weekender 4

another week without an entry. it's moderately ironic that while at school i had "time" to post relatively often, while now that i'm on vacation with my family i can only manage to pop in once a week. c'est la vie.

my only thought tonight is based on a conversation i've had several times since going to the portland-utah game last monday night. there's been a lot of hand-wringing in salt lake city this season over how poorly (or at least sub-par in comparison to recent years/this year on the road) the jazz are doing at home. after making it to two home games for the jazz in the last week (with another on the way tomorrow), i've come to a conclusion.

it's the fans' fault.

i get that sloan is making questionable rotation decisions right now, and that memo has been out, and that the jazz are one of the worst first-half teams in the league. but it's this last point, the rally-to-win-late existence of the 2010-2011 jazz that has brought mediocrity to the radium stadium. the fans know the jazz are capable of winning against any team in the league right now (save maybe dallas), and they can do it even when down 10 in the 3rd quarter. so we sit in our seats drinking beer/sprite waiting for something to happen.

the problem is this: normally the crowd at ESA is enormously hostile from the tip. so long as the fans are sitting on their asses watching a game unfold as unexcited as i was watching the series finale of "LOST," we're not going to see blowouts at home. against memphis last night, even when the jazz were up 12 in the third, the crowd was instantly silenced after every lay-up by zach randolph. there was some booing when francisco "not saying boo, saying big tooooolip" elson got ejected after the referree magically called two technical fouls on him at exactly the same time (which seemed to bend the time-space contiuum from where i was sitting), but then the jumbotron guy started in with "twist and shout" and showing ugly children flailing, like a recently divorced white guy at a dance club, in the aisles before the crowd could understand what happened and tell the officials what we thought of their decision.

i get that it's fun to watch the jazz win after being in the hole on the road. but (and this is in direct opposition to my dad's point of view when i asked him about this topic) i'd rather watch the jazz crush and humiliate the blazers and memphis when they come into town than keep my fingers crossed while the team bumbles through possession after possession while the sober crowd talks about what they learned in sunday school.

get it together, jazz fans. you used to be hated for being mormon and offensive. you'll be hated more for being mormon and boring.