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Strangers in
the Night |
By Ron Richards
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Each year we, as loyal Jazz fans, watch
the free agents sign in a feeding frenzy
with every other team in the league, while
Kevin O’Connor and his cohorts work on their
golf games and take vacations.
Or so it seems.
In reality, KOC is beating the bushes,
trying to find that gem that will put the
Jazz over the top. When you have a deep,
talented team like the Jazz, it only takes
perhaps one or two players to make that
difference, to give them that spark. We
don’t know their names, but we do know how
they should play, what they should be, and
where their place is on this team.
Most of us think that one of them should be
tall, quick and explosive, with that
tantalizing and largely unexplained talent
of being in precisely the right place and
the right time, to send the rock headed in
the opposite direction it formerly traveled.
A shot blocker, in the common vernacular,
and a defensive presence to discourage teams
from Waltzing Matilda down the lane, someone
not seen since the days that giants like
Mark Eaton roamed the paint for the Jazz, a
huge, intimidating hulk of a man who blocked
shots with a frequency astounding to us mere
mortals. Teams changed their style of play
to avoid the middle, and Jazz teams
routinely funneled offensive players into
his territory, relying on Big Mark to police
the paint. And he did.
But things change in basketball, in the NBA,
just as they do in life. We all age, some
gracefully, some not; our children grow up
and leave the nest, finding their way in
life. So it has been for untold years, and
so it will be for untold years in the
centuries to come. The NBA itself changes,
molts, emerges, shiny and glistening to
enter a new world, and suddenly the land of
the giants is overtaken by the runts of the
game. No longer do giants roam, for the game
has changed. You’re quick, or you’re dead.
Point guards, the new giants of the game,
rule. A line has been set, and it marks the
new era, the era of the three point shot and
no hands-on defense.
Yet some things remain the same, and that
elusive fellow we’ve been hoping to greet in
a Jazz uniform, might already be in a Jazz
uniform. The Jazz have drafted two rather
large fellows with the hope that one of them
might resemble faintly the Man Mountain from
the past. Will they? We’ll get a glimpse of
them this summer, but we won’t know for sure
until the season starts, and see for sure.
For the first time in a long time, the Jazz
have two real center prospects on their
team. Neither has the length or the size of
Mark Eaton, but they are real prospects,
something that we haven’t seen for almost
twenty years.
But…..They’re young. I wouldn’t be surprised
if they only have to shave once or twice a
week. That brings us to that gem that Kevin
is looking for. There are a couple of things
in our favor, for he doesn’t have to be an
All-Star, or All NBA. He simply has to give
us some minutes, to change the complexion of
the game, to grab hold of it when it starts
to slip away. He might be a little gray
around the edges, or long in tooth, or worn
down by expectations far too high for a mere
human to live up to. He might be coming off
an injury, or replaced on a roster by a
young stud and turned out to pasture.
He’s just what we need. He might be a little
worn around the edges, and the paint might
be peeling, but he’ll get us there.
Over the course of an NBA season, there are
five to ten games that hang in the balance,
there for the taking, and the team with a
little grit….. A shot blocked, a drive
aborted, a deflection and suddenly the
course of the game has changed, the stream
bed has shifted, and the game is there for
the winning. We’ve all seen it, frustrated
into tears by games seemingly thrown away to
teams that had no business on the same court
with the Jazz. Tell them that.
Better yet, show them that.
That’s why there are two new centers on the
Jazz team, and hopefully a third.
But I mentioned one or two players, and with
one of them a big guy, the other must be a
small guy? Not necessarily. He must have one
quality above all others, one raison d’etre,
one purpose in the game.
He has to put the rock in the basket. Shoot
the three. Slash and burn. Turn the
mysterious and elusive quality we call
momentum into a landslide carrying the Jazz
into victory. Just like the big man, he
doesn’t have to do this all the time, just
once in a while. He has to be an energizer,
a primal force that erupts and when the
smoke clears, the scoreboard is smiling in
our favor.
Ronnie Price has this quality, this ability
to enter a game, and suddenly the game
changes, a spectacular dunk or block, a
headlong dive after a loose ball, and the
game is afoot, and in our favor once again.
But it surely wouldn’t hurt to have someone
like Ronnie, only perhaps a little more in
control of his ability, someone with a
little more experience. Someone who can
score in bunches, or make a defensive stop
or deflection. That one play can change the
course of a game, one way or the other. He
doesn’t have to be a household name, or a
number one draft pick. He simply has to be
able to do what it takes to change the
complexion of the game when called upon, and
that’s not easy.
Difference Makers. That’s what these gems
are, or should be. They’re out there in
limbo, waiting to be called upon. I know a
few of them by name. Kevin O’Connor surely
knows a few more than I do.
There is change in the wind, I can feel it,
sense it, taste it. It might not be the
earthshaking change that we all hope for
continually, for that never seems to come.
It might come as a stranger in the night,
who when daylight comes proves his worth,
and saves the day. He might be a little guy
proving his worth, or a hulk of a man
seeking redemption for past failures. Don’t
judge too quickly, or give up hope, counting
a season lost once again.
Our team is in good hands, caring hands.
We should all be so lucky in life.
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