If you were granted the fore-knowledge that the Utah Jazz would never win a title...

[jimmy eat jazz]

While hypotheticals are interesting, I've learned that what one thinks in the abstract is often quite different from how one behaves when actually confronted by the hypothetical. Do I think the Jazz have a chance to win it all? Sure, maybe someday. Do I think they will? I doubt it, frankly. But the journey is fun even if the destination is never actually reached. I enjoy rooting for a team and investing emotional energy in it. It would be harder if the Jazz stunk year in and year out, but the way I see it, that's what being a fan is about.

In the end, while I'd like the Jazz to win it all, my attachment to the team is not predicated on it. Nor, to be frank, is it really all that critical to me in the grand scheme of things. Nice frosting on the cake, but the cake is pretty damed delicious even without it.

 

[LogGrad98]

Funny how jaded Jazz fanz have become. So many of you try to temper your hope by saying you already know we wont win, we arent 'championship' material, blah blah.
I call BS. B motha ****ing S! You wouldnt still be here and wouldnt still be a fan if you had NO hope at all that we could win. You are just weak and scared to be hurt so you fool yourself into thinking you already know what will happen. That way, when the Jazz (as they probably will, granted) lose, you can say you knew it would happen, and protect yourself from getting hurt. Sorry to say, that isnt being a truefan, IMO. Live and die with the team. If you cant do that, go find a team you KNOW will win.

You obviously haven't been actually reading, you apparently just wanted to spout off. OF COURSE we have hope of the Jazz being a championship team some year. OF COURSE we live and die with the team, it is our team and we root for them day in and day out. But being a fan is different for everyone. OK so you think that "fans" are only fans when they scream themselves hoars at every game, mourn in sack-cloth and ashes after a loss, and bet $25,000 each year on the Jazz to win it all. Ok we get it. That is your version of a fan. Some of us live in reality, and can recognize when things aren't going perfectly and don't expect them to win it all every single year, yet we still enjoy the games, enjoy the team and watching them play, root for them to do well, all while accepting we ain't getting there this year. And probably not next year either.

Just because we can accept reality and recognize that the team isn't championship caliber and we do not buy into your BS retoric that it is always all or nothing, does not mean we are any less fans than you are.

By the way you tempered your own hope (in bold above). Pot, meet kettle.

 

[retroevo]

I'll just start rootings for the Clippers or OKC.

 

[default]

if you were granted fore-knowledge that the girl you were dating would never have sex with you would you keep dating her?

Honestly . . . I wouldn't date her exclusively, but if she is cool and does other stuff, then I wouldn't dump her

 

[Jazz Spazz]

I don't know why this conversation is still going on.
Don't we all know deep down that the Jazz will never win a championship?
Well, that's what Stern said when I met him at Best Buy last year.
By the way, he was buying a washing machine there.... I didn't even know they sold them there before that day.

 

[//r00t 4 Jazz]

I watch each and every game for what it is, every game provides some level of enjoyment (some more in a masochist kind of way) like Chem, LoaP and others have said it isn't JUST the title why I watch. It is part of it of course and I'd imagine knowing some kind of outcome might change the game I think I'd still watch and if I didn't then I wouldn't follow the NBA any more period.
But it's hard to say since it is all just hypothetical.

Also the longer I'm on this board the more I feel that some people here are like the kid in 1st grade just dying to tell everybody that will listen that there is no Santa Clause.

 

[AKistheFEARFACTOR]

as i get older i realize in this business how difficult it is for the jazz to win a championship. with the foresight that they will never win a championship i would stay a jazz fan, but they probably wouldnt be my favorite team. wtf is the point in cheering for something knowing u can never come out #1. knowing the outcome takes all the fun out of it. coming to thought that the nba is "fixed" in the way that certain players get certain calls, certain teams favor others (Lakers, Celtics), whats to say that at least in a few years we dont get another Jazz - Bulls matchup. Oh how lovely that would be. Yet again, anything can happen, any matchup can be altered by an injury, and with deron williams on board i dont think it is correct to say that u honestly dont believe they can win a championship. winning jst one championship would bring so much joy to my life.

 

[Hitman]

I'll just start rootings for the Clippers or OKC.

OKC have a chance as long as they have Durant. If we can't win it, I want the Thunder to win because Durant is a class act (compare his humble off-season contract signing vs "The Douchision").

 

[NUMBERICA]

OKC have a chance as long as they have Durant. If we can't win it, I want the Thunder to win because Durant is a class act (compare his humble off-season contract signing vs "The Douchision").

To be fair to Lebron, when he extended from his rookie deal, he did it low-key then. I have hope for Durant, but he still has a lot of time to turn into a douche-bag.

 

[Scorpjazz]

You obviously haven't been actually reading, you apparently just wanted to spout off. OF COURSE we have hope of the Jazz being a championship team some year. OF COURSE we live and die with the team, it is our team and we root for them day in and day out. But being a fan is different for everyone. OK so you think that "fans" are only fans when they scream themselves hoars at every game, mourn in sack-cloth and ashes after a loss, and bet $25,000 each year on the Jazz to win it all. Ok we get it. That is your version of a fan. Some of us live in reality, and can recognize when things aren't going perfectly and don't expect them to win it all every single year, yet we still enjoy the games, enjoy the team and watching them play, root for them to do well, all while accepting we ain't getting there this year. And probably not next year either.

Just because we can accept reality and recognize that the team isn't championship caliber and we do not buy into your BS retoric that it is always all or nothing, does not mean we are any less fans than you are.

By the way you tempered your own hope (in bold above). Pot, meet kettle.

I wanted to reply with a long post, but wow. Your post pretty much leaves no hope for you. You insinuate, wrongly, how I feel about the team and then proved that you are, in fact, the fan I was talking about. Good job.

