December Schedule Overview

Just to refresh everyone's memories . . . last season Utah played 16 games in December and managed to go 5-11over that span. The main reasons why the Jazz lost so many games happened to be a mixture of injuries, off-court drama (thanks Giricek!) and the fact that teams learned to just play zone defense against Utah. This season we have a slew of injuries and go into December looking to play 15 games.

The first three games are an away game @ Sacramento on Tuesday, quickly followed by a home game the very next night against the Miami Heat. I've never flown from Sacramento to Salt Lake City before, but that doesn't seem to be too bad -- weather permitting. The Jazz do not play again until Friday, with a game on TV (ESPN) hosting the Toronto Raptors.

After the two game home stand the Jazz face off with a pair of road games -- the first @ Phoenix (the 2nd night of a back-to-back) on Saturday, and then @ Minnesota on Tuesday.

Again, alternating between home games and road games the Jazz return to Salt Lake City for games against Portland (also on TV, this time TNT) and then two days later, against Orlando. Then the fun starts . . .

Fun being our 2nd 5 game Eastern Conference Road trip in two months. Thankfully it appears to be a bit more spaced out than last time. On the 15th the Jazz play @ Boston, on the 17th the Jazz play @ New Jersey, on the 19th the Jazz play @ Detroit. The next night the Jazz play @ Chicago -- this is not only the 2nd night in a back-to-back set but also the 3rd game in 4 nights. The Jazz's last stop is against the Milwaukee Bucks on the 23rd. On paper playing against Boston, Detroit and Chicago should be harder than playing against the Wizards, Bobcats and Knicks -- but the Jazz lost all three of those games too, so who is to say how Utah will fare this time around?

After Christmas the Jazz play Dallas on boxing day, then visit Houston the very next night. Utah finishes the month with a home game against Philadelphia.

For those keeping score at home that's 6 games against the West, and 9 games against the East. (We've only lost once all season against the West so far, and 6 times against Eastern foes) Furthermore, the Jazz play 6 home games and 9 road games.

There are only four back-to-back sets (@ Sac, vs. Mia; vs. Tor., @ Phoe; @ Det, @ Chi; and vs. Dal, @ Hou) this month, so that's one good thing from this mess that we can look forward to.

There are a number of 3rd game in 4 nights: the Toronto game is one, so will be the game @ Phoenix, the game @ Chicago and the game at home vs. Philadelphia.

It's not easy, but December is very rarely easy for the Jazz. Anything less than going 7 - 8 would be horrible.

LHM not out of the woods yet . . .

Previously, on AllThatJazz, we documented some of the medical troubles that Jazz owner Larry H. Miller had experienced over the summer. Unfortunately he's not out of the woods yet. He does continue on with a hard regime of physiotherapy and tries to push himself. Though that type of rehabilitation can only go so far. The both Salt Lake Tribune and ESPN both report that Miller has had to undergo surgery for a bone infection. Over all from what little information has been released, I think he'll recover. This is just yet another injury for our team though, and we're getting pretty dinged up and the season hasn't even started yet!

The only thing we can do is continue sending out positive thought as, no doubt, the best Doctors in the state of Utah are on the case. (He's is apparently to Utah what Kim Jong Il is to N.Korea, but without all the crazy or sun glasses...)

ESPN's Chad Ford likes him some Utah Jazz

In a recent ESPN Podcast (click on that if you want to listen to it) Ford talks for about 2 minutes about how gosh darn awesome the Jazz are. He starts by suggesting (what a lot of people thought, including himself) that the Jazz success in the 80's and 90's were primarily due to John Stockton and Karl Malone; however, he now sees that the influence of the system and Jerry Sloan had a lot to do with it. Case in point: this version of the Jazz who are pretty strong -- partly due to the system, and partly because of shrewd roster moves by GM Kevin O'Connor.

Furthermore, success in the Jazz system is predicated upon strong point guard play -- and none of this recent success would be possible without Deron Williams. Who Ford "thinks is one of the top 3 point guards in the NBA" (Chad Ford, 2008, via ESPN Podcast). He goes on about how dominant he is.

