8 June 2009

It looks like my hopes of the Jazz drafting Tyler Hansbrough are fading (Chad Ford - ESPN Insider)
In his latest mock, Chad Ford still has Hansbrough coming to Utah, but that came before the above column. It makes total sense -- he had one of the world's best college careers in history, and he's tall, tough and athletic. He's the next Matt Harpring, only playing the position might be better suited for someone with the (barf) football geneology Harpring has.

I'm still allowed to be bummed that the rest of the country is finding out that he can jump, despite his skin deficiency. I guess Luke Nevill can wear #50 when the Jazz pull off a huge coup and draft their leading shot blocker.

Free Darko calls current Jazz nbadraft.net mock pick Wayne Ellington the "Most Likely to be the Barack Obama of Utah"
Not the western frontiersman that Karl Malone was (or is, as he's likely shooting at something out the back of his 18-wheeler right now), Wayne is, instead, the sort of mainstream (UNC-bred) African-American made for Utah: articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. He's also the sort of system scorer who could thrive in Utah, where NBADraft.net is projecting he winds up.

Kind of racist, no?

ShamSports is doing an incredible Where Are They Now on every draft pick from 1994 to 2008.
1994 Jazz pick: Jaime Watson (#47)
Watson played 102 games in the league over three years, before exploring a few other countries, such as China, Portugal, Lebanon, Cyprus, Columbia, Domincan Republic, Chile, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia....you know, all the usual haunts. His last stop came in Jordan (giggidy), when he averaged 17.8 points per game for Al Riyadi in 2006. He later played for the Jordanian National Team, believing perhaps rightly that his chance of joining USA Basketball had passed.
1995 Jazz pick: Greg Ostertag (#28)
Ostertag retired in 2006, and with him disappeared any Greg Ostertag news. If I were to guess, I'd guess that he's doing a lot of fishing right about now.

Greg Ostertag was the 28th pick. The Jazz got sure did get a lot out of a 28th pick, eh? (Comparison: 1994s 28th pick -- some fellow named Deon Thomas by Dallas)

Kirk Snyder's incompetence is declared on yet another court (San Francisco Chronicle)

Boozer goes to Africa (Deseret News)
Deron Williams doesn't seem to care where Boozer heads next season (Deseret Morning News)

It's like the words were taken right out of my mouth (Daily Utah Chronicle)

Re-asking the Fesenko question (SL Trib)
The only tougher question for the Jazz is how to trade Kirilenko, methinks.

Bette Midler, who also goes by the unfortunate stage name The Divine Miss M (which isn't quite as bad as Beyonce's 'Sasha Fierce'), is hitting her monumental 100th Las Vegas show performance. The Associated Press marks their worst line ever written in the story about Miss M's milestone:
Bette Midler admits it takes a little work to keep her Las Vegas Strip show fresh.
Yuck.

A beautiful sports/father-son piece (UniWatch)

And music: