This was supposed to be a playoff preview. Instead, I’ve only now realized I’m rooting for an eternal underdog.
The Jazz play the Lakers tonight to finish the regular season, a team they will likely meet at least four more times in the coming weeks. After a season plagued by injuries, inefficiencies and a starting power forward who plays with all the energy of a coma patient, the Jazz should finish the playoffs exactly how they ended the season8212;painfully, and with an inaudible whimper.
Their 2009 swan song will be an ugly duckling.
This is the first time I can remember in 18 playoff appearances under Jerry Sloan that I don’t have an ounce of faith. This was a team that was on the rise8212;the majority of the players from their conference finals appearance are still here, years wiser and years stronger. There are two players who played against the world as Olympians. Deron Williams is likely the first or second best point guard in the entire league.
And we don’t have a chance.
Perhaps it’s time to admit the Jazz will never win a championship. In the past 20 years, only seven teams have kissed the golden trophy, and most were from markets that attract the best and brightest8212;Chicago, Los Angeles and Detroit. Utah is a victim of its own success.
Let me explain.
By being good enough to make the playoffs year in and year out, but never good enough to win it all, the Jazz remain stagnant competitors. Utah is slightly upper echelon. They are a team to fear, but not a team to run away from.
Sloan has entered the Hall of Fame by preaching fundamentals, and fundamentals will win enough games to be in the top eight of 15 teams in the Western Conference. More tickets will sell, but the arena will never be full of championship banners.
LeBron James will never come to the Utah mountains. Dwyane Wade won’t perform acrobatics at the EnergySolutions Arena. The one thing we have going for us is Williams, and he is here because of the team’s one losing season.
There are several philosophies out there. Trade for a defensive center. Get rid of Sloan. Petition the league to let us play every game at home. They are all bandages for a gushing wound. The Jazz are the Chicago Cubs of the NBA. The team moved to Utah in 1979. I guarantee that I will be walking with futuristic android legs in 2079 to watch the team celebrate 100 years of futility. All roads point to failure.
There is hope. San Antonio became a competitor after a colossal flop. With David Robinson sitting on the sidelines hobbled, the Spurs won the lottery and drafted a seven-foot power forward named Tim Duncan. The rest is history.
I love D-Will, but if you ever see him walking the streets, do what a true fan would do. Take out one of his knees. Kidnap him for a season. The Jazz are too good to miss the playoffs with him, but not nearly good enough to win it all8212;ever.
Nick Pappas