Friend or Foe?

Friend or Foe? This is the age old question any devoted Utah Jazz fan must ask themselves when talking about some of the star basketball players that call Utah their home. Without naming names, Karl Malone....Derek Fisher, Utah has been the home to some of the NBA’s greatest sellouts ever. With the most recent landslide of events being the words that just happen to spill out of Carlos Boozer’s mouth in an interview with reporters, we may just have yet another great sellout story to record in our books.

Since the beginning of his contract with the Utah Jazz, Carlos Boozer has been a great asset when on the floor, the only problem there in is getting him on the floor to play. In fact, since 2004 I believe most of the complaining about our good friend Carlos has not come from the fans, but instead comes from the very bench that he has sat on while being injured for a combined time of nearly two full seasons with the jazz. The contract was signed in 2004 where he was offered $70 million dollars. Let’s take a break and do some math: A $70 million dollar contract divided into 6 years equals roughly $11.7 million dollars a season. That means the jazz have handed Carlos Boozer over $23 million dollars just to show up and have a front row seat to two season’s worth of games. WOW! What a deal. I’d be willing to take a deal like that, I bet I could even promise the Utah Jazz that I’d not mention to media that I’m planning on bailing out at the end of the season for more money either.

When it comes down to it, as fans we have shown our respect for what Carlos has done, but it’s time for us to move on, apparently he moved on long ago. So the question is asked again, is he a friend? Or a foe? While his name still sits on the roster list, and his butt on the bench, for the time being he’s still a friend, but it’s only a matter of time before we have yet another sellout on our hands, but don’t worry Carlos, you and your friends in Miami will have a wonderful welcome visiting us here in Utah, after all, we have the most ruthless fan in the league.
-Jimmy Stewart-