Hippie Colors

I’ve always been someone who invests quite a lot emotionally when watching basketball and my father used to tease me a lot about it. I sometimes cried when Toyota lost and my brother got mad at me once for making so much noise while watching a Ginebra game on TV.

Nowadays, it’s the Utah Jazz that affect me and this season has been a roller coaster ride. An improbable 12-1 start making me wonder if that was for real after missing the playoffs last year. Improbable wins against strong teams like Dallas and Phoenix and equally improbable losses against weaker teams. A series of 4 game losing streaks and a regular season debacle toward the end that landed them in 5th spot instead of 4th. A 0-2 start in the playoffs, being written off when they were down 2-3 and look at them now, 2-0 against Golden State in a series that was nowhere near what was expected by pundits. Even Game 2 was a roller-coaster in itself. Down 5 with a minute to go and I was already prepared to be disappointed. And then the improbable happened and all shots were made and 3 out of 4 free throws were missed on the other side. If you want to know my mood, check the internet for the state of the Utah Jazz. I can’t help it.

I’ve been a Jazz fan since the Stockton era because they play good basic basketball. Nothing fancy. No Carmelo Anthony or Kobe Bryant or Gilbert Arenas or Steve Nash or Nowitzki. Very rarely do they make the Top 5 plays of the week except for some assist or other. They just play good team basketball. I’m a fan too because noone pays any attention to them. When they were 12-1, pundits were calling it a fluke. When they were losing a lot toward season’s end, everyone was saying I told you so. And everyone picked Houston over Utah.

Fancy is overrated. The game after all is basketball and the winner won’t be the team with the stars but the team which plays the best basketball.