Jazz shooting for enjoyable season
And so the grind begins again, the slog through 82 games in 28 cities over six months, the interminable blur of airports and hotels and locker rooms. Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who has endured this tedious marathon for four decades now, already knows what to expect when he grimly trudges to the bench yet again tonight. It's going to be .
. . wait a minute.
Fun? Fun? Blessed are the persecuted, indeed.
For the grueling tug of war that is an NBA basketball season apparently is Sloan's kingdom of heaven. "It's the main reason I'm in it at this point," an upbeat Sloan said on the eve of Opening Night, and the start of his 19th season leading the Jazz. "It's fun to watch these guys play, fun to watch them .
. . try to get better.
" Yes, amid the squabbles over playing time, the tension of contract issues and the nightly life-or-death seriousness of winning games, the Jazz, and not just their coach, say they intend to appreciate the 2006-07 season as a rollicking good ride, no matter what asinine fouls some referee might call. "It's good time. I love it," said Mehmet Okur, perhaps the Jazz's most carefree spirit.
"Play hard, do good, try your best. It's all good."
tonight in the Delta Center, when Junior - you know him better as rookie guard Ronnie Brewer - puts on the Jazz's bright whites and makes his NBA debut.
It's not bad being the kid, either. "All your life, since when you were little, you dream of playing in the NBA," Brewer, the 21-year-old one, said Monday. "My mom [Carolyn] and dad are going to be there.
. . .
I'm very excited." There's a lot of barely concealed excitement around the Jazz this year -
Utah's Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams and Andrei Kirilenko form the core of a Jazz team that should, for the first time in three seasons, reach the NBA playoffs. (Chris Detrick and Josh Awtry/The Salt Lake Tribune)
a quiet optimism about the team's future that hasn't been felt, not to this extent, in several years.
Utah's 15-win improvement a year ago has a lot to do with it, but beyond that, there seems to be a collective intuition that the Jazz's old underdog spirit is back. Sloan feels it. "Our fans have been terrific about getting behind us," he said last week.
"The support we've received for this team tells you they think we can get something accomplished." With Deron Williams making noticeable strides toward stardom in just one year, with Andrei Kirilenko vowing to become the irresistible force on offense that he already is on defense, with Carlos Boozer healthy and Okur happy and Brewer thrilled - well, he's right. The fans believe.
The Jazz expect tonight's home opener against Houston to sell out, the first time that's happened without the Lakers or Bulls being involved since 1998. Only one thing left to do now. "They've got to go out and prove it," Sloan said.
"Everybody's got them in the playoffs, so now they've got to go prove it. You can't get anywhere until you get the job done." Expect an up-and-down season, full of growing pains and mood swings.
After all, 10 of the Jazz's 15 players were born in the 1980s. "We've got a lot of young kids, and they don't grow up overnight. They'll get tested [by] 29 different teams," Sloan said.
"The teams that know how to play, they take advantage of the weakest link. They just pick 'em like a chicken." But banish those thoughts until the midwinter gloom sets in.
Opening Night for the state's lone major-sports franchise is still an event in Salt Lake, and there's an exuberance this year that's been missing. It even extends into the locker room. "This is a wonderful group of guys," Sloan said.
"I don't know if I've ever had [so] many guys who seemed to get along with each other as much as this group of guys. . .
. When things go wrong, they kind of pull for each other. I think it can go a long way with these guys if they have that attitude.
"It has been fun to watch them react with one another.
Keywords: Salt Lake, Carlos Boozer, Opening Night, Deron Williams, Andrei Kirilenko
News RSS