Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — The noise always stands out to Will Hardy.
It's no secret the Utah Jazz have been one of the worst teams in the league over the last two months. Actually, since the trade deadline they have been the worst. Heading into Thursday's home finale against Houston, the Jazz had won just three games — three less than the next worst team — since the deadline moves that made the bottom fall out.
The last two months have been bad and often quite ugly.
Yet, the fans kept coming — and they kept cheering.
"Their loyalty is not lost on me, on our organization, on our players," Hardy said before Thursday's game.
The Jazz gave that fan base — who once again filled the Delta Center on Thursday — one last reason to cheer. Utah snapped its 13-game losing streak with a 124-121 win over the Houston Rockets.
"Playing close games in this building, coming down the stretch of a close game with our fan base being as loud as they are, are always the moments that I remember," Hardy said.
Thursday's game, then, was one to remember.
With 1:15 remaining in the game, the Delta Center crowd rose to its feet. The Jazz had just taken a 4-point lead with a streaking layup from Keyonte George, and Utah had the ball with a chance to put some distance between them and the Rockets.
The fans were ready to erupt as Luka Samanic put up an open shot — it missed. Kennth Lofton Jr., though, grabbed the offensive board and kicked it out to an open George on the wing, whose 3-point attempt missed, too. But, wait, Samanic was there for the board and putback that finally released the scream the Delta Center was waiting for.
On the backs of a Samanic, George, and a very crowd-pleasing Lofton, the Jazz finally got a win (Though they had to survive a late game-tying 3-point attempt from VanVleet).
Samanic had 22 points, George added 20, and Lofton finished with 14 points and nine rebounds.
"I'm really, really proud of the team," Hardy said. "They deserve that win."
And, he added later, so did the fans.
"They come out every night," Hardy said. "And there aren't a lot of fan bases in the NBA that would have had that presence tonight on the 13-game losing streak."
It was an utterly meaningless game — the Jazz were already more or less locked into the eighth-worst record in the league and the Rockets had been eliminated from postseason contention — you'd never have guessed that from the crowd reactions.
In the third quarter when Lofton snagged an offensive board and found Brice Sensabaugh for an open 3-pointer, the crowd erupted like everything was at stake. That same energy kept up the rest of the way.
Yes, that is unique.
"The NBA is full of fairweather fans," Hardy said. "It's full of arenas that you go to and if the team isn't great, or if the team doesn't have a 'superstar' on it, buildings can be not very full. There are plenty of incidents throughout the season where we go on the road and you walk in a place and it just doesn't feel the same."
That's a credit to Jazz fans, yes, but the cheers don't tell the full story. There is a growing apathy among the fan base.
"This has been the most disinterested I've been in all my years of having season tickets," a 12-year season-ticker holder said. "But, of course, I'm going to enjoy the small victories."
That was a common feeling on Thursday. Some fans said they were getting frustrated with what they perceived as a lack of vision from the franchise. Others said they had grown tired of seeing players traded midway through "fun" seasons and to pay to watch starters sit.
"If we're gonna tank, let's start at the beginning of the season," said a first-year season ticket holder. "I wouldn't have signed up if I knew this was going to happen. But I might as well enjoy it as much as I can, right?"
Hardy understands the disappointment, and he's fine with the critiques — especially because of how loyal the fans have proven to be to the franchise.
"I truly feel like we have the most loyal fans in the NBA. They're informed, they care, they care about things that are real," Hardy said. "Ultimately, our fan base wants a team that is successful, but they also want a team that plays really hard every night, competes, and plays a group; that isn't doing it for the wrong reasons, isn't playing for individual statistics, and is trying to win every night. I feel really lucky to be a part of this."
That's why he's glad his team was able to give those fans one last reason to cheer this season.
