[Pro Sports] Still suffering from too much holiday, we plopped our festivity-enhanced butts on the couch last night and settled in for the Jazz vs. 76ers game.
It was a great game, not simply because Utah won 110-107, but because--as the commentators calling the game and offering color kept pointing out--it was the first face time for guards Kyle Korver and Gordan Giricek, each of whom was traded for the other just last week.
But naturally, fans began booing Giricek as soon as he took to the floor and didn't stop for the whole game.
Korver sunk a series of lovely 3-point shots as well as some key free throws at game's end, and now has Jazz fans willing to tattoo his name on their chests. At least until he misses a few shots. Then they'll turn on him in that familiar way that always perplexes me. It's a long, long season. Can't they simply mete out their shitty behavior over eight months time?
Salt Lake Tribune sports columnist Kurt Kragthorpe offers one of the more thoughtful takes today on the whole booing incident. Jazz forward Carlos Boozer shrugged off the churlish fansas typical of most fans who perceive certain players as traitors (and he should know--Cleveland fans have yet to accept Boozer as barely more than human since leaving the Cavaliers for the Jazz four seasons back).
It's pretty clear that Giricek and Jazz coach Jerry Sloan had some bad mojo, and for quite some time. And that their relationship was having a negative impact on the rest of the team. Sloan finally had a belly full of their "lack of chemistry" and sent Giricek packing from the team's holiday road series. Late last week, Giricek was back at team practice, and everyone appeared to have patched things up. The next day, Giricek was gone, traded to Philaelphia for young Korver, the guy with the shooter's touch and a pair of fabulously expressive eyes that resemble a wolf's.
Kragthorpe has a knack for writing tastefully and tactfully, and for knowing his subject. He was kinder to Utah fans than I ever could be. I thought the fan behavior toward Giricek--from beginning to end--was really lousy. Reprehensible, really. With Korver looking so good in the past two games, it looks like a great deal for Utah. The way the whole trade looks at this point, I'd say fans ought to be lighting candles to Giricek and building a shrine to him.
It's all going to work out. Can't the hayseed fans at Energy Solutions Arena just be decent for a change?
(Above is an NBA photo from a previous game--before the big trade--Korver on the right; Giricek on the left.)
Did you watch the game? Don't Utah fans deserve a kick in the ass? Tell me. (Holly Mullen)
