Had to turn Locke off on the drive home....love his analytics and most times his play by play, don't care for the patronizing, smarter than everyone else tone that he gets when he is talking on the radio or pod casts.
Tone aside, Mr. Locke got the message wrong. He claimed Jazz fans were more excited last season than this season, or something like that. Not true Mr. Locke. It is true I was plenty excited last spring after years of missing meaningful basketball, but the entire season was haunted by the spectre of George Hill and Gordon Hayward leaving, it lurked in the corner of all Jazz fans minds and tainted every discussion...even the broadcast crews. True, we were excited and threw all our emotions into the team and into the hopes that the pale cipher had finally grown up and that he might lead us to the 1st round for at least two or three years to come. But it was more hope than love, more relief than excitement, and always more forced than organic.
Today I have much higher expectations for this group, I am more emotionally invested in the players as a group and individually. Gordon hurting us increased the sense of Joy of watching this season.