Mike and Donovan were both playing, but you could tell that Mike was kind of just going through the motions (bless him for even trying), and Donovan looked like he was maybe 70 or 80 percent healthy at best for the final two or three games of the series.

And we lost to a team led by freaking Paul George (who will go down as the second most overrated first-ballot Hall of Famer of all time, next to Tracy McGrady) and some dude named Terance Mann, who won't even be in the league anymore in three years. Mark my words on that one. Why. Why does this happen.

Editor's note: Terance Mann had a whopping 9 points in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.

I was basically furious, but I held it together because this is just the kind of thing that the Jazz do, every single year. I even predicted it on two separate occasions, earlier that day. "Double-digit Jazz loss." I knew it was going to happen, and then it did.

Oh, What Could Have Been...

Of all the years for us to choke, why did it have to be this year? No LeBron, no Steph Curry, home court advantage all the way... This was our year! After all the bull crap we had to go through when Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 last season, resulting in the complete shut-down of sports in North America... In a year where a flock of birds hit the team's charter plane and caused them to make an emergency landing... In a year where LeBron and Kevin Durant openly mocked the Utah Jazz during the selection of All-Star teams... Man, there should have been such an incredible "30 For 30" documentary about this team. "The Team of Destiny," they would have called us. The team that defied all odds and all the hate and disbelief from the national media. That should have been us. That should have been this year. The path was practically paved in gold.

Phoenix would have been tough, but the league ruled Chris Paul out for (so far) at least Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals for COVID-19 health and safety protocols, and the Suns without CP3 did not worry me. The only two teams I really didn't want to face late in the playoffs were Philadelphia and Brooklyn, both of which were eliminated in the Eastern Conference within days of the Jazz losing. If we could have made it to the championship, we would have gone up against either Milwaukee or Atlanta (the two teams currently facing off in the Eastern Conference Finals). Man, that would have been perfect. Could have been Jazz in five. Sickening. Soul-shattering for lifelong fans like me.

It's just so frustrating to spend all season watching the games - and I try not to miss many games, if we're playing well, which we were! - and to pour in countless hours of my attention, then have them rip my stupid heart out and stomp on it over and over again.

Why didn't the Jazz make the appropriate defensive adjustments in the second half of those second-round games? How could they play so well in the first two quarters, then just abruptly stop making threes? Why couldn't the injuries to our star players have come at the beginning of the season, not at the end of it? Couldn't we channel that mid-season magic one more time and run a string of eight or 10 consecutive home victories? Is any of that too much to ask?

Pain. It's just... pain.

As my friend Scott Aylett and I discussed after the abrupt end to the Jazz's season, there are a million things that would be more satisfying than to get emotionally invested in sports ever again. We could stare at the wall and watch paint dry. We could go kick some dirt around for 15 minutes, which could possibly provide some unexpected joy. There are movies and TV shows and video games and books out there that will give a tremendous amount more satisfaction in a two-hour span than can ever be felt at the end of a basketball season.

Why was I cursed to be this way? Why must I continue to follow sports, year after year? How could I be so foolish?

It sucks to think it, but maybe it's true: if the Jazz couldn't get it done this year, with everything we had going for us, maybe it's never going to happen at all.

Yet, will I keep watching? Of course. What kind of a stupid question is that?

Death, Taxes and Eternal Sadness

I used to joke that 80 percent of the sadness in my life came from being a sports fan, and the other 20 percent came from women, but I'm married now, which means that sports account for all of the sadness I experience, and that's a straight-up fact. It's a painful, painful life that I've chosen.

All I can hope now is that I am reincarnated as a non-sports fan in my next life. Or as a monkey. That might be kind of exciting, too.

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Related Blogs:

If, for some sick and twisted reason, you kept reading until the end of this blog and thought it was funny and/or entertaining, first of all, how dare you take joy in my pain? Second of all, you might find these other blogs interesting:

• The Bitter Pill: My worst sports memories
• Another Bitter Pill: Kobe drops 60 against the Jazz
• #Betrayward: Too Big Yo [for his britches]
• The Bitter Pill 3: The Pass Interference Special

Thanks for reading... and I'll most likely talk to you at the end of next season.

The Jazz just lost - and that's ok

Last year, the Utah Jazz defied the odds to upset the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The season ended exactly one year ago in 2017, with the Jazz being swept out of contention by the eventual champions, the Golden State Warriors. It was a big stepping stone for the team, which hadn't been to the playoffs in five years - and hadn't won a playoff series in seven. At the time, I blogged to acknowledge the Jazz' inevitable defeat, saying "The Jazz are going to lose - and that's ok." (You can read that blog here, if you really want.) With the 2017-18 season coming to a close for the Jazz last night, I figured I would write a companion blog to shed a new perspective on the future of the franchise. Behold:

The Past

When Gordon Hayward ruined our Fourth of July by announcing that he was leaving the Jazz high and dry in favor of joining the Boston Celtics and his boyfriend/college coach, Brad Stevens, I was furious. I even blogged about it. We begged the fool to stay and he left us anyway. Austin blogged about that. National media ridiculed us, spat in our faces and left us for dead. It was widely presumed that the Jazz would have a good defense, but no offense to go along with it. People said we wouldn't make the playoffs. Best-case scenario, I figured we could still make the playoffs as the Eight Seed, and I tried to talk myself into believing that we would be fine without Hayward.

