Utah Jazz: Come for the game, stay for the press conference

The Utah Jazz live and die by the motto, “the strength of our team is our team.” Their team-first mentality has captured the hearts and attention of fans from across the country and may be best exemplified in Utah’s recent postgame press conferences. How far can Utah’s selflessness take them?

Just over four months ago, things weren’t looking good for this year’s Utah Jazz squad. They found themselves trying to re-group from a brutal December schedule. The lottery pick predictions were quickly joined by cries of “#TankNote.”

Fast forward to now. The Jazz find themselves in the second round of the playoffs after defeating a team that featured both Russell Westbrook and Paul”Playoff Pushoff P” George. After an impressive Game 2 against the Houston Rockets, Utah now holds home court advantage in a best of five series against the league’s top team.

No too bad for a team made up of a bunch of non-scorers and nobodys, right?

Utah’s mid-season turnaround begs us to ask the question, how exactly did we get to this point? The answer is simple, yet profound. The Utah Jazz are a team in the very essence of the word.

In the spirit of Donovan Mitchell‘s “rookie” hoodie, the BusinessDictionary defines a team as,  “a group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task, job, or project.”

The definition also adds this, “a team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members.”

Despite their diverse backgrounds and cultures, it has become increasingly clear that this group genuinely loves playing the game of basketball together. The cool thing is that the love doesn’t stop as soon as they step off the floor and out of the arena.

Heck, even James Harden wanted to get in on the action during Game 2:

https://twitter.com/Brandon_Nocaute/status/992064185021403136

The Jazz have further emphasized this mentality through their postgame press conferences and interviews. While other teams have one or two stars at the podium after a game, Utah has elected to send three or four players per night.

It isn’t just the fact that the Jazz are including more players in the postgame programs, it is how each player handles the situation. While Mitchell routinely finds himself at the center of the media’s attention, he is quick to deflect the praise to his teammates.

The Jazz don’t have quite as star-studded of a roster as other championship contenders employ, however, that might not matter. The Utah Jazz are on a mission to prove that a tight-knit, well-coached team can out-duel a few brilliant individual talents.

Even without Ricky Rubio, the Jazz have proven to be a formidable foe to the West’s top-seeded Rockets behind strong performances from Alec Burks and Dante Exum. Who will be Game 3’s surprise?

The Utah Jazz, led by Quin Snyder, have mastered Real Salt Lake’s “the team is the star” approach.

While the Jazz may still be a year or so away from realistically competing for a title, the foundation and culture has already been established. Don’t be surprised when you open up next year’s updated version of the dictionary and all you see is this picture…

Ready or not, this Utah Jazz TEAM is here to stay. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride, Jazz fans. This team plays basketball the way it was meant to be played and it is a whole lot of fun to watch.

Follow the team’s example, and quit doubting and just enjoy the ride. #TakeNote

Next: Utah Jazz: Mitchell, Exum put double exclamation points on huge win

Follow me on Twitter @TylerDThorpe for more Utah Jazz insights and analysis.