The Good Ol Days

Man I miss the good ol days, I know you can remember it, the good ol days when you had a little more ownership with the Jazz Franchise. I remember a time when I didn’t care about the teams record, I didn’t care about anything except for the fact that to me they were family. Mike Brown, “The Bear,” Mark Eaton, even though he seemed more like a Viking warrior than a basketball player, Theodore “Blue” Edwards, and of course Karl Malone. But I miss most of all John Stockton.

A time when the Lakers sucked. But like I said I didn't care all I wanted to do was see my boy's playing the game. I was a Junior Jazz man myself which meant that in a small way I was a member of the team. But something happened, maybe it was because the Jazz had those two years when they went to the champoinship Maybe that gave us a taste and maybe that taste was Pandora’s box where we wouldn’t be happy unless we won the championship. Or maybe it’s the fact that the NBA isn’t what it used to be and has just a bunch of punks in it. It wasn’t like I didn’t realize that there were better teams out there, we knew but for a small second those people were family, I remember when the Jazz lost to the Sun’s in the first round of the playoffs. I went out to shoot some hoops right after. I don’t know why, maybe I was just coddling my broken heart maybe I thought I was training for a time when I could grow up and save the Jazz and lead them to the championship. Still the fact was that the Jazz were less than perfect and I knew that but I still loved them because they were family.

Every time I opened up some of my Hoops, or Skybox cards I hoped for a few things, a Michael Jordan card, a rookie card, or a Jazz card, in that order. I remember when the Jazz were in the finals, my dad and I were at a campout (Camp Concentration) where it was against the rules to listen to the game, this didn’t really matter since we were in the mountains and it was impossible to see the game anyway. But my dad and I luckily got reception in our car and we spent the good part of that night listening to the game while running our battery down in the middle of the woods.

Fact is I still consider John Stockton Family. Part of me would still be crushed if he were ever impliccated in something negative which isn't the same thing to say about Karl malone as he lost favor in my eyes after he kinda forsook the team to go to the enemy. And especially since last time I saw him (At Larry Millers Viewing) in any media he looked like he had just come from a prison yard. But even though he fell from grace I still would give any of these gents the shirt off my back. Because they still are family as I grew up with them. And in a very real way they taught me how to play basketball.

But times have changed and the sad reality is I am now a bandwagon fan. And that is the best-case scenario fact is that somewhere between the lockout and now I kinda stopped paying attention. Oh well at least there’s still the memories.