Next Ford talks about Boozer being an anchor in the paint; mentions AK-47 as a talented role player whose true contributions do not always show up on the box score; and that Mehmet Okur stretches the defense and had an amazing second half of the season for us. Surprisingly he gets himself a good seat on the Ronnie Brewer bandwagon and talks about his athleticism, his ability to play the passing lanes, he's potentially a ball hawk, and really is what the Jazz team are missing. Basically he's suggesting that he's going to be that athletic perimeter defender that we haven't had since, well, uh, Blue Edwards? (Jazz history isn't rife with great athletic shooting guard lore) Over-all the Utah Jazz's depth, head coach and system are hard to ignore. Such that:

	"I think that if anybody is going to be able to stop the Lakers this year it's the Utah Jazz -- they're great at home, they are getting [increasingly] confident, they have a great mixture of youth and veterans, and I think at the end of the day, if there's a team that is going to surprise us in the West, it's going to be the Utah Jazz." (Chad Ford, 2008, via ESPN Podcast)
Chad Ford, ESPN

I haven't heard any of his other team podcasts, but I doubt he's going to be really critical (well, maybe the Pacers and Bobcats...) in any of them. If you want, you can listen to them all here. Over all, I agree with him -- our bench is under rated, our system works, and we have some athletic young talent for once. NBA Finals here we come!

The NBA's next target: India. Why India? Why not?

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Anything is possible? Photo courtesy of Adidas . . . and yes, that's Kevin Garnett in Agra, India

I first heard about this story from a Tom Ziller blog @ the Fanhouse. It's taken me some time to really get my feelings about this subject, obviously so as this story is over a month old now. Really, how conflicted should I be -- my favorite sport to watch on TV is basketball, and I used to live in India and complain about the lack of NBA coverage there. (You can imagine me getting to the hospital late some mornings because I was waiting on ESPN's Java based monster to update the score of some meaningless Jazz/Sonics regular season game back in 2002 -- gotta love that +10:30 time difference)

David Stern has recently been talking up international basketball because of the Olympics. The NBA/China link is quite established, and plans for establishing a basketball league in that nation currently exist. "[Though] Stern said the [NBA] does not see China as an entry point to Asia. India could be next on the NBA's radar. Stern said NBA officials have met in Beijing with Indian authorities, and the league stages its first Basketball Without Borders events in India this summer. "We think that [India] is a very promising market." (Andrew Bagnato, AP sports writer via. CBC Sports) Getting involved in China seems like a slam dunk with their large population, potential economic force and active NBA players (Yao and Yi).

There are no major Indian basketball players knocking on the door to the NBA like Yao Ming (and others before him) did a few seasons ago. This appears to be a major obstacle for the provincialistic keepers of basketball, if not for the nation of India itself. When people talk about basketball on the international level, no one really even talks about FIBA Asia -- let alone a country that is getting beat down by Quatar and Kazakhstan by a combined 80 points. I guess the point that most detractors have is that a nation that does not display great skills at something may not be a big fan of it. Essentially, if India doesn't produce great basketball players, how will basketball ever be popular there? If I wanted to be smarmy, for a rebuttal I'd suggest that the United States of America seems to be in love with democracy, even if we currently don't really have one. (we live in a republic, deal with it) But let's not go there . . .

For all of India's historical records in the sport (last place in the 1980 Olympics; btw, Andrei Kirilenko's father-in-law / Masha's dad was on the USSR team in 1980 -- Andrei Lopatov); and apparent disinterest (if you're not playing Cricket, you better get your ass a book and study) -- the Indian subcontinent has one big thing going for it: Potential.

Like the risk/reward system of drafting an unproven high school kid, and how it used to challenge GM's (back when you could draft high school kids on the premise that they could become like a Kobe, KG, or LeBron), the NBA is basically drafting India based on potential. The first, and only really bankable potential that India has right now is the economic potential.

"[India] is the twelfth largest economy in the world, with a GDP of around $1 trillion (2008). It recorded a GDP growth rate of 9.1% for the fiscal year 2007-2008 which makes it the second fastest big emerging economy, after China, in the world." (Wikipedia, 2008)

India has one of the higher natural increase growth rates in the world, and already consists of one sixth of the entire population of the world: China's population is 1.3 billion, India's is 1.1 billion (CIA, 2008). India is on the rise, and there is a lot of money to be made there. Many Multi-national corporations (of which the NBA definitely can be classified as) have been going to India in the last few years -- you see McDonald's and Subway franchises there, Target retail superstores have come to India, and many more such companies have landed, or are planning on doing so in the near future. Adidas opened up stores there and sent Kevin Garnett to India in 2006-2007 to drum up hype.

