R.I.P. 2007-2008 Utah Jazz

By Governor X

JAZZ DOMINATION has come to an end, and I must say, it didn't end as I had imagined it. In my mind there was going to be a lopsided stomping of the Boston Celtics in game 6 of the finals. The fans at Polygamy Solutions Arena would go wild and rowdy crowds outside would riot and burn SLC police cars. It would have been glorious.

Well, it ended in game six in Salt Lake, but not as described above. The Lakers, clearly cheating as usual, jumped out to a big lead and never surrendered it. Oh, they tried alright. Leading 15-19 for most of the game, they fell apart in the 4th quarter so bad that Utah had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer, but it wasn't to be.

What went wrong? Frankly in game 6, pretty much everything, but lets set that aside for a moment. The real problem in the series was the complete disappearance of Carlos Boozer. Carlos really only showed up in Game 4, never being seen or heard from before or after. Had Boozer put up his average numbers from the season, the Jazz very likely would have won the series.

The hoisting of a championship banner in Salt Lake is therefore put off for another year. It will happen my friends, oh yes. The talented core of the Jazz is young and the last two seasons of playoff ball can only help build them up for next year.

The highlight of the season for me was the total emergence of Deron "Mormon Chocolate" Williams as a force to be reckoned with in the NBA. Williams runs the offense as skillfully and brilliantly as Stockton did back in the day and while his pick'n'roll teammate Boozer vanished in the playoffs, Deron did his best to carry the load.

Aside from Williams, two of his teammates made an impression in my eyes. Mehmet "The Turk" Okur has moved up my list of favorite Jazz players. Big men who can rain threes aren't something that comes around every day. The strong performance of Andrei "AK47" Kirilenko in the playoffs allowed me to forgive his pre-season sins. His two threes late in game 6 to put Utah in a position to tie were beyond clutch.