Before Gordon took the wussy way out, the Jazz made some acquisitions to try to keep the first-time All-Star happy. We traded for the flashy Spanish point guard, Ricky Rubio. We picked up a couple other middle-of-the-road journeymen in Thabo Sefolosha, Jonas Jerebko and Epke Udoh. But with Gordon delaying (and absolutely botching) his decision for so long, we lost out on the opportunity to pick up anybody to replace him as the go-to scorer. We would likely have to rely on up-and-comer Rodney Hood to take the torch and lead the way, moving forward.

Elsewhere in The Association, there were some other big moves during the offseason, and most of the NBA's prominent talent came out west. Perennial Eastern Conference All-Star Jimmy Butler headed to Minnesota and Oklahoma City formed what people were calling "the next Big Three" when they acquired Paul George and Carmelo Anthony, to go along with reigning MVP Russell Westbrook. In my opinion, the 2017-18 Midwest Division looked like the toughest division, arguably, in the history of the NBA (and, in the end, it was). (It is also of note that, although he didn't switch conferences, Chris Paul left the crumbling LA Clippers - demoralized after being knocked out of he playoffs by last year's Jazz team - and joined James Harden and the Houston Rockets. With the loss of Hayward and stiffened competition in our neck of the woods, this was going to be a really tough year for the boys from Salt Lake City.

Nevertheless, we embarked on a journey that began with the Summer League, where we got our first look at the new rookie - a kid out of Louisville named Donovan Mitchell. He was outspokenly a defense-first guard who was excited to make some plays - and he did during one incredible sequence where he put Celtics rookie Jason Tatum on his backside before dishing to ball off for a slam dunk. Little did we know what this defense-first guard would turn out to be. More on that later.

The Present

The very first memory I have of the 2017 NBA season is getting a text from my good friend and long-time Jazz fan "Pistol" Steve Roush. The text said, "OH MY GOSH!!!" I was watching playoff baseball at the time, so I didn't know what he was referring to. "Are you watching this?" he asked. I surmised that he was talking about the Cavaliers-Celtics game, which I had some morbid curiosity about, but I couldn't bear to watch Hayward in Boston green. "Hayward just broke his leg." I didn't believe it. But it was true. Just minutes into his Celtics debut, Gordon Hayward's season was over. Ironic. That's all I'm going to say. Ironic. He would spend the entire season in hospital beds and physical therapy and won't be back until next season. I still can't believe it.

I was in attendance for the first Jazz game of the season. Rodney Hood was scheduled to start, but was a late scratch and had to be filled in for by none other than our rookie, Donovan Mitchell. The season started out rough for Donovan, who really struggled shooting the ball for the first few games. I tried to be patient with him, chalking it up to being a "learning experience" for a rookie we hoped would be able to contribute this season.

Watching Donovan fill in for Rodney would end up being somewhat representative of the season as a whole. Rodney was not able to fill the shoes we intended for him and had a very tough time staying consistent on the offensive end. One night, he'd go for 30 points, then he wouldn't be able to buy a bucket for the next week. As he had been previously in his career, he was quite injury-prone, and it got to the point where some Jazz fans questioned his toughness - physically and mentally. It felt as though Rodney didn't want to play unless he was at 100% health. It was frustrating to watch.

But while Rodney struggled and Ricky Rubio took time to adjust to his new team and offensive schemes, Rudy Gobert, Joe Ingles and the rookie himself, Donovan Mitchell, picked up the slack under the brilliant leadership of Quin Snyder.

Rudy Gobert remained a force to be reckoned with on the defensive end, maintaining his reputation as one of the best defensive stars in basketball. By the end of the year, he would be the front-runner for Defensive Player of the Year. However, several injuries sidelined Rudy for large stretches of the season, and without him, the Jazz really struggled. After an ugly loss to Atlanta (our second defeat at the hands of the lowly Hawks), the Jazz fell to 19-28. I was ready to call it a season and the #TankNote movement gained steam. It looked like this would end up being one of those infamous "rebuilding years" that would be used primarily for the development of future talent. But a tweet from the Stifle Tower turned this season completely around with four simple words:

We will be fine

— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) January 6, 2018

The Jazz finished the season by going 29-6, finishing as the Five Seed with a 48-34 record and stringing together one of the most impressive win streaks in Jazz franchise history. Notably, we beat the defending champion Golden State Warriors by 20, 30 and 40 points this season. Incredible! #NeverForget! Nobody saw that turnaround coming - and what was even better was the individual progress that we got along with it.

We watched Donovan develop before our eyes and marveled as he dunked on Lonzo Ball and put up 41 points against the Pelicans during his second month in the league. (Fun fact: Gordon Hayward's career high is 40 points.)  He would ultimately end up winning the Western Conference Rookie of the Month award for December, January, February and March. He won the Dunk Contest during All-Star Weekend. He would become one of the most talked-about players in the entire league over the course of the season and was the focus of the hottest basketball debate of the year as he and Philadelphia's Ben Simmons were neck-and-neck in Rookie of the Year discussions. Donovan set Jazz rookie records. He etched his name into the Top Three and Top Five of NBA rookie records.

