Being in Utah, in my mind, is like living in the British countryside. Is that applicable?
I mean from how people describe it and (in this particular case) how Derrick Favors describes it. Utah sounds like the perfect place to retire. I don’t know. It just sounds peaceful. You know what? Book me a ticket! I’m off to Utah.
Before I book, here’s why I’m talking about Utah. Derrick Favors, who has been in Utah since the Deron Williams trade, actually didn’t expect to be in Utah for long. But moving onto now, he loves Utah.
“I didn’t expect to stay (long term), no,” Favors says, more than four years after the trade and two years after he signed a four-year contract extension with the Jazz. “Utah was so different, I was so new to it. I didn’t expect to stay.
“But as the years have gone on, I’ve grown to love it. I got used to it. I just started feeling comfortable,” he says. “I like how calm and chill it is in Utah. It’s a good thing and it’s a bad thing. The bad part is, maybe after a big game you want to go out and hang out or whatever, and there’s really not too many spots like that in Utah. Down (in Atlanta), you could go anywhere. Out in Utah, it’s chill, laid-back. There’s not a lot of rah-rah stuff going on. You can focus on your job, your career, whatever else you have going on.”
Chill? Laid back? Ah man the tickets can’t come fast enough!
This just backs up the point I’ve made for some time now. It is now okay to play in a small market. You don’t have to be in a big market to succeed, and I think that’s a great thing. Sure winning in LA or New York would be great, but when you’re on a team like the Jazz, with a tight knit fanbase, it is just as rewarding. And they’ve now got a team that can make moves, can’t wait to see what the underrated Jazz can do.
If you don’t mind, I’m off to Utah.