KG in Delhi: the landing, the announcement, and the spectacle of the Big Ticket as he does everything from signs autographs to watching some Desi pick up ball in a gym. Click to see Agra (Taj Mahal), and Bangalore. Essentially, Adidas made some money.

"Expanding to the world's second most populous market hardly seems loony. After all, no American sports league has exported its brand better than the NBA, which sells more than $750 million in merchandise overseas annually. Its games are broadcast in 215 countries. And India offers a growing, tech-savvy economy with a billion potential consumers -- 60% of whom are below age 30 -- who could sop up NBA merchandise and follow their favorite players on NBA.com." (Sean Gregory for Time Magazine, 2006)

According to the CIA World Factbook entry on India, there are over 233.62 million cell phones in use there (5th in the world), and over 60 million Internet users (5th in the world). There are 562 TV broadcasting stations as well. That is a lot of potential exposure that the NBA could be getting -- and that exposure almost always results in someone making money. (Which TV exec wouldn't want to make an exclusive TV deal for a potential 1 billion viewers?) Money is reason enough, especially in a nation that proves to be so important in the future (not just as a big market, but as the largest democracy by population in the world, and as a possible pro-Western society that is neither Islamic, nor Socialist -- unlike the other big nations in FIBA Asia). India also has other reasons to be lucrative for David Stern and the rest of the head office boys at the NBA.

As far as control of the globe is concerned, the NBA and FIBA are in a fight against FIFA, and the rest of those soccer/futbol playing nations. Some nations are able to be both basketball and soccer hotbeds (like Brazil, Argentina and so forth) -- but the NBA and FIBA really need to establish themselves in those nations that are still clearly undecided in the FIBA/FIFA war. India is one of those nations. Like the United States (with the love of football and baseball being huge) and Canada (with hockey), India is a place where basketball will have a hard time being number one. (Thanks to Cricket)

India has just recently started a cricket league (actually two, in some crazy, mixed up NBA/ABA issue that deals with cricket, instead of basketball, and a lot more legal action) -- and the popularity of that sport is only getting bigger. A few months ago I was eavesdropping on a conversation two Indian immigrants were having in line at the DMV here in Detroit. They were checking their Indian Premier League cricket scores on their cell phones and talking about it.

"Marketers got a glimpse of the potential of professional sports' in India earlier this year with the debut of the Indian Premier League, a flashy cricket [regular season and playoffs] that brought the sport's biggest international stars together with big advertisers, big crowds -- and big money." (Sam Dolnick, AP via The Nashua Telegraph, 2008)

FIBA/The NBA wants part of this pie, before an internal soccer league gets set up and popular in India. Part of the directed goals so far seem to actually revolve around making it easier for Indian cell phone users to check NBA scores from their devices -- which is so ironic when put in context with my DMV story:

"The NBA is talking to Time Warner about producing hoops-related programming on [Time Warner's children's channel on Indian airwaves] and to ESPN Star Sports . . .  about increasing the league's presence on the network's Indian sports channels. The NBA is also in discussions with Nokia about supplying league content on Indian mobile phones." (Sean Gregory for Time Magazine, 2006)

Still, India has more to offer the NBA head offices besides money and market shares. India is a very stratified nation. As far as stratified societies go, India is among the best in the world at it. While most people consider India to be one of the poorest nations in the world, 4 of the Top 10 wealthiest billionaires are Indian. That said, India has an emerging and important middle class. (Who do you think is watching all of that TV and using all those cell phones?) This middle class is seeking an identity.

The richest of the rich, highest class (nouveau caste, really) of modern Indian appear to be a much different phenotype than the rest of India. They are the ones who you see on Indian TV or in Indian movies that are nearly the personification of modern day idols and Gods on earth -- in India. The tallest, fairest, most un-Indian (yet distinctly Indian) Indian people around.

