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SALT LAKE CITY -- It's good to drop in on my old home of KSL. Last time I was here the Jazz were enjoying back-to- back runs at a world championship against Michael Jordan and the Bulls and our sports staff was knee deep in "Show Me the Title."
Those days were centered on the late, great Larry Miller, Jerry Sloan, two future Hall of Famers John Stockton and Karl Malone and a supporting cast of Jeff Hornacek, Bryon Russell and the "Big Dog" Antoine Carr.
From my chair, it was a group that bought into Sloan's lunch pail attitude and ultimately defined this franchise. And despite losing those two, gut-wrenching six-game series, the foundation was laid; a foundation based on simple principles of hard work, discipline and winning.
Fast forward to 2011, the foundation remains. A few cracks have broken through, but the Jazz have a knack of filling in the holes. When the Jerry Sloan - Deron Williams relationship reached a breaking point last year, the Hall of Fame coach stepped down on his own terms and knowing Williams was planning on a short term stay in Utah, the Jazz shipped Williams to New Jersey. A brilliant move because the foundation had cracked, but Kevin O'Connor and the Miller family jumped in before it fractured.
The first tasked was to name Ty Corbin head coach and then the trade that netted and young and talented Derrick Favors, veteran Devin Harris and New Jersey's number one draft pick. The 3rd overall pick O'Connor used in June on big man Enis Kanter.
After a 161-day lockout, training camp is underway, but it brings more questions than answers. Hard work is Corbin's mantra; it may not bring a world championship to Utah this summer or even the next, but Favors, Gordon Hayward, Jeremy Evans, and Alec Burks are learning the history and the demands of playing for the Utah Jazz.
Remember, no one thought back in 1984 a skinning kid from Gonzaga would dominate the point guard position for 15 years, become one of the Top 50 players of all-time and a year later team up with another skinny kid from Louisiana Tech who would chisel his body into a two-time MVP and the most feared power forward of all-time. But they did!
If you're a Jazz fan, you're anxious for answers, and you should be. Is Favors the next Jazz all-star, or will it be Hayward? Can these young, wannabe stars of the NBA learn like Stockton and Malone, to co-exist in this crazy world of professional sports? And can a veteran mix of Mehmet Okur, Paul Millsap, Earl Watson and big Al Jefferson someday "show this city the title?"
With Kobe Bryant aging, along with Boston's Big 3, and Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas and Steve Nash in Phoenix trying to hold back Father Time, it's a good time to be a Jazz fan.
