Utah Stars? Where?!
Unlike the only world champions of hoop this state has ever known, top modern-day pro athletes are leaving Utah. Will this ever end?
Few know why the deluge of pros leaving Utah the past decade started with Gordon Hayward, who let an entire state down by going to Boston.
» His abomination of a Player’s Tribune article the day of his departure didn’t help matters either, but: it wasn’t the primary reason for all the furor. Nobody saw a white basketball star leaving Utah in 2017; it has never happened. For every team thereafter that Hayward played for, he was hated by most of the Jazz fans that roundly booed the Butler icon every time he stepped foot in the Jazz arena.
If Hayward’s statue was ever erected in front of the Delta Center, you can be certain it would be burned to a crisp within 15 seconds and hauled off, hidden inside a storage unit in West Valley.
When an interview with Hayward came out last year as a part of the Jazz 50th Anniversary celebration it received a very mixed response. Few still forgave Hayward for leaving—except for certain media members that didn’t grow up here and didn’t realize how large that chip on the shoulder is, as pertains to top athletes leaving here.
It isn’t even about Derek Fisher leaving by claiming his daughter needed top medical care that the state couldn’t provide (a lie, as one of the top cancer centers and medical schools in the world are right up the hill from the Jazz arena). Fisher’s departure also carried with its soap-opera turns a maddening twist—it also marked the last time the Jazz have ever played in a conference final.
Point is this: we have always had to settle. We have never had the top anything in any sport, and any height we’ve reached has only come from hard work. Our top draft pick was only No. 2 (Darrell Griffith) and so we’ve always held this steely glare towards LA.
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Donovan Mitchell was the next in line after Hayward, who said all the right things when he arrived. When push came to shove, the New Yawkuh pushed his way outta heah just as soon as he signed his rookie extension and stopped pretending to like the things locals were saying about him. Meanwhile, talk about having his statue in front of the Jazz arena went full on into betraying the state for good, and his Adidas D.O.N. shoes were actually set ablaze in fire pits—no figure of speech, here. And yet he was cheered this past year when his Cleveland Cavs visited, a feat that Hayward never achieved after he left.
Maybe it was a black-and-white thing in a state that is predominantly white, a set of personality traits that will tell you to your face there’s no issue but is hard not to notice once you live in one of Salt Lake City’s neighborhoods.
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Rudy Gobert had a legitimate shot at ending his career here (and still may, at some point, becoming the next Thurl Bailey or better). He still has his sprawling house here in the Aves and visits often. The reason for his doing this and being comfortable in his own skin here probably has to do with his biracial background. A child of a white mother and Caribbean father, who was raised in Saint-Quentin in northern France, the French giant wasn’t a top draft pick [he was No. 27]; the Jazz had to swing a deal to acquire him from the Denver Nuggets.
Perhaps Gobert, who grew into a 4-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, grew accustomed to the prejudices, having lived in France, experiencing it from his own family members. In his first game back here as a member of a different NBA team, Gobert received a standing ovation. Which, is more than can be said for anyone who left here dating all the way back to Derek Fisher.
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Or maybe it has more to do with this state.
When Cristian “Chicho” Arango arrived at Real Salt Lake, the Colombian was headed back to the United States having played in a so-so handful of games for Liga MX (Mexico) club Pachuca. The last time Arango was in Major League Soccer was in the 2021 and ‘22 seasons, but: two problems remained. First, that he got stuck on a squad at LAFC that included Wales international Gareth Bale. Then after Arango got a lowball offer from LAFC following a whopping 32 goals in 54 games, and his agent didn’t accept it, Arango was sent to Pachuca from November 2023 to July 2023.
Enter Real Salt Lake, who after it signed Arango for about $6 million again became one of Major League Soccer’s top strikers (25 goals, 52 games) until he forced his way into a sudden exit and a claim that he had to return to his native California for “family reasons.” It felt like Derek Fisher all over again, but: this reason had nothing to do with one that was medical. Since neither of the Salt Lake City metro’s daily newspapers cover Real Salt Lake anymore, few were able to discern what was going on behind the scenes.
Arango was sold to the San Jose Earthquakes on a one-year option. This occurred under the watch of a lame-duck owner in Ryan Smith who apparently either was in over his head or didn’t like soccer, and, despite the fact that RSL did not have a true No. 9 striker on its roster. Complicating matters further were sales of two wingers: Colombian Carlos Andres Gomez to a club in France for about $12 million, and Ecuadoran Anderson Julio to FC Dallas for a small fee. (56 goals, combined.)
In sum, barring a miracle influx, it’s entirely likely eeeeverything must go at RSL. For Diego Luna, RSL star midfielder and US National Team standout, rumors are already sprouting up as to where he might land; those are typically seeded by the player’s agent for leverage in trade talks. Luna has scored more than half of RSL’s goals this season, or 7 of 13, as the team has fallen out of the Top 9 playoff spots in the Western Conference. At about the same time next year, Ally Sentnor’s rookie deal with the NWSL’s Utah Royals will be expiring. The Royals sit in second-to-last place and have scored fewer goals than RSL (5)—of which one has been netted by Sentnor.
