By Ron
Richards
I write what I think, what I
believe, and base it all on fifty
years of watching the NBA with a
passion second to none. I love the
NBA, love basketball, and have for
as long as I can remember sitting in
front of a TV set.
This Portland loss Saturday night
was more than a breakdown, it was an
utter collapse of monumental
proportions. Coaches get fired,
players get traded, owners get rid
of teams for games like that. That
it was a game of tremendous
importance is obvious. What is also
obvious is that the Jazz quit in the
third quarter after perennial
All-Star and All-NBA player Marvin
Webster destroyed the Jazz on a
blistering outside shooting streak
the like of which I haven't seen
since.....The last ten so-so players
having their season high against the
Jazz.
What's wrong? I think a lot of it is
team makeup, and that's been
addressed with the addition of Kyle
Korver and I think he will help
immensely.
I've been hearing that some players,
not all or a majority, have quit on
Jerry Sloan and are trying to get
him fired.
I've heard that it's Jerry Sloan's
fault, his old school coaching
methods, he's just a dinosaur
wandering about a million years
after his buddies had the common
sense to become extinct.
NBA teams and franchises have in the
past quit on coaches, forced owners
to make moves, players run teams and
not the other way around, where
owners own, coaches coach, and
players execute and......Play.
Rest assured, this isn't going to
happen here. Not in a million years.
Larry Miller is the owner of the
Jazz, not Deron Williams, Carlos
Boozer, Memo Okur, Andrei Kirilenko,
or the rest of the Jazz team. They
play here at Larry's pleasure, and
because Jerry and the Jazz Brass
think they can win games.
I'm stating this as clearly as I
can, so sit down and brace yourself.
No player is bigger than the team.
Not Deron Williams, not Carlos
Boozer. I'm not singling them out
because I think they're guilty, I
refuse to believe that.
If I was Larry Miller, I would bring
every player in, tell him where the
bear sits, and if he didn't like it,
trade him, no questions asked, no
hard feelings. Jerry is the coach,
the team makes personnel decisions,
if you don't like it, get out.
I think I know Larry Miller well
enough after all these years to hope
he feels the same way, if this
situation ever gets to that stage.
I'm hoping it won't, that this
breather in the schedule will allow
the Jazz to regroup and rededicate
themselves.
If not, start trading until we have
players who want to be here, want to
play for Jerry Sloan, LHM, the Jazz
Franchise, and all of us, the Fans
who have lived and died with the
Jazz all these years.
Once you go down the road where the
players run the team, the maniacs
run the asylum, it's a one way
street to NowheresVille, USA.
And if that happens, they'll lose
one of their biggest and perhaps
least important fans. Me. I'll
suffer through losing seasons, never
whine about not winning the big one,
but I will not sit idly by and watch
a team I love disintegrate
internally by letting this insanity
happen.
That's not a threat, it's a promise.
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