Aishwarya Rai was Miss World back in 1994, and owns it now	Bipasha Basu (a Bengali Beyonce) and boyfriend	Rani Mukherjee is a product of very selective breeding	. . . as is Hrithik Roshan	Diya Mirza is another  example of India's upper class "diversity"

Any of these Indians looks like someone who works in IT, a 7/11 or in your local ER? Nope. But out of a population of over a billion, you are bound to get enough people who look and live like they do. The richest people in India have the most advantages . . . and love to appear beyond that of the common rabble. Hence, they are clearly the market the NBA is after. After all, the NBA is already "seeking endorsements from Bollywood stars," (Sam Dolnick, AP via The Nashua Telegraph, 2008) of which the six above clearly are. Additionally, Indian films have been using subtle propaganda to establish basketball as something new, hip and elite: Parampara (1993) was the first time I saw basketball in Bollywood -- where the guys playing basketball used a soccer ball; Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) uses basketball (with an actual ball, this time) as a story driven device; and Koi ... Mil Gaya (2003) has a "a nerdy hero [who gets] Jordaneqsue abilities." (Sean Gregory for Time Magazine, 2006)

"Basketball is most popular among cosmopolitan Indians, for whom the game carries a whiff of Western sophistication. America's ultimate gritty playground game has, in India, largely become a game for the children of the elite. "My students, they go to U.S., Europe, and there they have so much of a basketball culture," said Deepak Shukla, who coaches a basketball team at an exclusive New Delhi school. "They have Shaquille O'Neal shoes they get from [America] . . . my students are from (wealthy) families . . . [eventually] only the poor people will play cricket." "(Sam Dolnick, AP via The Nashua Telegraph, 2008)

While the poorer people can divert themselves with playing cricket, the Middle class wants to elevate themselves as well -- why not with the highest flying game on the planet? David Stern is cautiously optimistic:

"With [India's] middle class and some focus on the world's games, basketball is starting to get a little interest and a little traction . . . so we have to be respectful and realize it's going to be small steps up." (David Stern, as reported by Sean Gregory for Time Magazine, 2006)

Naturally, if David Stern is interested -- it's in the obvious best interest for the league. As such, this past summer before the 2008-2009 season they did have their first Basketball Without Borders trip -- among those who participated were Rony Turiaf, Kyle Korver, Linton Johnson, Pat Garrity and former players Dominique Wilkins and Sam Perkins.

New Delhi: The group poses after being greeted	Agra: Kyle Kover said that it was "like 150 degrees [outside]" (NBA.com, 2008)
New Delhi: Pat Garrity talks to campers	New Delhi: Sam Perkins asks where he can get that really good Buddha from
New Delhi: Rony Turiaf plays Karem with kids	New Delhi: Dominique Wilkins teaches a drill

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

Dominique Wilkins and Kyle Korver (who is called one of the greatest to ever play, and smiles accordingly) are interviewed on CNN's Indian station (CNN-IBN). 'Nique likes the discipline the kids show, Kover suggests that you can still be good at basketball when you're short -- look at Iverson.

Basketball requires a lot more infrastructure than India currently affords their most rural areas. Additionally, when I last lived in India (2002) even the most exclusive sporting clubs and health spas were not a lock to have a basketball courts. Basketball without Borders programs increase awareness (and also do other things, these guys talked about everything from Zone defense to Aids prevention), and training of younger players. I fully expect the NBA to send players back in the following summers. It seems like the perfect sport to grow roots in India's growing middle class, if not also in their upper class as well.

New Delhi: Linton Johnson plays with his haar on.

So it is realistic to say that in the next 20 years, with proper time and development, India could be pretty okay at basketball -- and maybe have a much stronger international presence on the courts. Furthermore, the NBA in India makes a lot of fiscal sense. Will there be an NBA player who is Indian? Probably one day, as countless kids of Indian origin play basketball all over the world -- be they a street ball player from Australia, or any number of the countless Indian undergrad students in the USA and Canada who play daily. It's not outside the realm of possibility to see someone from India be NBA ready at some stage -- but it make take a genetic freak like a 7'5 player to first do it. And really . . .

Don't you want to see this guy in the Turban as an assistant coach for some team? He could even color coordinate his turban to if it was a road or a home game! P.S. I'm not making fun of you Punjabi Sikh guys at all, just *THIS* Punjabi Sikh guy.