 

[David Stern]

Would you stay a Jazz fan?

Yes, as long as a roided-up Harpring beats the crap out of Kobe on our court one of these days. That would make the pain go away.

 

[LogGrad98]

I wanted to reply with a long post, but wow. Your post pretty much leaves no hope for you. You insinuate, wrongly, how I feel about the team and then proved that you are, in fact, the fan I was talking about. Good job.

LOL nice non-answer. You have studied your ad hominem tactics. I answered with an explanation of what it means to be a fan, you say that makes me "jade"? What part of my post exactly "proves" that I am jaded? You came out with an all-out attack on anyone who doesn't, by your estimation, "live or die" by the team. You claim we temper our hope, then you turn around and do the same thing. I guess you have proven my point: you don't actually read posts, you skim long enough to form some kind of rebuttal - asinine and wrong, but still a rebuttal. If you can't discuss anything in terms other than absolutes then I guess there is nothing else to discuss.

The really funny thing, and a fact that further proves you aren't reading what is being said, is what this thread is all about. Did you notice that the title of the thread is "If you were granted the fore-knowledge that the Utah Jazz would never win a title..." That right there invites speculation. The answers you read are framed mostly in that context. We are discussing the merits of being a fan under the pretense that WE KNOW FOR A FACT THEY WILL NEVER WIN. No one was laying out there how they actually feel this season or in the future. It was an exercise in a rhetorical question. You took that literally and attacked accordingly, as if what you were reading were truly what everyone thought about the team in the here and now. Maybe you ought to re-read this thread so you can actually put things in context. Or you can continue to live in your own world. That is probably more fun than actually thinking anyway.

 

[moevillini]

...We are discussing the merits of being a fan under the pretense that WE KNOW FOR A FACT THEY WILL NEVER WIN....

in general my personal theories of human nature make me think that what we may "know" as an absolutely certainty is not necessarily going to change what we believe may be possible. In other words, even though we may be told that it is an absolute certainty that the Jazz will never win a championship, many of us will continue to believe that there's a chance they will. In other words, we'd be willing to bet there's a chance the prediction is wrong.


Sent from my iPod touch

 

[default]

in general my personal theories of human nature make me think that what we may "know" as an absolutely certainty is not necessarily going to change what we believe may be possible. In other words, even though we may be told that it is an absolute certainty that the Jazz will never win a championship, many of us will continue to believe that there's a chance they will. In other words, we'd be willing to bet there's a chance the prediction is wrong.


Sent from my iPod touch

So you're saying there's a chance

 

[moevillini]

So you're saying there's a chance

hey, I've lived my entire life surrounded by Cubs fans, whadya expect?

 

[LogGrad98]

in general my personal theories of human nature make me think that what we may "know" as an absolutely certainty is not necessarily going to change what we believe may be possible. In other words, even though we may be told that it is an absolute certainty that the Jazz will never win a championship, many of us will continue to believe that there's a chance they will. In other words, we'd be willing to bet there's a chance the prediction is wrong.


Sent from my iPod touch

I think you are right about this. I know I am fairly skeptical and I think I would go partly down this route too, wondering if the prediction was accurate. We cling to hope where we can.

This kind of thing is also what makes it hard to discuss these types of questions. I remember having a discussion with a friend who was pre-med about what it might be like to have cancer, since he was working partly in a cancer center at the time. Then I was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) about a year later. When he came to visit me one day in the hospital during a chemo treatment it was interesting to have another discussion when I knew the reality of it. Most of our suppositions were wrong or at least off-base or under-estimated. The same would apply to any hypothetical discussion. Fact is you cannot know unless/until you are in that situation.

Still makes for interesting banter.

 

[BENTLEY]

Would you stay a Jazz fan?

Dude, I always vote Ralph Nader. Does that answer your question?

 

[Get Down]

quick who won the championship 3 years ago? now quick who won 7 years ago??

nobody really cares about winning championships, and teams aren't elevated to some pantheon of permanent remembrance because they do so, even if the nba really really wants us to believe otherwise. utah is a funny place and it's a funny place to have an nba team and it's interesting to watch because the jazz are a way for a state to interface with a nation that doesn't really care about its existence. it's a funny way to project regional identity and utah, for better or worse, definitely has a unique one. i don't really "cheer" for any team because the logical conclusion of that type of allegiance is "kiss the rings" which makes me groan angrily because of how vapid of an argument it is, oooohhh congrats on being born in los angeles. not having the goal of winning a championship might do funny things to someone since we sort of need that goal to retain our interest, but eh, i don't know. it's just a way to socialize and waste time with other people who cheer when one number goes up and feel terrible when it doesn't, it's bizarre and fun

 

[Harcher]

This is not a question in which there is an obvious YES or NO answer.
1. Sports is entertainment. In Jazz vernacular "being competitive" is entertaining. Some fans are bandwagon becuase they are only interested in a winner and don't invest the energy until they see enough evidence. Some fans love to watch the "ballet" aspect of basketball where a performance is occuring. Watching MJ perform (when not playing the Jazz) was very entertaining for me - and of course so many ohters.

2. Sports is competition. In differing from Ballet where it is merely a performance, a huge asspect of the entertainment is the winning (or losing) aspect of it. That element endears certain folks to be a part of it. Without the idea of winning, there would be no point.

I'm not into NFL as much as past these days and my team - the Seahawks are far enough removed from me that i don't follow them any more, but when two teams play that are going to "put on a good show" i tune in. I am a fan. I enjoy the show.

I would be a Jazz fan with the foreknowledge of no title. I like to watch the team perform well, i like the style as others have pointed out. But there has to be some level of winning involved.

 

[VINYLONE]

Listening to Sean argue is like listening to **** argue,.