From Deseret News archives:
Utah gets taste of things to come
All of it. The mood swings. The referee baiting (Steve Javie has become the new Dick Bavetta). The nights when it just doesn't get any better, with the crowd howling and the players diving around and the volume turned all the way up.
So the Jazz are gone for 2007.
Yet in another sense, they're back.
One thing the Spurs, Mavericks, Suns and everyone else in the talent-crowded Western Conference has to know deep down in their size 18 shoes: The Jazz are coming. They're young, confident and most important, now they've had a taste. Isn't that what Jerry Sloan feared all along? That his teams would forget or never know what it feels like when every single possession counts. When the Earth seems to tilt with each possession.
So now they know.
This postseason is the stuff they'll remember when they get old.
"Once you get a taste of how good it feels," said reserve guard Ronnie Brewer, "you just want to try to get back."
It has nonetheless been a memorable playoff run. The improbable comeback from a 2-0 deficit to Houston. Kirilenko's tearful struggle to fit into his role. Derek Fisher's lesson on facing the greatest of all fears a child's cancer with dignity.
Williams' start against Golden State, when suddenly it became clear he is everything the Jazz hoped for and more. Rookie Paul Millsap's demonstration that it's not age that matters but maturity. Carlos Boozer's unpredictable, sometimes unstoppable, left hand.
And more: The fan outside EnergySolutions Arena, wearing a Jazz retro warm-up suit, a wig, a Jazz cape and holding up a sign asking for FREE lower-bowl tickets because he couldn't afford to buy his own. (Right, we'll get those right over to you.) An angry night in Salt Lake City when fans showered Javie and other officials with debris as they left the court.
Javie, who tossed Fisher and Sloan at the end of Game 4, has become the new object of Jazz fans' scorn, replacing Bavetta, the villain of the 1998 NBA Finals.
Only in the playoffs.
Comments
- French, Afghan troops push on 10:47 a.m.
- In quieter Baghdad, bingo is back 10:45 a.m.
- Germans ID convert as terror suspect 10:44 a.m.
- Serb Patriarch Pavle dies 10:25 a.m.
- Palin's way of talkin' dissected 10:24 a.m.
- Sponsor for gay-rights bills found 9:53 a.m.
- Aggies beat Spartans in snowy Logan 4:31 a.m.
- TCU 55, Utah 28 4:24 a.m.
- BYU 24, New Mexico 19 4:21 a.m.
- Jazz game at a glance 3:00 a.m.
- SLC council OKs gay rights policies
359 - BYU happy to escape with victory
207 - Editorial: Mormons and gay rights
200 - TCU creams U.
165 - Will state consider gay rights law?
148 - Can BYU root for (ick) Utah Utes?
130 - Letters: Strange breed in Utah
130 - Utes remain silent about BCS
120 - Celtics crush Jazz
104 - Sloan may toy with starting lineup
87
the one thing you will come to find, is that wherever you go, there you are....
We don't need no dang old langudges. We got english and thas good enuf.
Well, World War I ended in 1918, so if this picture was taken in 1936 there...
That is one of the dangers of shore line property, the shore line is...
The Utes probably have a better team than BYU so Ute fans had better stop bad...
Hilarious. Nice troll letter. There is no way someone like the writer could...
Governor Herbert. Young families make decisions whether to buy food or...
sorry you feel that way. The good news is that you are 18 now and free to...
Utah was not "exposed". We have known all along what was going to happen. ...


You can be the first to comment on this story.