And this was not any mere contest against the San Antonios. This was a playoff game.
And this was not any mere playoff game. It was the Western Conference finals, the deepest playoff run the Jazz have had since 1998, and the deepest run they will have until ... to be determined.
I glanced at the screen. One beat. Two beats. And then I looked away. As a missionary I was instructed to avoid watching anything that would distract me from my purpose. And at that point in my mission I was good at following instructions.
Ok, not really.
I looked away because in my earlier mission days I listened to a BYU game on a smuggled radio in the MTC and BYU lost so bad they didn't even score a touchdown. A year later I "watched" a BYU game on ESPN's play-by-play and they lost a heartreaker in double OT. From that point I feared that karma would punish my teams if I even thought of following them as a missionary.
So I peeled my eyes away from the bus TV, simultaneously grateful and heartbroken for the lack of audio on this Chilean relic. It was not easy. I loved the Jazz. I played for them for close to 12 years, from ages 7 to 19, on the Delta Center Driveway at 2955 South 3825 West. I won 12 NBA Finals and 12 MVPs on that cement, solidifying my career as best of all-time while erasing the red square on the backboard shot by shot by shot.
I glanced at the screen. One beat. Two beats. And then I looked away. As a missionary I was instructed to avoid watching anything that would distract me from my purpose. And at that point in my mission I was good at following instructions.
Ok, not really.
I looked away because in my earlier mission days I listened to a BYU game on a smuggled radio in the MTC and BYU lost so bad they didn't even score a touchdown. A year later I "watched" a BYU game on ESPN's play-by-play and they lost a heartreaker in double OT. From that point I feared that karma would punish my teams if I even thought of following them as a missionary.
So I peeled my eyes away from the bus TV, simultaneously grateful and heartbroken for the lack of audio on this Chilean relic. It was not easy. I loved the Jazz. I played for them for close to 12 years, from ages 7 to 19, on the Delta Center Driveway at 2955 South 3825 West. I won 12 NBA Finals and 12 MVPs on that cement, solidifying my career as best of all-time while erasing the red square on the backboard shot by shot by shot.
Of course I cried when the Jazz lost the first finals. Who didn't? The second time I was too numb, never having considered the Jazz could lost a series in which they had home court.
So the version of Spencer who averted his eyes in 2007, who looked forward to the day of his mission release and unlimited Jazz games from that moment forward, would never believe that the 2024 version of Spencer hasn't watched a single game in the last two seasons. Not one. Oh and did I mention the games are free on TV now?
I've been trying to figure out what's happened to me. It's not the losing. I've been with the Jazz through the Carlos Arroyo years. Through the "Derrick Favors is the future!" era. I watched Dante Exum flame out. I remember talking myself into Gordon Giricek. I didn't give up when Hayward dumped us like a blotchy ex.
It's certainly not the channel availability. I mean, I've gone out of my way to watched the Jazz on pirated streams where you couldn't tell if the player who checked in was Al Jefferson or Al Yankovic. Nathan and I once cobbled a system where we had to log into a stealth VPN then NBA TVs abysmal app in order to watch. We juggled nearly every streaming service imaginable to wring games out of the ether. In college I hiked through snow up Old Main hill to watch a game at the student center. So why, when it is literally the easiest time in my life to watch the Jazz -- I did mention the games are free now, didn't I? -- have I closed the door? It took me a while but I finally figured it out.
I've been trying to figure out what's happened to me. It's not the losing. I've been with the Jazz through the Carlos Arroyo years. Through the "Derrick Favors is the future!" era. I watched Dante Exum flame out. I remember talking myself into Gordon Giricek. I didn't give up when Hayward dumped us like a blotchy ex.
