Four Utah Jazz players featured in Game of Zones

Bleacher Report’s parody of “Game of Thrones” features three new episodes including four players, past and present, from the Utah Jazz.

One thing that has been quenching my thirst for Utah Jazz basketball and just NBA basketball in general are the fictional episodes of “Game of Zones”, made by Bleacher Report.

The staff started the NBA parody of the TV show “Game of Thrones” exactly six years ago on May 16 of 2014, because they discovered a good amount of basketball junkies also happened to be viewers of “Game of Thrones” as well.

Basically it shows the NBA world except fictionalized in a medieval setting where each team has their own castle (arena), and knights (players).

They battle other houses in competition to see who is the last house standing, similar to the NBA playoffs.

Sprinkled in every episode are little Easter eggs and references to real events that are happening in the NBA world.

For example, in one of the latest episodes where Dwyane Wade is training to become a media member, he finally gets to report on a story to which Adrian Wojnarowski snickers and says “I broke that story ten minutes ago!”.

*NSFW language spoken in videos

The series is quite humorous to me as I am an avid NBA fan, and am able to catch most of the hidden jokes and references to poke fun at NBA players, coaches, and media members.

Since the NBA season has been suspended and put on hiatus, Bleacher Report has released three new episodes of “Game of Zones”, with a developing story line centered on the NBA legends challenging the newer generation of players to a battle.

It makes perfect sense since Michael Jordan has chosen to release “The Last Dance” documentary on himself and the Chicago Bulls teams he played for in the late 1990s.

With little to nothing else to talk about around the league, there has been plenty of debate on the top players to ever play in the association. You can check out ESPN’s top 10 list here.

There’s been plenty of debate over whether Isiah Thomas or John Stockton is the greater point guard of All-Time, and ditto between Michael Jordan and LeBron James for the ultimate greatest player of All-Time stamp.

There’s also been plenty of chatter of the greatest NBA players to never win a championship. There were so many great players in the Michael Jordan era that were more than capable but ran into the dominance of MJ and the Bulls year after year.

In “Game of Zones”, Giannis Antetokounmpo spots the Dream Team, who are portrayed as a bunch of zombie-looking creatures with their full basketball powers despite being well into their ’50s and ’60s.

Stockton and Karl Malone are both a part of the Dream Team and are shown practicing the pick and roll on a basketball court in episode __.

Later, when the NBA realm is deciding which house is best equipped to take on the Dream Team, they decide that no one house can compete and therefore create their own selecting the best knights from the NBA realm.

In essence, they make their own All-NBA team with help from the media, and Rudy Gobert gets selected to this prestigious team.

They also mention that they will need defense, highlighting Rudy’s love and knack for stifling opponents trying to score on him.

Donovan Mitchell appears for a brief moment standing next to Gobert, but doesn’t have too much of a role in the series otherwise.

Take away from it what you will, but for me it’s nice for the Jazz to finally have recognition in the “Game of Zones”. Typically they like to focus on large market teams and the more popular stars around the league.

I know ultimately it doesn’t matter in a basketball sense, but it’s still nice for Bleacher Report to throw this bone to the Jazz.

The latest episode which dropped yesterday ends with the current generation gearing up for their battle with the Dream Team, leaving viewers on a cliff hanger wondering who won this battle and how it went.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all three of these new episodes the past month, and I highly recommend them to any of you who are craving your fixing of NBA and Utah Jazz basketball delivered in a humorous way.

As for the debate between the greatest players of All-Time, I have my opinions. LeBron James definitely belongs near the top of that list, and not too many current NBA players can even say they’re close to that.

That isn’t to say we won’t be looking back on this generation of NBA stars as legends in 30 years from now. It’s just too early in my opinion to accurately rank the Greak Freak, Kawhi Leonard, and Stephen Curry among the best the league has ever had.