Moment of Truth

Today is the first day of Kyrylo Fesenko's new life. This is, really, the moment of truth for him. Tonight he will suit up and play against the San Antonio Spur's summer league team. While the actual enormity of this game is ripe for satire; in actuality, this game is monumental for the young giant from the Ukraine. In the mercurial ways of the common Utah Jazz fan (fanatically devoted one week, absolutely despondent the next) the love affair with Fess has currently swung from adoration towards loathing. For the record this is a common feature of jazz fandom (E.g. The on again, off again relationship with franchise leading scorer Karl Malone; the seasonal debate about just how bad Andrei Kirilenko is; or even the roller coaster that has been the Carlos Boozer experience are all great moments in jazz fan history).

Right now it is Fesenko's turn to be vilified.

Really, how much scorn should we heap upon a 2nd rounder who was traded by the team that drafted him without even giving him a shot in pre-season? A player who has only played 9 NBA games in his career? Well, Steve Luhm, of the Salt Lake Tribune, did not even mention Fesenko at all in his article that is a round up of players to watch in the Rocky Mountain Review Summer league, though a 6'2 shooting guard and the Iranian national team deserved the column space that Kyrylo apparently does not. Most Jazz fans have already pronounced his time of death.

Part of this has to deal with the drafting of Ohio State Center Kosta Koufos -- with Kosta around perhaps we don't need Fess? The jazz have made a point of drafting the best player available, and as a result, they drafted this guy who was supposed to be a lotto pick. It's a no brainer, really. It happens to be coincidental that it was another big, white 7 footer with questionable athletic skills. (It has to be coincidence that a single franchise has drafted Mark Eaton, Greg Ostertag, traded on draft day for Curtis Borchardt, traded on draft day for Kyrylo Fesenko, now drafted Kosta Koufos and Ante Tomic in the same draft, right?) Maybe Kosta will prove to be the ultimate demise of Fesenko, but not in Kosta's rookie season, that is for sure.

How can I be sure? I am sure because at this point in time, C.J. Miles is still around. He was drafted in 2005, then in 2006 the Jazz drafted Ronnie Brewer. Then the Jazz drafted Morris Almond in 2007. The jazz have been known to draft the same position in consecutive years. We don't have to look too far back to see this. Hence, the Jazz are not going to give up on a 21 year old prospect just because they draft a 19 year old prospect one year later.

Maybe the Jazz would have drafted someone other than a big man, if Fess was so great. Fat chance, we're already over loaded at the wings, and don't need 4 PGs -- plus, best player available was Koufos, so they were going to draft him no matter how great Fess was. If anyone remembers, they drafted Fess to stash him over in Europe, and had no intention of buying out his contract. They worked him out, and had him play in the RMR and were stunned. He was much better than they thought he was, and bought out his contract and he spent the year alternating between playing for the Utah Jazz in the NBA and the Utah Flash, in the NBA-DL. The optimism of those days have given way towards concerns.

Steve Luhm, clearly on the Koufos bandwagon called the Salt Lake Tribune, suggests that the expectations Jazz fans have for Fess are "completely out of whack," (Luhm, 2008). Furthermore, he assumes that the Jazz franchise's only  chance to get him some playing time will be in the D-League, and that he has practically no shot to make the rotation, as Koufos has leapfrogged him already.

Clearly the two games he saw him play in last season were enough to know that Fess sucks. It doesn't help that reports suggest that "Fesenko did not get off to a great start this season . . . [and] Sloan has wondered aloud about his conditioning," (Luhm, 2008). Well, Sloan has in previous seasons wondered aloud about the conditioning of Deron Williams, Mehmet Okur and others who have joined our team, and gotten better. Compounding the problem is that Sloan has been reported to like what he sees in Kosta.

