The Utah Jazz were quick with a cool response to less than flattering remarks made by Golden State Warriors players about Salt Lake City’s night life.
So Tuesday was the best/worst day to be a Utah Jazz fan in some time. On the one hand, the current iteration of the Jazz broke new ground, tipping off the team’s first second-round series in the better part of a decade. On the other hand, they were more or less embarrassed by Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors.
Losing is one thing — even the biggest homers (shoutout to CP3!) among us were probably skeptical of the team’s ability to win on little rest against what is arguably the best team of this generation.
However, the fact that Utah’s Game 1 loss went down just after Warriors forwards Matt Barnes and Andre Iguodala seemed more concerned about Salt Lake City’s night life (by taking shots at its apparent lack thereof) than the team they would be facing feels like salt in the wound.
Said Iguodala (via ESPN) —
"“In Utah, it can kind of lull you to sleep. And then you’ve slept too long or I’m bored out of my mind and now you got to try to pump yourself up for the game. You know you’re in the playoffs and you’re supposed to be pumped anyway, but the vibe is just like, ‘Man, let’s just get out of here.”"
They may as well have said, “We don’t care who you are, how you play or what you do. Also, your city sucks and has no night life.”
While revenge in the form of wins may be hard to come by in the Jazz-Warriors series, fans can take some solace in some of the cool, clever responses to the night life controversy.
The Jazz responded by putting the whole thing on a sweet “#NightLife” t-shirt. Not only does this give Jazz fans some fresh, new threads for Game 3 when the series comes to Salt Lake, but it’s raising money for a good cause as well. Some of the proceeds from the sale of the shirts will go to benefit 5ForTheFight and cancer research.
Joe Ingles’ solution to the Warriors’ problem: shoot down to Vegas if it’s that bad. He may even foot the bill —
"“If they want to go to L.A., they can still go to L.A. between the games if they want,” Ingles said with a smile. “They’ve got enough money to pay for a jet to go and then come back on game days if they want the entertainment. Or they can drive to Vegas, too, if they really want. I’ll hire the car for them.”"
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The Jazz and the Warriors will be back in action on Thursday.