THIS KID IS SPECIAL.

I'm not sure we truly realize nor fully appreciate what we have on our hands with Donovan. He is humble. He is gracious. He is a hardcore mama's boy who loves his family. He loves Utah. He has friends in the league. He is sought out after games by the biggest names in the league, including LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Chris Paul, just to name a few. THIS NEVER HAPPENS. Not in Utah, it doesn't. BUT IT IS HAPPENING! Most impressively of all, possibly, is the fact that we did all of this without Gordon Hayward. If Hayward had stayed, who knows if Donovan would have been able to shine like this? In the state of Utah, Donovan Mitchell can do no wrong. I once saw a tweet saying that we would let him walk into the Salt Lake Temple without a recommend. I don't entirely disagree. He is making the Utah Jazz popular again. We've got a little bandwagon following right now, and, as a lifelong Jazz fan, that was something I never would have thought would happen. I want to invite Donovan over for dinner. Also, side note, my mother has given me permission to marry him.

...

...

To break up that awkwardness, can I just say that I actually really ended up loving the Jazz "City Edition" jerseys that I thought were frighteningly ugly at first? And that court, too. Dang. So great.

Anyway, "Jingling" Joe Ingles had a breakout year. He became a legit starter in the league (not just some guy that we used to fill a position) and was a league leader in field goal percentage from beyond the arc. He broke the Jazz single-season record for three pointers made. His personality shined as he trash-talked his competition and drew many an Office comparison. The guys on "Inside the NBA" sure seem to like him.

Royce O'Neale was an undrafted free agent and ended up becoming a pivotal piece of the roster. Jerebko and Sefolosha were much better than I anticipated (although Thabo spent most of the season on the injured list). We got to watch David Stockton, the son of the G.O.A.T. John Stockton finish the season with the team. Raul Neto and Dante Exum were able to step up and fill in when necessary, and we even saw the Magic Man Alec Burks play some important minutes here in the past few weeks.

As for Rodney Hood, we traded him to Cleveland for Jae Crowder. Jae was consistently named the fabled Subway Sub of the Game, leading the bench in scoring in almost every game he played. Rodney, on the other hand, made headlines this week by refusing to come off the bench during "garbage time" as the Cavs swept the One Seed Raptors to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. Oh, what could have been...

The Playoffs

Finishing as the fifth seed in the Western Conference meant that we would start the first round on the road against Oklahoma City. There were two teams I didn't want to play in the playoffs, and OKC was one of them. Their first season as a so-called "superteam" didn't go as well as I think many people hoped it would, but we struggled when we played them three times at the beginning of the season. I didn't think it was a great match-up, and I thought that there were several other teams in the West that the Jazz could have disposed of quite easily. Nonetheless, we got our assignment, the team packed their collective bags, and the postseason was underway.

We got walloped in Game 1, as Paul George went off for 36 points and led the Thunder to a 1-0 series lead. It was not the start that I was hoping for, but I figured if we could get a split and win the next game, we would be ok. We did just that, tying the series at one game a piece and heading back home for Game 3. We played really well against the Thunder - surprisingly well - and we beat them in six games, despite blowing a 25-point lead in Game 5. We beat the self-proclaimed "OK3," just like we beat "Lob City" last year. It was beautiful, and Oklahoma City will never be the same. What's more, this was Ricky Rubio's first playoff appearance of his career and he looked like he was having the time of his life. I was so happy for him.

In the second round, we matched up with the best team in the league, the Houston Rockets, in what was ultimately a pretty lopsided series. The Rockets handed it to us for the majority of the time, but we did win Game 2 on the road, which I thought was totally awesome. The entire country basically assumed we would get swept, including Charles Barkley, who made a bold prediction before we stole the second game in Houston:

Pardon? @NBAonTNT #JazzWin #TakeNote #UTAatHOU pic.twitter.com/wVmd2tjp4g

— Aaron Christensen (@atownmania) May 3, 2018

Eat your words, Chuck!

The Jazz ended up losing the series last night, four games to one, but I couldn't be prouder of these guys. We fought through adversity, negative and, oftentimes, no media coverage, a slew of injuries and pretty much anything else you could possibly imagine, and ended up having a way better season than I could have imagined in my wildest dreams.

If you would have told me on July 5, 2017, that the Jazz would have leading candidates for Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year, that we would finish fifth in the West (just like last year), that we would dismantle Oklahoma City and its superteam and that we'd steal a game on the road in the second round against the best team in the league - without our starting point guard playing a single game in the second round -- all the while being led by a rookie -- and (most shockingly) that I would not have missed Gordon AT ALL, well... well, you could have just slapped my phone and called me Robyn Hayward.

The Future

The tough thing about sports is that you almost never get to end your season on a positive note. Only one team ends up winning the championship, and everybody else loses. My Utah Jazz haven't been back to the Finals since 1998. It's been 20 long years, people!! But last night, as I watched the Jazz put up a fight that nearly brought the series back to Utah for Game 6, I couldn't have been any happier. We weren't supposed to beat the Rockets. Heck, we weren't even supposed to be there. It was a pleasure to watch this team. It was a roller coaster of a season, but that stretch of wins after the second Atlanta loss was preposterously fun. Remember that stretch when every team was trying to fight us?

Speaking of which, remember that time when I tweeted at Jimmy Butler and went viral? Oh man, good times.

Classy tweet from a dude that was too hungover to play in the All-Star Game.

— Aaron Christensen (@atownmania) March 3, 2018

This season, the Jazz became must-see TV for me, and I had no problem penciling them in for nearly every single game.

Now that the season is over, my schedule frees up considerably and much of the worry and stress in my life is done, which is really nice - not gonna lie. I don't have to watch another second of this postseason if I don't want to (and I really don't want to... I just hope the Warriors humiliate that flopper James Harden and his whiny little midget friend Chris Paul in the Western Conference Finals).

Whereas last season ended with Jazz fans chanting Gordon Hayward's name and helplessly pleading with him to stay in Utah, this season ended with Jazz fans chanting Ricky Rubio's name while he posted a triple-double against Russell Westbrook and with NBA fans - from all different teams - tweeting about Donovan Mitchell's gutsy 22-point third quarter as the team tried to stave off elimination. Instead of worrying about the future like last year, I look forward to it. We have a great core for the roster that sets us up to be one of the best teams in the league next year. And how can you not just love these players? They have been so fun. I think that our likability factor, with young, talented guys like Ricky and Rudy and a lovable kid like Donovan Mitchell leading the way, we just might be able to attract some big names to come play in Salt Lake City in the future.

We've got a good thing going and it won't be stopping here. We'll be back in the Western Conference Semi-finals, with an even better chance of knocking off our opponents for a chance to play for that conference championship. It will happen. And it's all going to happen much sooner than anyone could have predicted.

Thank you, Utah Jazz, for an incredible season. We love you boys and are so proud of the work you put in this year. We'll see you next season, and I've got a feeling that we will be fine after all.

#TakeNote

3 rule changes that could fix terrible NBA officiating

I'm not going to pretend like I am Mr. NBA Know-It-All. I openly admit that I extremely rarely watch any other NBA games, other than my hometown Utah Jazz, because my life is too busy and the league just isn't that likable, as a whole. But I've got a big basketball bone to pick.

NBA officials suck. Terribly.

This has been an issue for as long as I can remember, but here's my question - if everybody knows it's a problem, why hasn't it been fixed? I believe that basketball has the worst officiating of any of the major sports - or at least the highest-profile problems. Traveling is a joke, blown calls run amok and the NBA's infamous Last Two Minute Report is a sorry excuse for admission of guilt. Of course, the NFL has had some issues with the "Catch Rule," the "Tuck Rule" and Major League Baseball has a couple occasional blips on the radar, but NBA referees seem to be most consistently under fire for their screw-ups.

Two instances in recent Utah Jazz games have particularly bothered me. I tweeted about an incident in the Jazz/Hawks game the other night and the tweet got a lot of attention. To my disbelief, basically anyone that responded or retweeted the video agreed with me: this was an atrocity, an absolute joke of a call. Behold.

Example One: Atlanta Haws vs Utah Jazz, 03/21/18

Honestly, what the heck is this?? And they gave them one shot and possession! #ATLatUTA pic.twitter.com/i9WrvukY3D

— Aaron Christensen (@atownmania) March 21, 2018

What actually happened: As you can see, Joe Ingles is guarding Taurean Prince as the ball is about to be inbounded. As the Hawks start their play, Prince attempts to cut away from Ingles, placing his hand on Ingles' shoulder. Inexplicably, he hits his head on his own hand, flops egregiously and draws the foul call.

What the refs called: The call was an away-from-the-ball foul on Ingles while the ball was out of bounds, which awarded the Hawks one free throw plus possession of the ball.

Why this is ridiculous: Although there is a minimal amount of contact by Ingles, who has one hand lightly touching Prince, the "contact" is initiated by Prince, who hits himself in his own face! What makes this call even worse is that the NBA reviewed this play in slow motion and confirmed that they got the call right! How on earth can you review this (multiple times, I assume) and still say that this is a foul against Ingles? That's just a straight-up flaw in the system. I do like the review system most of the time, but this makes the process look like a total sham.

Fun fact: This tweet was retweeted by the producer of the popular blooper segment "Shaqtin' a Fool."

Example Two: Utah Jazz vs San Antonio Spurs, 03/23/18

How the heck do you miss sick an important foul @OfficialNBARefs??! #TakeNote pic.twitter.com/mIIyoZBG44

— Stephen Schmieg🕸 (@Schmieg__) March 24, 2018

What actually happened: The Jazz were mounting a comeback against the Spurs, late in the fourth quarter. Donovan Mitchell was knocking down threes and Rudy Gobert, as seen here, slammed home two points that tied up the game with only minutes to play. He is hit across the arm by LaMarcus Aldridge (who, admittedly, had himself a heck of a game), which should have sent Gobert to the free throw line to potentially put the Jazz up by one.

