Utah Jazz Thank You Notes

Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports

Dear readers,

Hello! It’s nice to meet you! My name’s Blake, and I am a new contributor here at The J Notes. I look forward to interacting with you as we discuss the Utah Jazz. I’m from Utah and have been a Jazz fan for as long as I can remember. I recently turned 30, meaning I’ve been following the team for a long time. I have many great memories of John Stockton and Karl Malone leading the Jazz over the years, along with all of the ups and downs that have come along since that era ended. That’s enough about me for now. Over time you’ll get to know more about me than you probably want to.

With the 2013-14 NBA season about to conclude, I would like to express some gratitude in the form of some thank you notes. Right after you read this post, you should really jump on YouTube and check out some of Jimmy Fallon’s thank you card skits. They’re hilarious! Anyway, back to business.

• Thank You to all Utah Jazz fans who have shown how much you care about the team throughout this season. Some of you have fully embraced the tanking strategy in hopes of landing a franchise-changing player in the 2014 NBA draft. Other fans lamented this approach and have expressed disappointment and even anger that the Jazz let Big Al and Paul Millsap leave via free agency last summer. Some fans have said that other fans aren’t good fans based on their opinion of the team’s approach to this season. While I don’t condone petty name-calling, I’m grateful to be part of a fan base that really cares about the team it supports.

• Thank You, Utah Jazz Game Night: The Pregame Show for introducing the Fact or Fiction segment this season. I usually end up watching games a couple of hours after the fact and, in the interest of time, skipping past the pregame show. But you had better believe that when there is a Fact or Fiction segment, I will watch it. It’s proven to be an entertaining way to get the opinions and viewpoints of the pregame crew. There have been times when I enjoyed Fact or Fiction more than the actual game. Like during the game in Memphis on March 19 when Matt Harpring and Craig Bolerjack tried so hard to participate and keep straight faces even with a marching band practicing behind them.

• Thank You, Dennis Lindsey for moving full speed ahead with your strategy. We won’t know how well it’s worked for another year or two, but things rarely work when done halfheartedly.

• Thank You Miller family, for allowing Dennis Lindsey to do his job. It’s been a down year for the Jazz, resulting in more empty green seats at the arena than we’re used to. Obviously that means less revenue coming in from ticket sales, concessions, and possibly merchandise sales as well. I appreciate that you are willing to have a season (or more) like this with the intent of strengthening the team for the long haul. Thank you also for replacing the old Jumbotron. The new video boards are amazing.

• Thank You Jazz game broadcasters Craig Bolerjack, I enjoy your work and especially appreciate it when you’re away to cover a football game and Steve Brown does play-by-play. Matt Harpring, I love your enthusiasm for the Where Are You Watching and Bucket Chart segments, which in turn gets me excited for them as well. Ron Boone, nobody will EVER be able to take your place in announcing donations made from Mountain America Credit Union when the Jazz make a three-point shot. David Locke, I never listen to games on the radio, but I love that you do Tip Off and are frequently on Twitter posting a lot of facts and stats. I think it’s fair to say that you work as hard as or harder than every other teams’ radio announcers.

• Thank You, Andris Biedrins. It was great to see your smiling face for so much of the season while you collected millions of dollars to go to practice and sit on the bench during games. For as bad as things went from the free throw line (1-6) you shot 100% from the field! Sure, it was only one shot, but man, you made it!

• Thank You Richard Jefferson for always making me smile when you said “NBA University of Arizona” in your starting lineup intro.

• Thank You Trey Burke, for helping the Jazz to occasionally resemble an NBA team with you in the lineup.

• Thank You Coach Corbin for rejuvenating Richard Jefferson’s career. No, seriously.

• Thank You McDonald’s for your awesome McNugget Jazz home game day promotion. I didn’t take advantage of it enough.

• Last, but not least, Thank You 2013-14 NBA season, for ending tomorrow. It’s been rough at times, especially during this 3-21 death spiral the Jazz have been on since February 28. I can only hope that tomorrow comes and goes, as it would be a really bad time to get caught in a Groundhog Day type of scenario.