For years, the Utah Jazz have garnered a bad reputation for not being a player's destination. Former NBA player and Jazz rival Jason Williams said as much shortly after the Jazz traded for Jaren Jackson Jr. However, for that reason, Utah has to work around that, which makes the NBA's recent fine even stupider.
During his appearnace on "Hoopin' N' Hollerin'," Williams explicitly stated that players don't get excited about playing for the Jazz because they don't want to play in Utah.
“I’m almost guaranteed that anybody that gets traded to Utah, their first thing is ‘Ugh…(expletive)’ Seriously. And it ain’t nothing against the Jazz. It’s just, this is what it is. I mean, maybe there’s one or two, three teams in that category like that city,” Williams said.
Williams' heyday was with the Sacramento Kings, who battled the Utah Jazz three times towards the end of the Karl Malone-John Stockton era, losing to them in 1999, but beating them in 2002 and 2003. Williams was there when they lost to that Jazz team for the only time in '99.
Williams is far from the first NBA personnel to bring this up. Lauri Markkanen has done his best to dispel this narrative, and former Jazz fan favorite Derrick Favors has gone out of his way to let fans know how much he loved Utah on multiple occasions. And even still, former players like Williams keep this narrative going.
But, a lot of people still believe this, which is why precisely why Utah is pulling all the stops to tank these last two seasons. Whether players hate playing in Utah or not, they do want to play in nice weather top markets like Los Angeles or Miami, or if they want to play just in a top market, they will play in New York.
The best way for the Jazz to build a good team is through the draft or through savvy deals like the one they just made for JJJ. They have had superstars, but they have never had them handed to them on a silver platter.
The NBA is punishing Utah for... being smart?
The NBA recently punished the Jazz for keeping their starters out of the fourth quarter, even though that's technically not against any NBA rules. Compare this to last year when they were fined for benching Lauri Markkanen for entire games precisely because they were breaking a rule.
It's a sketchy strategy, for sure, but it's the best one Utah currently has up its sleave. In case anyone doesn't know, the Jazz aren't doing this just for a high pick; they're also trying to keep it away from Oklahoma City, which is precisely why the Thunder are making a big stink about this.
The NBA can try to change things up, but the Jazz are executing an unfair strategy because they are at an unfair disadvantage. Williams bringing this up proves precisely why punishing them for trying to work around it is dumb.