What the refs called: Nothing.

Why this is ridiculous: The game ended up going into overtime and the Jazz lost the game. One missed call led to one less possible point, which could have completely influenced the outcome of the game.

---

Now. I understand that the refs have a very difficult job. I wouldn't want to do it. I understand that they are not going to get every single call right every single time and that, if every single violation were called, the sport would become completely unwatchable.

However. The Jazz lost both of these games. The Jazz are currently fighting for their playoff lives, despite playing, historically, some of the best basketball in the history of the franchise. Despite going 22-4 in their last 26 games, the Jazz are battling for positioning in the Western Conference and every game counts - especially when two of these losses are coming to the Hawks, who the Jazz should have beaten, and the Spurs, who are now two games ahead of the Jazz in the standings after last night's game. Every win and loss matters right now, and the Jazz cannot afford to be losing due (in part) to poor officiating during crucial moments.

So what can be done?

I understand that neither of these two suggestions will happen, but I'm going to make them anyway.

1. Add a fourth official. As Jazz writer Andy Larsen pointed out on Twitter last night, "This is ... a perfect example of why we need four referees. [One ref is] shielded by Gobert's body and can't tell if the swipe makes contact."

A fourth referee could have provided just that - more visibility on the court. This would vastly help with the ability to have more eyes on the action to ensure that the correct calls are made in real time.

Ideally, a fourth referee should not be necessary because the NBA already has the option to review key plays, but obviously, as discussed in the aforementioned Example One, the review system is subjective and does not always work.

2. Give refs the ability to completely overturn a bad call. In Example One, the refs should have determined that they got the call completely wrong. The should have looked at the tape and said, "You know what? That's a flop. That's not a foul." (Again, the fact that they did review it and still agreed that they got the call right BLOWS MY MIND. What utter nonsense.)

Officials generally do a good job of determining who touched the ball last when under review and they can go back and upgrade or downgrade the severity of a foul, so why does the league keep things the way they are with these missed or non-calls, where they seemingly can't overturn some of these mistakes? I assume that they want to come off looking like they know what they're doing in a kind of We-Were-Right-All-Along sort of way, but if you blow it, I think you ultimately come off looking better confessing your mistake immediately rather than stubbornly maintaining the bad call and admitting wrongdoing a day or two later.

3. Give coaches the opportunity to challenge blown calls. In instances where the refs stick to their guns and do not (or cannot) overturn a poor decision, why not give coaches the opportunity to challenge calls like they can in other sports like the NFL or MLB?

The concept would be the same and the consequences should be similar: each team gets one "challenge" per game. Take, for instance, Example Two. The refs miss a no-call on Aldridge, but Quin Snyder asks to challenge the play.  The refs take a look at the tape and determine that there was a missed call, which thereby sends Gobert to the free throw line. If there truly was no contact, the Jazz would be penalized and lose a time-out. If a team has no time-outs remaining, they would not be able to challenge any plays.

---

Who stands to benefit from these proposed changes? Most teams, I'd argue. The only people who would be vehemently opposed to my ideas would probably be Warriors, Cavaliers or Chris Paul fans - basically anyone who is used to their team getting the benefit of corrupt officiating. Small-market teams like my Utah Jazz, on the other hand, very rarely (if ever) benefit from bad calls or non-calls, so I think these proposals would add a great degree of parity and fairness to the sport that does not currently exist. I just want to see the best, most accurate and correct competition possible, and the way things are right now, I've seen too many instances of bad officiating to feel comfortable the job these refs are doing.

The Bottom Line

I don't want the league to become over-officiated. I just want it to be officiated correctly.

If LeBron James takes too many steps, I want them to call traveling. If James Harden flops, I don't want him going to the free throw line. If LaMarcus Aldridge smacks Rudy Gobert's arm, I want Rudy at the line with a chance to win the game. And if Michael Jordan pushes off, by gosh, I want my NBA championship banner.

Is that too much to ask?

#Betrayward: Too Big Yo (for his britches)

Believe it or not, his was something I actually said on Facebook a couple days ago -- I repeat, the following status update was not Photoshopped:

I think that Gordon Hayward is a nice guy. I always stood by him during the past seven years, even when he didn't play well or dribbled the ball off his foot in the clutch. I understand it was a "business decision." With that in mind, I am writing this blog purely as an emotional fan. This is not by any means a personal attack on good old G-Time, because I don't believe that he did any of this out of malice, but you know what? I changed my mind about what I said in that Facebook status five days ago. Gordon is leaving the Utah Jazz and going to play in Boston, and I don't think I will ever forgive him.

First and foremost, let me explain something. There are a lot of people out there that might think that the whining I'm about to do is unreasonable, uncalled for and unjustified. These people probably fall into two categories: 1) other sports fans who cheer for big-market teams and have never gone through anything like this or 2) non-sports fans who are still upset that Firefly got cancelled after one season. So, basically, I don't want to hear it from any of them. As someone who has invested so much time, energy and emotion into the Utah Jazz and, in this case, Gordon Hayward's professional career, this (and even the jersey burning that some disgruntled Jazz fans have chosen to do in the past 36 hours) is a totally acceptable part of the grieving process.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way...

