D-Will Interview, quote about recruiting players to SLC

[gomretat]

With where there were relative to cap space, and spending luxury tax some of those years, I want to know who he was recruiting?

 

[franklin]

Can I get a translator, Amen.



This is what happens in star-centric games. MLB and NFL minimize it somewhat b/c the amount of players and teamwork required. You're not getting this in a game where one guy can skew the outcome so disproportionally. I don't see the point bitching and moaning forever about something that is not going to change.

And I'm not directing this at the OP. Thanks for the find Uruguay.

 

[PrinceJL]

a) we heard the quote from DWill a month ago & I always wondered which FAs he was referring to because we never had the cap to sign any "star-caliber" player.
b) when i think of major markets, I think of (past decade) LAL (Kobe/Shaq) but LAC blows, CHI (Jordan/Pippen), NY (never won & bombed once Ewing declined), & BOS (never won w/ Pierce but acquired Allen w/ their 5th pick, where only then KG agreed to a trade).
c) the trend of previous 20 NBA Champs are Jordan (6), Kobe (5), Shaq (4), Duncan (4), Hakeem (2), DWade (1-Shaq), DET (1-DEFENSE), BOS (1-DEFENSE)
d) my championship synopsis: drafted superstars & defense wins!! also, awesome PGs are not needed (Fisher, Kerr, Paxon, BJ, Harper, AJohnson, Parker, Cassell, KSmith, JWill) to win a championship (even our beloved Stock couldnt beat out MJ/Pippen).
e) Our rosters w/ DWill were flawed every year (no big defender & scoring/defending wing). I believe KOC acquired that big defender, a PG to can lead a team, & drafted a headsy baller in Hayward.

2011-12 players under contract
PG) Harris
SG) CJ / Bell
SF) Millsap / Hayward
PF) Favors / Evans
C) Al / Memo
.... and we got 2 lottery picks this year & maybe 2 next (unfortunate, if we miss the playoffs)

 

[Fishsticks]

I was wondering the same thing. Who the hell was he recruiting? We had no cap room. Thanks deron for not disparaging the city, but you are a damn liar.

 

[VINYLONE]

Pretty fair comments from DWill. Nothing I didn't already know, but for a guy who speaks honestly it was nice to hear him not bad mouth the city.

He was always pro-SLC. Since day one. And since he found jesus last year or the year before, even more so. Like many beat writers wrote, he was committed to SLC.

The only place I'd like to see the Jazz move, if they did, is Seattle, as I want to move there and it would be awesome to actually live in the place my favorite NBA team is.

Here, here.

I was wondering the same thing. Who the hell was he recruiting? We had no cap room. Thanks deron for not disparaging the city, but you are a damn liar.

Really dude? Are you really saying that Deron is lying here?

 

[Chad Feldheimer]

I was wondering the same thing. Who the hell was he recruiting? We had no cap room. Thanks deron for not disparaging the city, but you are a damn liar.

Well DWill was here for more than just last year. In fact several years.


If you were young and (most likely black) had a ton of money would you want to live in Utah?

The winters suck (cold & smoggy)
Taxes are really high
Not much of a night life to speak of
Mostly white population & majority Mormon

Williams had a helluva tough sale.

 

[Fishsticks]

I'm not disagreeing with the fact that Utah is a tough sell, but when did the jazz have money to even make a run at a quality free agent a possibility? Just sayin.

 

[Chad Feldheimer]

I'm not disagreeing with the fact that Utah is a tough sell, but when did the jazz have money to even make a run at a quality free agent a possibility? Just sayin.

Mid level exception?

 

[jimmyjazz]

I'm not disagreeing with the fact that Utah is a tough sell, but when did the jazz have money to even make a run at a quality free agent a possibility? Just sayin.

Sign and trade is one way. Maybe then using AK's contract. Or Boozer's. Packaged with picks or whatever. That was for KOC to work out. But first you have to make players actually agree to go to Utah, which is what DWill says he tried to do.

 

[billyshelby]

Recruiting does not have to mean for the following year. Deron knows when everyone's contract is up. He could easily have been trying to lay the groundwork for players to come and getting those responses.

 

[kwb]

That's the mind set of most NBA players these days.....

Option 1: Play for an organization that is successful?

Option 2: Play for an organization that sucks but has a great party life?

PARTY TIME!

 

[moevillini]

reading that entire article makes the D-Will trade even more heartbreaking for me... I sort of understand why the Jazz ownership/management did what they did when they did it, but still think they acted prematurely. In many ways, Deron and his family are exactly the type of folks that SLC should embrace...

it also repeats much of what I'd read about Deron and his background since his freshman year at Illinois, and is much of the reason I became a fan of his back then, and will continue to be a fan...

one thing you all seem to be missing (the cynical side of me says it's intentional) is his comment regarding Boozer, and how his loss ended up "leaving Williams without a proven standout to share the load." - - I think the "share the load" reference is as much in regards to attracting other talent to SLC as to on the basketball court. And in hindsight, for what the Jazz are paying Jefferson and what Boozer signed for with the Bulls, he would have come back to SLC. (not sure if I can find the quote, but he did say that)

"It's really important for me to keep my family together," Williams says. "I couldn't live without my family and kids. I love them too much. I love my wife too much. I think my father not being around and my brother's father not being in his life, you realize how tough it is and you need a father figure, and my kids love me."

Amy agrees, and says she and her husband already have experienced life well beyond their years....
---
Amy Williams didn't exactly choose this life. She didn't know her boyfriend - they've been friends since grade school - was going to be an NBA star, or even a college star.

Nobody knew. When they first began dating, Williams was a just a top-100 recruit, an overlooked guard on a stacked high school team in a suburb of Dallas. He was more crapshoot than sure thing.

...When their daughter, Denae, was born in 2003, Deron became a teenaged dad with no money. Amy would drive over 800 miles from Dallas to Illinois, where Deron was playing for the Fighting Illini, on the weekends.

"You never know if you're going to be with somebody forever when you're that young, so that was probably the toughest part," says Amy. "But for me, none of that mattered. Really, my top priority was to make sure my daughter would see her dad."

But Williams' relationship with Utah soured quickly in February when Jerry Sloan unexpectedly resigned and critics blamed Williams. Coach and star had an argument over play-calling just two days before Sloan announced his resignation. It was one of many disagreements between Williams and Sloan, but both parties denied their relationship was the reason for Sloan's sudden departure.

Nonetheless, Williams was portrayed as a selfish prima donna. It affected his family in Salt Lake City, where Amy and Deron still own a home...
"It was hard in the end when people were acting as if Deron had done something wrong, when all the other times, when Deron was playing right and things were good, everyone worshipped him," Amy says. "Jerry leaves and all of a sudden it's his fault. Even my daughter heard stuff at school."
------
Williams isn't quite sold on the city life, not after living in less-intense Texas and Salt Lake City. He isn't a fan of the clutter, though this may all get better when Amy and the kids arrive before the start of next season.

For Williams, home is where his family is, and where they know how to pronounce his name.

Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/...the_nets_say_thats_all_abo.html#ixzz1HuPapQyn

anyhow, being the true sap that I am, this is one of my favorite parts of the article:

Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed the article. Though I'm sure we'll get a few complaints that it needs to be moved since it's not "Jazz related"...