How Far Away Are The Utah Jazz From Being Popular?

The Washington Wizards played against the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night and they narrowly escaped Salt Lake City with a 88-84 victory.

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The score was 86-84 and the Jazz forced Wizards point guard John Wall into a turnover on the inbound play. The Jazz got the basketball and found Gordon Hayward on the right wing. Hayward took a jab step on Paul Pierce (a person who Hayward’s been compared to) and missed the three-pointer to win the game.

In an instant the Jazz who were riding a five game winning streak saw their streak come to an abrupt end. The Wizards celebrated in elation inside of Energy Solutions Arena because of what they had accomplished against the Jazz, only giving them their third loss since the All-Star break.

“Playoff teams in the East now feel like they accomplished something by beating the Jazz. It’s been a long time coming,” said Amar Smith. The Editor-in-Chief of SLCDunk couldn’t have said it any better.

People don’t realize it quite yet but in a short amount of time they will. The Utah Jazz are becoming one of the best teams in the NBA, and it’s happening a lot faster than a lot of people expected.

Mar 19, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Utah Jazz guard Trey Burke (3) drives to the basket against Los Angeles Lakers forward Ed Davis (21) and guard Jeremy Lin (17) during the game at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports /

The Jazz are playing some of the best basketball in the NBA, and since the All-Star break they have put up an impressive record of 12-3.

Even with their 31-37 record, when teams play against the Jazz they use the game as a litmus test. The Jazz have one of the most difficult arenas to play in and even the best superstars in the league have felt uncomfortable.

Four-time league MVP LeBron James, has felt the atmosphere, and the pressure of the arena when he played inside of Salt Lake City.

“The memories here — I’ve lost a lot of games that I’ve played well here,” said James.

The Jazz have found ways to win close games, and that’s all that matters in a league full of superstars. Now that the Jazz are finally winning games, it won’t be long until they become a popular team in the league in the immediate future.

In fact, Complex magazine writer Maurice Peebles came up with a chart of popularity throughout the NBA. Now say hello as we enter into the NBA Likability Matrix.

Complex Magazine’s 2014-15 NBA Likability Matrix /

The chart is broken down into four quadrants, between teams that are likeable, good at basketball, bad at basketball, and unlikeable. Surprisingly, the Utah Jazz find themselves as a more likeable team than the Miami Heat, and Boston Celtics.

With the other flip of the coin, how the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers are a more likeable team than the Jazz, is beyond anyone. Additionally, the Jazz are right on the fence when it comes to being good at basketball, landing in the bad at basketball category which also is a big diss.

That was cold Complex.

Like colder than a polar bear’s toenail cold.

Nevertheless, let’s delve into the aspects of the Jazz that people can relate to, and see what makes them a likeable team.

Celebrity Fans

When it comes to popularity there is only one thing that matters, and it’s not winning championships.

The most important thing that a franchise has to have in order to become popular is to have celebrity fans. A team can resonate with its city when they get celebrities to have an attachment to their hometown team.

For example, this season Dwayne Wade was on pace to start in the All-Star game until Justin Bieber intervened. Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry trailed Wade around 100,000 votes, and eventually caught him to overtake the lead by 15,000 votes. This all happened because Bieber sent out a tweet to his massive Twitter following to vote for Lowry to start in the All-Star game.

Oct 30, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Recording artists Justin Bieber (left), Usher (center) and television personality Michael Strahan watch from the front row at Quicken Loans Arena. New York defeated Cleveland 95-90. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /

Bottom line is celebrities are important. Star power matters.

The Miami Heat have Dan Marino and Rick Ross. The Raptors have Bieber and Drake. The Brooklyn Nets have Jay-Z, and Beyonce. Even the New York Knicks as terrible as they are have Spike Lee, Jerry Seinfeld and Alicia Keys.

The Utah Jazz have … ummm …

Zac Efron?
Vanessa Hudgens? She came as a packaged deal with Efron.
The Osmond Family? Seriously….who are they again?

Point exactly.

Well there is one person the Jazz have, it’s Lewis Scott.

Let’s just say that they need someone. There has to be some celebrities from Utah right?

***Memo to James Woods, Steve Young, Neon Trees and Chrissy Teigen….the Jazz are there for the taking.

Swat Lake City’s Finest

Due to the lack of celebrity star power that the Jazz have the second most important aspect of their team’s popularity is the actual players on the court.

The two best players on the Utah Jazz are Gordon Hayward, and Derrick Favors but in all honesty, their probably two of the most uninteresting players on the court. Not because they’re boring people (which I’m sure they’re not) but because they don’t play with enough flair in their games.

Each of them are All-Star players in their own right, but people watch basketball to get entertained.

That’s where Rudy Gobert comes in and does wonders.

Mar 18, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (27) runs up the floor during the second quarter against the Washington Wizards at EnergySolutions Arena. Mandatory Credit: Chris Nicoll-USA TODAY Sports /

Gobert’s the type of person who’s must see television.

Outside of the nightly double-double that he puts up in games. Or outside of the fact that he’ll block three shots in a row, and then will continue to look to block his fourth one, Gobert does something to fans across the country that many players can’t do, he entertains.

When Gobert has one of his monstrous dunks as he does on a nightly basis, he’s going to let the entire world know about it. When Gobert does his signature salute after his monster jam, he’s touching the soul of the fan base.

As for a few of Gobert’s teammates they are equally as fun to watch as the Stifle Tower.

The Jazz have another character on their roster in Trevor Booker, who’s an absolute delight to watch because of the energy and passion that he brings when he plays. Booker might never make the All-Star team, but the way that he plays the game brings him cheers as loud as any one of his Jazz teammates.

If there was an All-NBA Scrap, or All-NBA Hustle first team Booker’s name would be attached to it.

When Booker’s not making hustle plays or attempting to stop someone who he has no business guarding, he’s making plays that only God can explain.

Then we have coach Quin Snyder. We’re not even going to address him because if we do, we might end up as victim of a cold case.

Have you seen the death stare (read this) ?

Characters are what makes a team interesting to watch and it’s the reason why fans of the league love watching the Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves, and New Orleans Pelicans even though they all might miss out on the playoffs.

Players like Russell Westbrook, Andrew Wiggins, and Anthony Davis are all must see television because of the way that they play.

Of Course Winning Matters

Of course though winning is pretty importance in rank, but it’s fairly the least important portion of what makes a team popular. Winning comes different for every team and for the Jazz, they’ve gained a lot of popularity because it seems like every week they are in the middle of a close game.

The reason for that is because of the style of the team. The Jazz play slow. Very slow.

So slow that a person could make a bowl of cereal during one of their games, eat it, then decide to get a second bowl, and only a possession or two would have passed. In fact, the Jazz are dead last in pace, and that’s a surprise because they’re the youngest team in the NBA.

However, because of the slow pace they play at the Jazz always find themselves during winning time with an opportunity to get a victory.

When the Jazz played against the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night the halftime score was a grand whopping 33-36. The Jazz went on to win the game went on to win the game 80-73.

These slow games only create an environment that when the Jazz play people should pay close attention. Soon enough though it won’t only be fans in Salt Lake City that will need to pay attention. The Jazz are only a few big plays away from becoming a team that will have nationally televised games. Bank on it.

The Jazz might not be sitting at the cool kids table quite yet, but they just picked up their lunch tray and started taking a power stride to sit next to the Golden State Warriors, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Chicago Bulls.

They better make some room.

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