"He's only 19 years old and hasn't had the experience of being here," said Sloan, who had only seen Koufos play on tape when the Jazz drafted him last month. "But he has worked hard. That's all you can ask, and you let the rest of it take care of itself. He has some things that he can work on, as everybody does. But he has some things that can be worthwhile to his career." (Sloan, via Buckley, 2008)

It is funny, though, how quickly people forget. Last season at this point in time the media was raving about Fesenko's Basketball IQ for being so young, about his work ethic and desire to improve. This season he's getting killed in the press and with the subtle shots from Sloan and others. (E.g. "he hasn't has the experience of being here...." but Kyrylo has, and he should be better -- he was so good last year that we have great expectations for him) As such, perhaps it is time to re-evaluate just how good Fess will one day be.

David Thorpe, who occasionally writes and chats on ESPN.com's NBA website is one of the bigwigs at IMG. He has had the opportunity to not only coach Fess, but also promote him. When asked about Fesenko in a recent chat, Thorpe said that "[Fesenko] barely practiced when I was there. Sick, injured, etc. He could be a max player, or he could end up back in Ukraine," (Thorpe, ESPN.com, 2008). He later added that while he has not even seen Koufos play, that he "is likely more serious about getting better. Most are, compared to Fes." This is a far cry from the glowing reviews Thorpe used to give Fesenko:

Shaq, alongside "the White Shaq" a few weeks before the 2007 NBA Draft.

"[Fess is] really really smart . . . and huge"(August 29, 2007);

"[the] sleeper of the draft . . . think Biedrins and Pachulia combined-relentless in the paint and very coordinated. I call him "White Shaq" . . . One scout told me that he'd have been a top 10 pick had he played American college ball this past year . . . " (Thorpe, ESPN, August 22, 2007)

Sounds bad, right? Apparently the crux of the problem happens to be that he is not showing the same effort that he used to, and that individuals feel as though he is not really that serious. That really does sound bad. But step off from the ledge fans, it's not all bad. Scott Layden, who is the coach of the RMR squad has worked with Fess quite a bit this summer. He has seen more of him than Sloan has, and probably has seen a more motivated version of him than Thorpe has lately. (Fess worked with Thorpe to, primarily, get good enough to be drafted I think. Now that he's under contract, he may be taking things Shaq like in the summer.) Layden spoke with DJ and PK a few mornings ago on KFan 1320 and had some good things to say.

"This is a time for Fess to work on his game, and to get minutes . . . Kosta will play the 4 when Fess is in the game . . . Fess is a good low post player and a very good passer . . . [Fess] is developing, he's doing a good job, last night was probably his best practice of this early training camp . . . he does some things: he blocks shots, he's big, he's another guy [that] at his size he changes ends very well . . . that's one thing that Fess can do very well, he stays in the flow of the game, he gets back and can anchor the defense, [he's got] good timing on blocking shots, he's a handful in the post because of his size, and then he enjoys passing -- he's not a ballhog. When he catches it in the post, and a guy is open he'll hit him. He's got some cute little passes out of the post and he can score and rebound and so we're excited about him . . . when you look at young players you got to have patience, you got to have to look at what the potential is and how far they come. These guys are making progress . . . Kevin [O'Connor] and Walt Perrin do their homework, they get guys in here who can play for Coach Sloan in this system, and they get guys that want to get better and are getting better." (Scott Layden, 2008)

Clearly there is yet good in Fesenko, and there are people who still see the benefit of keeping him around. If I'm making a team I'd take a poor-man's Shaq over a poor-man's Memo any day. That is not to say that I dislike Koufos, I hope he does well, and becomes a solid player for our team for years to come. I just think that news of Fesenko's death are slightly premature.

That said, he has to want to get better, he has to show people that he is getting better -- and most importantly, he has to get better. This is the first day of the rest of his life . . . you have to show that you can dominate in the RMR to prove that you belong on an NBA roster. (Failure at this level means no shot at the NBA) Tonight against San Antonio he has to come out and be that violent apelord that we know he can be . . . especially with some new Rookie breathing down his neck -- who is apparently already ahead of him on the depth charts.

Exhibit A -- The Violent Apelord (or whatever the heck his Ukrainian team mascot is)	Exhibit B -- The Violent Apelord, aka. Kyrylo Fesenko

For Kyrylo Fesenko he must write his destiny, starting tonight, with his actions on the court. Forget what media writes about him, forget the doubters, work hard, don't get caught up in mind games with Coach Sloan, and play the way that he is capable of . . . and he will once again be loved by Utah Jazz fans all over. This is his moment of truth.