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What's wrong with SLC?

JimLes

JimLes

Well-Known Member
Now, I'm not from Utah, and have only been there twice on pilgrimages to the then-Delta Center. I'm not overly familiar with the place, but I'd like to know what makes it such a horrible place for a 20-something multimillionaire to live in?

All I know is that other teams' players don't want to live there, Jazz players live elsewhere in the off-season and players even want to leave because of SLC. And I'd like to know why?

Is the weather that bad? Keep in mind I'm writing this from Calgary, Canada where it is -6 Fahrenheit right now and dropping to -20 later tonight.

Is there not a single club in the whole Wasatch Front?

Are Mormons the absolute worst people in the world who burn crosses on black people's lawns and holler insults at them on the street?

Is trying to get liquor in SLC like trying to get a bacon cheeseburger in Tel Aviv?

I'm constantly reminded of how NBA players don't wanna live in SLC, and I'm trying to figure out what exactly is so bad about it. Now, I know it ain't NYC or LA or Miami, but I never hear about how no one wants to live in Milwaukee, Portland, Charlotte or Oklahoma City. What's so different and so horrible about SLC?
 
It was destroyed by the North Koreans...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZqyg1wXTDQ
 
It's not horrible, but it's a little repressed compared to much of America. There are worse places. The reputation that proceeds it is somewhat undeserved. But yeah, get used to missionaries knocking on your front door. ;)
 
fairweather said:
It's not horrible, but it's a little repressed compared to much of America. There are worse places. The reputation that proceeds it is somewhat undeserved. But yeah, get used to missionaries knocking on your front door. ;)
Click to expand...

LOL, I've lived here (right downtown....same building as 3 former and 1 current Jazz player(s) live(d) for 3 of them) for 10 years and never.....not once.....had a missionary knock on my door. I've never even seen one on the streets around where I live. There are 8 clubs within one block of where I live.

It aint LA, and I mean that as a compliment to SLC.
 
Ha, try 30 years, then get back to me! I've been to "clubs" in Utah and they don't even compare to other cities. Personally, I don't care about that, but some 20-something players might. I can't stand LA.

Of course, players are on the road so much, I can't see why it's a problem. During the summer, they can go wherever they want...
 
SLC is a relatively quiet and relatively small town (by NBA standards) in the mountains. The people seem quite homogeneous compared to more metropolitan cities and are predominantly Caucasian. The culture is conservative and, to some, a bit odd.

I'm speaking out of place here, but it may not be the most exciting place for a young black American wanting to live a highly celebratory and highly extroverted lifestyle with like-minded people. It isn't the media circus that you get in LA or NYC, just a quiet, scenic little city with rabid basketball fans.

However, I don't think that SLC is really any less appealing than half the other cities in the league for one reason or another. For example, aside from the warm weather, I can't really see the appeal of Phoenix. San Antonio bores me to tears. Portland is like SLC, except that it's more liberal. Charlotte is also a bit small and conservative, although it may have more of a black community. Sacramento, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, Cleveland...all seem less appealing.

I don't think players are down so much on SLC. I think there are just a few cities--LA, NYC, Miami and Chicago--that are the 'it' cities. Lots of people, not just pro ball players, want to live in these exciting cities.
 
Catchall said:
The people seem quite homogeneous compared to more metropolitan cities and are predominantly Caucasian. The culture is conservative and, to some, a bit odd.
Click to expand...

I think this sums it up best - a point I missed.
 
So many of these reasons seem like they'd be completely irrelevant to the actual daily life of an NBA star.

I mean, the weather sucks? Boozer's from freakin' Alaska. What's he normally used to, tropical climate? Yet the dude was living in Miami in the off-season. And what does this mean, anyway? Are LeBron and Wade chilling out on the beach every day? Considering the amount of time these guys travel, play on the road, or practice, how much time can you possibly have to enjoy the weather?

The clubs? Again, how much time do they have to go clubbing? And isn't Deron, for example, married with small children? Does he really hit the strip every Saturday night?

And the diversity thing? Do players feel better when they see black people on the street randomly? I mean, we're talking about professional athletes here. I understand that a black waiter in Utah might occasionally feel out of place and experience racism, but a multi-millionaire celebrity? It's not like Malone walked down a street in SLC and had children point and say "Look ma, a negro, a negro!"

I just have a hard time seeing what about SLC made it so horrible for Deron to live there.
 
I grew up in SLC. Now I split time between San Francisco and New York for work. For young guys with an ego who want to be rich and famous and have a circle of friends, sometimes they want to be in the "big city" where all the excitement presumably is. They want to be loved by a big town, not a small town. They want to live "the life."

Again, it's not that SLC is bad. It's just that aside from low-key players like a Tim Duncan, or a small-town guy like Karl Malone, quite often the players want to be on the big stage. They have a big appetite for fame.
 
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