The Utah Jazz got their turn in the NBA TV offseason spotlight on Sunday as the entire day was their dedicated #TeamDay.
In order to help prevent NBA fans from going crazy during the long, monotonous offseason, NBA TV takes on a pretty cool undertaking. Each and every team gets its own ‘Team Day’ where the entire day is focused on one particular squad. That can include meaningful games from the team’s history, awesome highlights and just about everything in between.
Well, Sunday just so happened to be the Utah Jazz’s Team Day. 24 hours packed full of love for the Utah Jazz with incredible games and moments from throughout the team’s storied history.
A few such moments were also highlighted on NBA TV’s Twitter account which I’ve included below–
https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1031171425246146560
This dime put Stockton in a category of his own 👌🐐#TeamDay | @utahjazz pic.twitter.com/BCLtBhJfle
— NBA TV (@NBATV) August 19, 2018
https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1031374015821037568
By far my favorite game shown was the one above where John Stockton hit the dagger against the Houston Rockets in Game 6 to send the Jazz to the NBA Finals. That’s arguably the biggest shot and grandest moment in all of Utah Jazz history. Watching the reaction of Stockton and the rest of his teammates still sends shivers down my spine.
Oddly enough, one of the other moments that NBA TV opted to highlight was Derek Fisher‘s incredible performance in Game 2 of the second round of the 2007 NBA Playoffs. Fisher missed almost the entire contest so he could be with his daughter who was in surgery, but managed to make it back to Salt Lake City in the nick of time, arriving midway through the third quarter.
And Fisher was instrumental in Utah’s victory. His defense on Baron Davis was key to sending the game to overtime, then he hit clutch shots late in the game to elevate Utah to a thrilling win over the Golden State Warriors. Make no mistake about it, it was an incredibly epic moment and one that certainly had Jazz fans roaring.
Unfortunately, though, due to the nature of the way Fisher’s relationship with the Jazz ended, with him requesting to be released from his contract, this awesome moment is now looked back on with a little bit of bitterness from Jazz fans.
https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1031299772328464384
It was breath-taking at the time (and personally I think Jazz fans should show a little more respect to Fisher to this day), but I feel that NBA TV could have found several other incredible moments to feature instead that didn’t leave such a sour taste in the mouths of Jazz fans like this one.
Still, Utah Jazz #TeamDay on Sunday was an awesome occasion to soak in the Jazz love and reminisce about some of the great moments in the franchise’s history.
And fortunately for the Utah faithful, after a multi-year playoff drought, the last couple years of Jazz basketball have been phenomenal, and the team appears as if it may be the closest to the glory years that it’s been since the likes of Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer, or perhaps even John Stockton and Karl Malone, suited up for the Salt Lake City squad.
With the season less than two months away, the Team Day highlights were a great way to get psyched up for what should be an incredible and memorable 2018-19 Utah Jazz campaign. I can hardly wait for it to be here.