Utah Jazz Tweet Of The Day: #NBArank

Nov 22, 2013; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Mavericks shooting guard Vince Carter (25) defends the shot of Utah Jazz small forward Richard Jefferson (24) during the second half at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

What are Utah Jazz fans talking about? Sometimes funny, sometimes serious, it’s the Utah Jazz Tweet of the Day!

No, Spencer, there is no Santa Claus. I mean, no, Spencer, he has not. Which means Trey Burke will ring in in at least the top 120 players currently in the NBA, not at all bad for a soph coming off an only-okay rookie season on a Western Conference lame duck that netted a mere 25 victories.

Some people love NBA Rank, while others loathe it as meaningless. Really, it was begun a few years ago by ESPN’s TrueHoop Network gurus to help fill in the news cycle dead spot between NBA free agency in the height of the summer and the start of training camps and preseason when there is very little for basketball fanatics to chatter about most years.

Love it or hate, most NBA fanatics will talk about #NBArank regardless.

At a glance, it seems like a very viable way to arrive at a legitimate placement for where NBA players stand in regards to their peers. As a distinguished HardwoodParoxysm alum (when HP was at ESPN) I’ve taken part in the ranking of all 500 players before. Frankly, it’s a little exhausting, and most experts — if not all — can’t possibly have a real grasp on more than half the league’s players at any given time, barring some serious Rain Man skills.

A few analysts do have a pretty good idea of where players might should be, but this handful attend games for nearly every team, have insider insights and write about basketball, sometimes multiple times daily. They are outweighed by the masses who mostly watch their own team and see everyone else a handful or less times a year.

This raises the question of perception, which is largely what #NBArank is based on. I’d wager that teams on national TV more times — playoffs included, when everyone’s watching — as well as teams that tend to have more coverage in the various annals of internet will generally have more players ranked too high than ones in remaining markets that were bad and whose coverage got far less burn nationally, in any given media.

This pair of players had reasonably comparable seasons statistically in 2013-14.

Player 2 shot better overall, was an NBA leader from three, and made more spectacular dunks last year than Player 1. Yet there is a staggering difference of 195 places between these players in NBA Rank. 195!

Why? Perception.

Player 2 actually even fell nine spots in NBA Rank from the season before when he played only 568 total minutes and averaged a measly 3.1 points per game. “He sucks!” Meanwhile, Player 1 leaped up 21 spots.

Despite playing vastly better than the previous season, Player 2 was ostracized all season long in blogs, languishing on a team where many called him the worst wing player in the league while playing in a relatively minuscule TV market.

Player 2 was branded, the mark made, the memory of scathing commentary burned into brains. He never had a chance to be higher than 315 in #NBArank due widespread perception that he shouldn’t even be in the league anymore despite a better season and being four years the younger than Player 1.

The beautiful irony here is that Player 2 just replaced Player 1 on the Dallas Mavericks roster for the 2014-15 NBA season.

Player 1 is Vince Carter.

This is Player 2, Richard Jefferson, who did this last year for the Utah Jazz:

Sorry, gang. You got this one wrong.

If you see a great tweet about the Utah Jazz, give us a heads up so we can feature it.