The Timeline

• At the end of last season, Gordon's comments at "locker room clean-out" sounded like the writing on the wall. Never once did he say that he wanted to be here next season. Pretty much everything he said was along the lines of "I have had some good times here." Past tense.
• The Celtics draft Jayson Tatum, a small forward from Duke, with the #3 pick in the NBA Draft. He plays small forward, the same position as Hayward. Interesting choice.
• I remember a couple weeks ago seeing a rumor that the Celtics were going to make a push to sign Gordon and trade for Paul George. He was clearly leaving.
• Then the news broke that Paul George had been traded to Oklahoma City. Hysterical laughing ensued. Boston's ace-in-the-hole was not going to work. He was clearly staying.
• We traded for Ricky Rubio. We re-signed Joe Ingles. Two things that Gordon supposedly wanted the Jazz to do for him. More reason for me to believe he'd be staying.
• For some reason, in the last two or three days, I started getting really nervous about it all. I tried to remain cautiously optimistic, but I had a feeling that he would leave us.
• At around noon Mountain Time yesterday, I saw a tweet saying that Gordon's trainer followed the Celtics on Instagram. Kind of weird, I guess, but I figured that was not a great sign.
• Within only a few minutes, the news broke that Gordon was going to Boston.
• Reports began to circulate that the Jazz had not been informed of Gordon's decision. His agent pumped the brakes furiously, claiming that nothing was official yet and that they hadn't told either team about what was happening. It turned into a circus. The only thing missing was Steve Harvey.
• After delaying the announcement for six hours, it was made official that Gordon was, indeed, going to join the Celtics. Hayward posted a 2,100-word essay about it in The Players' Tribune, a popular forum for such statements.

The Rejection

I tried to prepare myself for the it, but it still cut deep. What hurt the most was that they dragged it out for so long under the guise of "we haven't actually made a decision yet." Come on, dudes. That was a lie. I think Gordon knew what he was going to do month ago. Possibly even years ago. "We haven't made a decision yet" was code for "Gordon needs more time to write his blog." He should have just come out 20 minutes later and been like, "Whoops. Yeah. Sorry, guys. I'm gone," but instead they backpedaled to make it look like he was conflicted. In reality, he got upset that the news leaked before he could post his fluffy little essay and then they played stupid, trying to dupe Jazz fans into thinking that there was a chance that he would stay. Why?? We was never going to stay here. The decision was already made, so the fact that they lied about it to try and candy-coat his exit offended me.

Look at it this way: he broke up with us on the most public of stages and asked for a kiss on the way out.

I still can't get over how Gordon Hayward allowed Jazz fans' hearts to be broken twice in one day. It really makes his blog feel hollow.

— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) July 5, 2017

I never thought I'd say this, but I feel bad for Cleveland Cavaliers fans back when LeBron made The Decision back in 2010. At least Gordon didn't dump us on prime-time TV.

"Unfinished Business"

I never gave much credence to the idea that "Gordon wants to reunite with his old college coach, Brad Stevens." I mean, we all pretty much thought that at some point, when Stevens, who coached Hayward at Butler University, was hired by the Boston Celtics in 2013. It was a cute thought, but I didn't think it would ever be a major deciding factor in where Gordon wound up playing in the NBA. After all, Hayward only played for Stevens for two years, and that was seven years ago. Clearly, I underestimated the bromance. Quoth the Hayward, in his "Thank You, Utah" essay:

"[Leaving Butler University for the NBA] was such a tough decision. But there was one person who I knew I could talk to about it from every angle, who I knew would give me the smartest and most honest perspective available: Coach Stevens. ... And I guess it’s pretty crazy. Because seven years later, I had to make an even tougher decision — and again, Coach Stevens and I found ourselves at a crossroads together. And again, he was the person I knew I could count on the most."

I almost gagged when I read that yesterday. Gosh. Get a room, guys! It will be a precious little reunion, though - they lost a national championship together at Butler, and now they can not win a championship together in Boston. Hooray.

Gordon ended his ghostwritten piece (yeah, he didn't even really write it himself) by saying that he has "unfinished business" with Stevens that he wants to tie up by playing for the Celtics. I've been reading a lot of stuff about this fiasco and here was a quote I liked:

"There have been players who have left Utah. But to be the player who everything hinges on, to have such a successful team, and to leave it? You want to talk about unfinished business? This is unfinished business. This guy talks about wanting to play against the best and he leaves so he can play against an Eastern Conference that is bordering on the G-League." - SLCDunk.com

Remember - You Asked For I.T.

One thing that really bothers me is that the Jazz did absolutely everything they needed to to keep Gordon. We resigned his buddy Joe Ingles, who I love, by the way. We knew George Hill was out of here half way through last season, so we traded for Ricky Rubio, the most notorious "pass-first" point guard in the league. Hayward, Rubio and Rudy Gobert would have been a blast to watch next season. We molded our team around Gordon. He was the number one option and we were bringing guys in that would play well with his style of play.

