Rate Your Rivals

Posted by Jared Conger on October 15, 2008

‘Respect the Rockets?’ (China Daily)

Recently the Houston Rockets had a poll running on their website as to who was their top rival – the results overwhelmingly point towards us here at the Utah Jazz. (53% of 10,000 people)

But, when we held a poll asking the same question the results pointed towards the Lakers, and even Denver before the Rockets.

Are we not giving the Rockets enough respect? We did beat them in the first round of the playoffs the last two years but perhaps we should go back to the Hakeem the Dream era and recall how they used to eat our lunches until we picked up Hornacek.

Sure we don’t even share a division with Houston, but neither do the Lakers share a division with us – however, the Nuggets and the Blazers do. Are we so cocky that we are not giving appropriate respect to our inner division rivals (even the ones that are seemingly free-falling *ahem* Denver!). Let us not forget that we’ve been running into the Rockets and the Lakers in the Playoffs with a seemingly equal regularity; but it was the Blazers that beat us in ‘92 4 games to 2 in the Western Conference Finals. In fact, if the Playoffs were to be the key factor in any of our “rivalries” then we would see them as follows:

1. vs. Houston – 21-18 playoff record.
2. vs. Portland – 12-19 playoff record.
3. vs. Seattle (RIP) – 12-10 playoff record.
4. vs. Lakers – 13-9 playoff record.
5. vs. Spurs – 12-8 playoff record.

Now if you’ll allow me to list our current top-12 rivals in order of what I perceive as “relevance”…. (includes past and present matchups)

1. Houston Rockets- As long as we keep meeting them in the playoffs, and as long as their fans continue to dislike us, and as long as they have Ron Artest, or Tracy McGrady; we will be scrapping with each other in the proverbial trenches.
2. LA Lakers- With the past, present, and future to think about, the Lakers will likely always be our #2 rival; people in SLC typically don’t dig on the glitzy glamour that the world sees them to have. Also, how can we forget the Magic, and Kareem era, and how can we move past the Kobe vs. the world, era? Did I mention they have Derek Fisher still?
3. San Antonio Spurs – The Spurs have had our number for almost a decade, so why aren’t they higher on the list? One has to feel the venom of the other teams before thinking about that statement; their fans hate us possibly more than the seemingly docile Spurs faithful. With the addition of Father Time looming over their heads, this rivalry could see a drop off over the next several years.
4. Portland Trailblazers – Those pesky Blazers! They have poked us in the ribs since the days of Clyde the Glide! And now they are one of the youngest, most exciting teams in the league – barring injury of course. The big question that will determine the level of this rivalry is: Can they get to the playoffs again? If so, they will be visiting Jazz Country for years to come.
5. Sacramento Kings – The Kings have a funny way about how they show up to play the Jazz. They seem to beat us when all odds are against them. Remember when they sent us home in the first round of the 2002, and 2003 playoffs!?! God those games were rough, I even had signs and such…
6. New Orleans- Chris Paul or Deron Williams? DWill, or CP3? These are the questions that will be hanging around until these two guys retire, and hopefully Deron will be retiring in Jazz Blue (formerly purple). Did I mention that New Orleans is a National fave to win the conference – depending on whom you ask of course…
7. Phoenix Suns- The Suns, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Charles Barkley, Kevin Johnson, Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Shaquille O’Neal? Well, I think since they’ve added that last name on there lineage they will be making a downward spiral, but we still share a southern border with them so they deserve to be on this list by geography alone.
8. Denver Nuggets – Another geographical opponent, we fight with them for air time on FSN in the West… We fight over who wears powder blue uni’s… We fight under the basket when we are killing them (see last year’s games versus the ‘Thuggets’).
9. Chicago Bulls – I don’t want to pontificate on whether or not “he” pushed off or not, but I hope you see why they are here.
10. Golden State Warriors – They were a nemesis back in their glory days (no not the one year two years ago). When Nelson had “Run TMC” in ‘87, and ‘89 they beat us in the first round  of the Playoffs beating us in 3/5 home games. Besides, didn’t we all leave our hearts in San Francisco…
11. Dallas Mavericks – When Dirk took Andrei down under the hoop last year it rekindled something inside me, it reminded me of that dreaded playoff series in 2001, when Calvin Booth hit the game winner over us in game 5 of the first round of the playoffs, again, I had made signs (note: i will never make signs for playoff games again). Though they are aging, my anger will run deep for sometime.
12. Atlanta Hawks- This one may seem weak, but if you go back to the last 3 years of RMR action, you will see a certain intensity from the Hawks, now it may be that they are just sick of losing and have developed that “killer instinct” they seemingly have lacked for the longest time, but something was there. (note: Marvin Williams almost got into fights with Rafael Arujo)

Got any beef with that? Hit me back….

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4 Comments

Dallin T on October 15, 2008 said:

Hey, we all know Jordan pushed off Russell–he admitted it on 60 Minutes!

Jared Conger on October 15, 2008 said:

any chance that 60 minutes interview is on youtube?

Sami Syammach on October 16, 2008 said:

it’s only a foul if you get caught MJ still won the game for the Bulls so and we lost. Get over it!
Utah Jazz ‘09

Jared Conger on October 17, 2008 said:

watched the interview, he didn’ so much confirm a push, as he did illustrate one to the interviewer.

i’m over it, the bulls suck now while we’ve stayed up. thats good … for now…

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