If Luna and Sentnor leave, it will mark the fifth and sixth star players from a top professional league in Utah to depart over the past decade.
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Younger journalists who grew up idolizing AK-47 (Andrei Kirilenko) and D-Will (Deron Williams) in their AND1-styled unis will tell you to your face that dealing Donovan Mitchell was a smart move, and perhaps it will be. It can be argued that Mitchell helped the club get more in return after signing his contract extension and then saying goodbye to Utah. Maybe that’s why he was eventually forgiven and Hayward wasn’t; it still took several years, however.
When some top player ever does fall into our lap it is only temporary; we’ve now had to learn that the hard way from the past three guys the Jazz have drafted and the one legitimate “star player” Real Salt Lake had in Arango. There is little to no sign of that stopping as the Utah Jazz are about to play a numbers game that will cause fans to rip out what hair they have left after that horrific last-place season.
The caveat: nobody’s actually seen a return on that investment yet, either from the Mitchell deal or the Gobert deal. The Jazz limped and faked their way to the worst record in the NBA—only to have their hand slapped by the league office to the tune of $250,000. Lauri Markannen was named an All-Star once since the deals were made.
Worse yet, Utah stayed at No. 5 in the recent NBA Draft Lottery, having been usurped by the Dallas Mavericks at 1. Unless Utah engineers a late move — which will assuredly consist of a combination of Markkanen and John Collins, Collin Sexton and/or Jordan Clarkson — and it moves up in the draft order, the franchise will have to hope that one of the top five listed players in most mock drafts falls in their lap at 5.
Or, as the Jazz often must, do a tremendous amount of homework over the coming weeks on a lesser-known player, such as Texas guard Tre Johnson or BYU wing Egor Demin. Diamonds can be found in the draft, as evidenced by USC’s Isaiah Collier and Duke center Kyle Filipowski; it’s just that luck hasn’t been on the side of local pro teams in keeping any of their top athletes here.
Overthink This Photo 📸
» On one side of the Canadian football, Utah and Utah State will be well represented this week as the Calgary Stampeders and BC Lions clash at Starlight in suburban Van and not BC Place (otherwise occupied, thanks).
For visitors Calgary, it’s a new dawn and new day, as the Stampeders are rolling out the retro red/white unis that look a lot like the Steelers hideous yellow/black beekeeping monstrosities—except these are more manageable. You don’t have ridiculous vertical and horizontal stripes clashing into each other; it’s a plain red jersey with four horizontal stripes on the shoulders. Why, I dunno.
And why, in the hell, is McMahon Stadium in Calgary still standing?!? I went there as a wee lad (for a Stampede concert) and I can’t remember who the bands were; I just know there were a few and they were loud.
Anyhow, the name you’ll remember as a Utah State football follower is the one and only Logan Bonner. He helped QB the Aggies to what was arguably their best bowl win in 75 years, and is now on the 2nd string to start the CFL preseason. The other name you’ll know is Damien Alford, Calgary’s No. 1 2025 draft pick out of Utah. (Calgary won, 26-16.) «
» BOOK EM BRIAN!
Today’s book: THE PERFECT SEASON: A Memoir of the 1964-65 Evansville College Purple Aces
Naturally, winning a national championship in 1963-64 and having the name of Jerry Sloan got you places.
But, what if I told you that the best story about the Evansville Purple Aces might not have come from Sloan? Hard to believe—but: if you’ve ever sat down and had the opportunity of breaking bread, or, mounds of seafood and rice and a mean ‘ol chef with a nasty set of cleavers in a West Jordan mini-mall, and do so with the man who would eventually be named to the Hall twice (once with the Bulls as a player and once as Jazz coach)—you already know.
Sloan was a funny guy. In roughly 2.5 seconds after having been told by the waiter that it was the wedding celebration for my then-wife and I, he transformed into this emcee, literally stole the mic away from the chef at Benihana and started needling him. This lasted for 2 hours, ending with his toast to us. When I saw that Sloan was giving his teammates a hard time in this book, I knew EXACTLY where that energy derived from.
I saw it with mine own two eyes!
And, so did Sloan’s Evansville teammate Russell Grieger who penned a very unique look into how role players on a national champion might see the game. I can tell you that it was much different from the star treatment the late, great Sloan received, and so I’d highly recommend reading this book. «
#WhatAreWeDOING Of The Week:
» Speechless. This looks like something you’d see from a hip young lady (or, man) in Bluffdale at the thing in the place! And now theres a 5-hour ceremony commemorating something (canned pickles, probably). Anyway, she’s tried to escape 16 times—to no avail—that place is a fortress and yet I’m not sure this dress helps:
Timely. This bag is a microcosm of how I feel at the moment. Got MRSA, Covid and pneumonia and honestly, it’s just a nifty bag:
Thanks for reading; be safe and be well. I’ll see ya next time. «