The NBA sent an important message recently.  I hope America’s youth heard the decree loud and clear when the league told Caron Butler that under no circumstances will it tolerate his wicked habit.  Butler can influence our nation’s impressionable young minds and must use this power for good.  Therefore, the NBA will no longer allow [...]

Last Wednesday night I sat center court in New Orleans Arena, 15 rows up, watching the Jazz dispatch the Hornets.  Let me begin by emphasizing how Utah has impressed me with back-to-back victories in Houston and New Orleans.  Road wins on consecutive nights, the opposition held under 100 points in its own building, the Jazz [...]

I hated seeing Ronnie Brewer go.  I think we all did.  But Utah’s decision to move Brewer will almost certainly not have a significant, lasting impact on the Jazz or the Memphis Grizzlies.  Conversely, the transactions that follow—all made at the deadline—produced major headlines because they involved big names and, in some cases, altered the [...]

Can you feel it in the air?  It came with the close of All Star Weekend.  Perhaps you noticed the bitter cold starting to wane slightly, giving way to creeping warmth and incrementally longer days.  Spring—or at least the promise of it—has begun to stir, signaling the end of basketball’s long winter.  I love the [...]

Even the most optimistic fans harbor a fear deep inside that the Jazz will turn back into Lucy, making ridiculous Charlie Browns out of us.  You know what I mean—in the old Peanuts cartoon when Lucy repeatedly convinced Charlie Brown to try kicking the football, even though she always pulled it away at the last [...]

In New Orleans’ Uptown District, tucked between the shotgun houses and under the shadows of the oak and magnolia trees on Magazine Street, you can find a little shop called Dirty Coast that sells vintage t-shirts.  Walk out with a purchase and you get a free sticker that says, “Be a New Orleanian wherever you [...]

When my brother texted me late Saturday night to report a 52 point outburst in the NBA, Andre Miller was the last person I suspected.  Okay, that’s not true.  If my brother’s text had said, “Dad just signed a ten day contract with Portland and scored 52,” I would have felt even more surprised.  But [...]

The Jazz face a mammoth match-up with Dallas tonight — and not just because fans want to see if Deron Williams really takes a weed whacker to that scraggly beard.  Utah can pull within a half game of the Mavericks and the third seed in the Western Conference.  While two and a half months remain [...]

Utah’s airwaves felt eerily silent on April 28, 2009, the day after Hot Rod Hundley called the final Jazz game of his legendary career.  For over 30 years, Hundley was the only voice the franchise and its followers had ever known.  Hot Rod literally witnessed every moment in the team’s history, the only remaining link [...]

Deron Williams says he won’t shave his beard until the Jazz win five consecutive games.  Both Utah’s fanbase and D-Will’s wife hope the Jazz reach the mark, though probably for different reasons.  Is Deron’s beard challenge a result of superstitious thinking or is it a threat to teammates that they’d better help him win five [...]