Utah Jazz playoff preview: Where is Williams among the Best of the West?
Phoenix's Steve Nash has two NBA Most Valuable Player awards.
Chris Paul of New Orleans has adoration from the masses, and is a top contender — along with Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston's Kevin Garnett — to be named MVP this season.
And Deron Williams?
All the Jazz point guard has is the highest of regard from most who cross his path, a road which — as Williams tells it — could very well lead to somewhere not even all-time NBA steals and assists leader John Stockton stepped.
"I think we're one of the best teams in the league, if not the best team in the league," Williams, asked about the Jazz's chances for winning a championship, said as the Jazz prepared to open postseason play. "I believe that."
If Utah is to win, anytime in the foreseeable future, what eluded both Stockton and fellow Jazz retiree Karl Malone — this year, next year, sometime sooner rather than later — it likely will be largely because of the play of its point. Someone, who in three seasons out of the University of Illinois, has quickly but quietly climbed high up the ladder of elite NBA floor generals.
Houston's Rafer Alston has a great streetball nickname — Skip To My Lou — and has adapted well to NBA play.
But his Globetrotter-like game — which the Jazz are likely to see when they open first-round play in a best-of-seven series against the Rockets — still may be better suited to blacktop than the hardcourt.
Derek Fisher, like Parker, has three championship rings. But the Los Angeles Lakers — whom the Jazz may face in second-round play — are Bryant's team, not Fisher's.
The story is a similar one for Parker, who may have the keys to the Spurs but perhaps wouldn't get far without an engine named Tim Duncan.
Jason Kidd of Dallas is toward the tail end of a likely Hall of Fame career, and Williams actually is one of his understudies with USA Basketball's national-team program. But age is catching up with Kidd, and the up-and-coming Jazz point, who was raised in the Dallas area, arguably has a step up on the Maverick who once was his very own favorite player.
Nash, too, probably has most, perhaps all, of his best years behind him. And Williams gets as up to play the former MVP as he does Kidd, with a knack for finding his way under Nash's skin.
Then there is Paul, who was selected one spot behind No. 3 overall pick Williams in the 2005 NBA Draft — but has cast something of a shadow over him since, winning Rookie of the Year honors almost unanimously and making himself this year a lead character in an MVP discussion that doesn't even include Williams.
Recent comments
Yep! A lot of people underrated another great point - John Stockton...
Derron underrated? | April 23, 2008 at 12:54 p.m.
When the Jazz win it all this year, they will have beaten one of...
SA JazzFan | April 21, 2008 at 11:06 a.m.
You must remember...when we do get to the Lakers, we have not only...
Rock | April 21, 2008 at 11:01 a.m.
