The Jazz have become a symbol of many things during their Stockton-to-Malone era.. I will list these things and pay tribute to each:
1-Hard work: No one works harder or defends harder than the Jazz. The Jazz have the two players who probably sat out the least percentage of games in their respective careers. The Jazz are a blue collar team, they come to work every day and everyone is expected to produce.
2-Persistence and Consistency: The Jazz never give up on their dream. This is why the NBA's record for most winning seasons is held by the Jazz, a team that has yet to win a title, but has obviously put forth the greatest effort of those teams that have never won a title.
3-Loyalty: John and Karl are actually the Symbols of loyalty. The Jazz' coach Jerry Sloan is also a symbol of loyalty. Any of those three individuals could have fled Utah for greener pastures a long time ago if it were not for their loyalty.
4-Dirty play: The Jazz are notorious for their usage of "dirty methods" in basketball, such as "flopping" and "swiping at players while they drive" and I LOVE the team for it. This is how a professional is supposed to play. If you are not man enough to take a charge, don't play basketball. If you are not smart enough to know that you have to fall in order to show the referee that there is acharge, then you should also not play basketball. If you want to go in untouched to the rim, then you should play basketball on the computer, because in the real world, you have to earn your point.
5-Class: No organization or team shows more class than the Jazz. The only team that never blames a loss on a referee (even though they will argue with the referee just like everyone else). The only team that never blames losses on injuries. The team that has the classiest player in the universe "John Stockton."
6-Success: I know many people will say, the Jazz are the symbol of failure, they have been to the playoffs for like 18 consecutive years and they have yet to show a title for all those playoffs appearances. But to me, success is not about winning the ultimate prize, success lies in the satisfaction that you have done your best and earned every gain you got. The Jazz sucessful in their legacy in the NBA. The team that tried the hardest. A friend of mine once said, there is no such thing as "try", you either do or you don't. I tend to believe the opposite.. All we can do is try.
In the photos: Karl cruising for a dunk, John driving on Kidd, Hornacek avoiding Pippen, Russell shooting a tough fader, Marshall celebrating, Andrei practicing and finally, Tag getting stuffed, as usual. (:-)))