It's certainly not the channel availability. I mean, I've gone out of my way to watched the Jazz on pirated streams where you couldn't tell if the player who checked in was Al Jefferson or Al Yankovic. Nathan and I once cobbled a system where we had to log into a stealth VPN then NBA TVs abysmal app in order to watch. We juggled nearly every streaming service imaginable to wring games out of the ether. In college I hiked through snow up Old Main hill to watch a game at the student center. So why, when it is literally the easiest time in my life to watch the Jazz -- I did mention the games are free now, didn't I? -- have I closed the door? It took me a while but I finally figured it out.
For the first time in my life, I'm mad at the Jazz.
Now, obviously I've been 'upset' at the Jazz before. Upset when they prioritized drafting useless backup centers. Upset when they left KJZZ. Upset when they traded for Mike "was I supposed to play defense?" Conley. But those feelings identify more closely with frustration than anger. Those were mistakes. Mistakes are forgivable.
What the Jazz did when they traded Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell wasn't a mistake. It was a surrender. And I can't get over it.
What was the worst case scenario if the Jazz had just 'run it back' one more time with Gobert and Mitchell? You lose in the first round of the playoffs, Donovan Mitchell leaves in free agency for nothing, and you face a rebuild with mediocre draft picks coming your way?
When you put it that way it sounds pretty bad. It also sounds exactly like what the Jazz are doing at this very moment!
The Jazz are rebuilding. The Jazz have mediocre draft picks coming their way.11. How many of those pick swaps do you think will materialize? I'm putting the over under at 0.5 and taking the under. So what did we accomplish by punting on the Gobert-Mitchell era? We eliminated all chance of having something special happen in the playoffs with our special group so that we could hopefully get a special(er) group in the future? We do realize we are the Utah Jazz, right? Getting two all-stars on our team at the same time is not our birth right. And even if we do manage to reload with specialer talent, we do realize that's not a guarantee to win the elusive title, right? Durant plus Westbrook plus Harden didn't win a title. Prime Embiid hasn't reached a conference finals. Devin Booker has reached the conference finals once. LeBron hasn't won the title in 16 of his seasons.
A lot of sports is luck.
Do you know how many stupid, fluke teams lucked into the conference finals over the past few years? Here's the list:
2023 - Miami Heat
2022 - Dallas Mavericks
2021 - Atlanta Hawks
2019 - Portland Trailblazers
Four of the last five playoffs have seen a one-off, seemingly random team make it to the final four of the NBA fueled by a hot spurt of three-point shooting and lucky late-game happenings. Do you honestly think the Dame Lillard and CJ McCollum Trailblazers, or the Trey Young-John Collins Hawks, or the Luka-Brunson Mavs, or the Butler-Adebayo Heat were exceptionally better than the Gobert-Mitchell Jazz? I do not! In fact I would take the Jazz over any of those groups. Oh, the Mavs beat us in 2022? Congratulations on having a memory. The Mavs put together a ludicrous run of three-point shooting to win games they had no business being in. They beat us by near double digits in a game where our shotquality gave us a 77% probability of winning. Give me that series 10 times and I'm taking the Jazz every time.
Til I'm dead I will believe the Gobert-Mitchell Jazz had as good a chance of getting hot and healthy at the right time as any of those other final four teams. Sprinkle a little luck on that Jazz squad, hit on one wing with a draft pick and we could've had a final four run. The last time that happened to us George Bush ran the country. Even a chance at a conference finals run is worth running back for in my opinion.
"But but but", I can hear you saying, "the Jazz weren't good enough on their own. You even admit they needed something lucky to take them to the next level."
Yes, that version of the Jazz would have needed luck. But a lot of sports is luck (second time I've said that). The entire premise of our current rebuild is based on luck. We traded the hope that Gobert and Mitchell would get lucky in the playoffs for hoping the Jazz will get lucky in the draft, get lucky with players wanting to stay in Utah, and hoping that group will then get lucky in the playoffs. Punting on Gobert and Mitchell means spending years in the NBA dumpster for a chance to get to THE EXACT SPOT WE JUST ABANDONED. Perhaps you can see why I'm mad.
I think I'll get over it some day. But it may not be for a couple more years. Hopefully the games are still on KJZZ then.
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