On the other hand, instead of playing with Rubio, Hayward has elected to go play with that midget Isaiah Thomas, one of the most notorious ballhogs in the league. That is Isaiah Thomas' team, Gordon, and don't you forget it. People talked about going to Boston like it was some kind of no-brainer - that Gordon would fit right into Stevens' system like he was right back at Butler. How do they know? I hope he goes there and sucks. I hope he goes there and hates it. I hope he goes there and loses.

The Jazz are were just as good as Boston was last year; they won two more games than Utah did, and that was playing in the infamously weak Eastern Conference and is not to mention how many injuries the Jazz suffered through last year. If the Jazz could have stayed healthy last year, they could have been a 3-seed in the West or certainly the 1- or 2-seed in the East. To hear people talking about how Gordon needed to leave Utah to "escape mediocrity" is ludicrous. Clearly those fools didn't watch the Jazz play at all last year and were unaware that we made the second round of the NBA playoffs. The Jazz were a contender in the West (obviously keeping in mind that NOBODY was going to beat that Warriors squad), and the Celtics proved to be a pretender in the East. They barely escaped the 8-see Chicago Bulls, and arguably only won that series because Rajon Rondo got hurt a couple games in.

Who are the 2017 Boston Celtics?

Gordon took the easy way out. And guess what? It's not even going to get him a championship. Nobody is going to beat the Warriors next year, or in any year in the foreseeable future, anyway. Not even Gordon and the Celtics. I'll give him this, though: Gordon is one step closer to doing something that the Jazz have never been able to do - get knocked out of the playoffs by LeBron James. That's right. I don't believe that Gordon and the Celtics will even make the NBA Finals.

The only thing I see that Boston offers that Utah does not is an easier path to the All-Star game, which he will undoubtedly make for years to come. I loved Paul Millsap when he was here, but let's be real: the only reason he's been to so many All-Star games is because he played in Atlanta. The way the NBA is heading, with so many Eastern Conference stars relocating to the West, I could make their All-Star team - and I've got a bum knee and shoot incredibly inconsistently.

Boston: "Hey, Gordon. If you come out here, we can guarantee you a chance to get humiliated by the Western Conference All-Stars for the next five years..."

Gordon: "Sorry, did you just say 'All-Star' and 'next five years'? Sign me up!"

I saw a tweet yesterday that said that Gordon's statue in Boston will be of him, yelling at Isaiah Thomas to pass him the ball.

History vs Destiny

One of the other facets of this situation that really bothers me was the fact that Gordon seemed to be so entranced by the legendary history of the Boston Celtics that it clouded his judgment moving forward. I already talked about the win-loss ratio of the two teams, but let's talk championships. Actually, let's let Rudy Gobert talk championships:

🌴🗑☘️💩🎷🏆

— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) July 2, 2017

Hilarious, I thought. Instant classic, Twitter style. I loved that tweet. Then that midget Isaiah Thomas chimed in:

🌴🏆🏆🏆☘️🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🎷🙅🏾‍♂️

— Isaiah Thomas (@Isaiah_Thomas) July 2, 2017

And so did Miami's Hassan Whiteside:

2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣➡️2️⃣0️⃣1️⃣7️⃣☘️💍🌴💍💍💍 🎷🤷🏽‍♂️🤷‍♀️🤷🏻‍♂️

— Hassan Whiteside (@youngwhiteside) July 2, 2017

Ok, sure. Boston has won 17 NBA championships and Miami has three. BUT HOW MANY OF THOSE WERE WON BY ANYONE CURRENTLY ON EITHER OF THOSE ROSTERS?? NONE!!

Gordon gave up his chance at what I thought was a sure shot at a statue in Salt Lake City, with his number in the rafters and the adoring praise of Jazz fans for time and all eternity because he wants to hang out with his buddy, Brad Stevens, and he thinks it's cool that Bill Russell won a bunch of titles back in the day, before he was even born. He picked Boston's franchise over Utah's future. He gave up everything that he had built here, with no regard for the teammates he'd been playing with for a better perceived chance to make it to the NBA Finals. When the going got tough, Gordon Hayward got going... to a different city.

My brother Austin put Gordon's betrayal this way: "He was our guy. We adopted him. He was the friendly neighborhood Hayward. [This was] like seeing your ex leave you for an obviously worse situation after you've put in a ton of work at the gym and you're finally starting to get that beach bod. Right before you start looking really ripped, she leaves you."

But really, imagine being Quin. Jazz go from 20 to 50-win seasons in 4 years under him, only to hear "I like Brad better." That's gotta hurt

— Firsto Lasto (@CowhideGlobe) July 5, 2017

Random Thoughts

• Donny Osmond has got to be pissed.
• Supposedly, his wife, Robyn, didn't like living in Salt Lake City? Was that really a factor? Who freaking cares? Your husband is making more money than I will ever see in my entire life. Suck it up, girl.
• Also, I see that she has disabled comments on her Instagram account... I didn't follow her, so I don't know if that's a recent development, but she mentioned in her most recent post that people have been making "mean comments and threats." Athletes are humans, too, she says. If she thinks Jazz fans are mean, just wait until she moves to Boston, who I recently heard some New Yorkers refer to as "the most racist city in America." Ask Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones how he feels about Boston, why don't you, Robyn? Sounds like a real friendly place to me!
• I thought, a couple times yesterday, "I wonder how Gordon's Fourth of July is going... Did he even have a barbecue? Did he cry at all?" I hope he did.
• I'd be ok if I never saw Danny Ainge again in my life.
• The fact that Rudy is "liking" social media posts of Jazz fans burning their Hayward jerseys makes me so happy. I can't wait for Gordon to come back and have his shot swatted by the Stifle Tower. There will be animosity. Celtics vs Jazz in Salt Lake City on Christmas Day. Make it happen, NBA!!

