December 14, 2007

An Open Letter to the Utah Jazz Organization

You guys are an embarrassment.

After going winning over 50 games and going to the Western Conference Finals last year, people were starting to fear the Jazz. They were prohibitive favorites to win the division and given a fair shot at returning to the Conference Finals.

The first in a long line of mistakes was letting Dee Brown go. This kid had speed and talent but you let him go anyway. You also released Rafael Arraujo, the only guy on the team with the attitude to play hard-nosed defense. Then you signed Jason Hart, a nobody from the Clippers who has been nothing short of terrible. We were excited when you picked up Ronnie Price, we thought he was a baller, but he pretty much never plays. You kept Gordan Giracek, who hasn't played 3 good games since Deron Williams arrived.

Even with those moves people thought we could still play. We still had Booz, Deron, AK, Memo, and Sapp on the roster and these guys can play. But, even with these guys the Jazz have managed only 2 quality wins in 24 games and are now in a 6-game losing streak. The players are really sucking quite badly. No player should be proud of anything that has happened in the last 9 days. Every player should be ashamed of their performance.

The one thing that is absolutely maddening is our lack of defensive energy. It's like nobody wants to play defense and there's a sense that no one has any confidence in their own defense. That wouldn't be AS bad if our offense was up to the task, but we haven't been scoring at all lately. After starting out leading the league in scoring at 107 ppg, the Jazz have scored 100 points in only 1 of their last 5 games (all losses) and also managed to give up a 43 point quarter last week in a loss.

Tonight was the last straw. We had a 4 point lead going into the final quarter and ended up losing by 8. And it's not like we lost to the Spurs (again) this was the BLAZERS, who 10-12 before tonight and 8-12 before they played the Jazz on Tue. The Jazz are not executing, not playing defense, not scoring, and generally not caring at all. To all the Jazz players: YOU ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT TO YOURSELVES AND TO ALL JAZZ FANS. HAVE SOME PRIDE AND PLAY WITH THE ATTITUDE THAT YOU ARE THE BETTER TEAM.

I am so beyond frustrated and annoyed at how my beloved Jazz are pissing away one of their best chances to win the championship in 10 years. At this point, I say Sloan needs to go. I love him and I think he's one of the top 5 coaches ever, but he is not the best coach for this team. He's an old school coach but the game has evolved and left him behind. If the Jazz lose at home to the Sonics tomorrow, I might just lose it and picket the stadium. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE.

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