This Was Our Chance

A big part of me selfishly hoped that Gordon would stay so we could stick it to The Man. I was so tired of people dogging the Jazz in Facebook comments sections lately. Talking about Utah as if it were part of some God-forsaken third-world country... I saw some jack-knob say that Gordon should stay in Utah because he heard we just got our second Wal-Mart. And the polygamy jokes... How ignorant. How out-of-touch.

Hey, the 1800s called; they want their insults back.

And I was hoping that this would, for once, dismiss the long-standing belief that no big free agents would ever willingly choose to play in Utah. Welp, Gordon proved them right. He didn't want to play in Utah.

I find it hilarious that all these Boston and Miami fans were suddenly such big Gordon Hayward fans. They probably knew nothing about him. I doubt they ever watched him play. Another Facebook comment said that the only things that could possibly keep Gordon in Utah were "Gobert and that big white guy." Um, if by "big white guy," they're referring to Joe Ingles, he's only 6'8", so they have no idea what they're talking about. The Jazz are actually one of the most culturally diverse teams in the entire league, thank you very much.

Nevertheless, the haters live to scoff another day, to the everlasting expense of Jazz Nation. When will we ever catch a break?

We sure were spoiled when John Stockton and Karl Malone stayed here for two decades. That may never happen again in our lifetimes.

#Betrayward: The Final Judgment

Yet again, this fiasco has felt like two steps forward and three steps back for a team that continues what many have referred to as a "perpetual rebuild." We finally got good. I was so stoked for this season. Then Gordon ditched us in a fall from grace that I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams. Ironically, we booed when the Jazz drafted Gordon Hayward, and we booed him on the way out the door, as well.

Gordon Hayward has become Too Big Yo for his britches.

So the question now remains: how much do we hate Gordon Hayward?

Let's run down the list of hated ex-Jazz players:

• Derek Fisher: He lied about his family to get out of his contract. He said he needed to be closer to the doctors in New York, then promptly signed with the Lakers. Derek was never good at geography, but I don't hate him as much as everyone else because this all transpired while I was serving an LDS mission.
• Deron Williams: D-Will did some really great things while in a Jazz uniform, but he had a nasty temper that resulted in a few outbursts - notably, angrily throwing the ball at Gordon Haward's head and driving beloved Hall of Fame coach Jerry Sloan into mid-season retirement. We hate Deron. We all hate Deron. #CoachKiller
• Enes Kanter: The guy was a moron, plain and simple. The Jazz realized that he was becoming a cancer and we traded him to Oklahoma City, where he launched a passive aggressive barrage of insults Utah's way, including that he finally knew what it meant to be part of a "professional" organization and that the only thing he missed about Utah were "the mountains." When he punched a chair and broke his arm last year, I didn't even feel bad. Not at all.

I'm sure that the Haywards would be shocked if they had seen some of the things Jazz fans have been saying about them lately - and some of the stuff has probably crossed the line of decency, I'm sure. But let's give it a year or two and see how Bostonians react when he and that little midget Isaiah Thomas can't get the job done. Those fans will run him out of town on a rail.

So do we truly hate Gordon? To make a long story short (too late), I'm pretty upset with Gordon. Yesterday, for me, was a strange mixture of anger, jealousy and disappointment. Today, I felt a little bad after reading his agent's supposed explanation of yesterday's PR nightmare. If this story is to be believed, which I'm not sure that it entirely is, it seems like Gordon meant well, but somebody leaked his plan and everything spiraled #Downward from there.

But then I think about how that whole "we haven't made a decision yet" garbage was a gigantic lie. Gordon lied to us because he didn't want to look like a bad guy. But then it blew up in his face and, in the last 36 hours, he became a bigger villain here in Utah than anyone could have predicted. We rolled out the red carpet. We wanted him to stick around for life. We did everything he wanted us to do for him, and he left us anyway. Silly us. Am I sad? You bet. Am I angry? Heck yeah. Gordon has incurred the wrath of A-Town. The difference between Gordon and these other Public Enemies is that GORDON CHOSE TO LEAVE.

In any meaningful relationship, if there is ever one thing that you don't want to hear someone that you love say, it's this: "I don't want to be with you anymore." That is exactly what Gordon Hayward said yesterday. He botched this announcement worse than anything I can remember seeing before. I'm sure he meant well, but you know what they say... "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

See ya, Gordon. There's the door. Make sure your hair is looking good before you go. And no, I don't want to kiss you goodbye.