Much has been said about Slick Willie, but I thought I'd throw in my .02 dollars.
I lived in Champaign/Urbana for 6 months when DWill played at the U of I, and even though I couldn't go see him play and didn't actually know about the guy until the Jazz moved up and drafted him, I always felt some sort of unofficial connection with him. I'm about the same height and age as him which made my interest even greater. I was his biggest fan for those first 3 years on the Jazz, I loved watching him grow and become established as one of the top PGs in the league, if not the top PG in years 4 and 5. He made the Jazz relevant again for the first time since the glory days and I felt like he was my buddy, my pal, and I shared his glory because "Hey, I walked the same sidewalks as he did in college, I suffered through the same terrible humidity, I can reminisce with him about Green street and all the college hotties that hung out there. We're practically brothers." Heck, I even had (non-homo) dreams about us hanging out, talking basketball, and such.
Then I started noticing little things. Once he shed his "rookieness" and became more confident with the Sloan system he began to get a little cocky. At first I shrugged this off, "everyone needs a little attitude to be competitive." Then the whining to the refs started. Once again, I wrote this off as more of a growing pain than a problem, "he's still young and isn't getting the calls he should." Next came his negative reaction to the trades of Ronnie Brewer and Eric Maynor, "well Ronnie was a good friend and even though he was an offensive liability in the LA series the year before, I'd be mad too." Pretty soon Deron started making comments about the system and how it parts of it weren't working... mmmm, I had a harder time writing that one off because it had worked pretty darn well in the past, as long as the players bought into it. Then the deal breaker came for me when he wouldn't sign a longer contract because he wanted to make sure that the front office was going to make some moves that he approved of before he'd commit long-term. That's when my inner Jazz fan murdered my inner DWill fan. I still liked the guy, but only because he was on my team. The whole Hayward incident and Sloan blowup(s) were just icing on the cake at that point. When the news came of his trade, I reacted with a nervous "meh, it's probably for the better" and cried a little on the inside for a few days. But I'm over it now. Sure, I'll miss his flashiness and play making abilities, but the next time I see him dressing down a teammate or crying to a ref about how he was fouled while the man he is supposed to be guarding drives in for an uncontested layup, I'll laugh and get over it a little more. We got one heck of a deal in return and, although I'm a little put off by the prospect of another possible (mini)rebuilding phase, I'm more exciting about our future than I was with Deron and Carlos headlining our team.
Anyway, after all that babbling, my point is this: If I can get over Deron and the mancrush/connection/hetero-love I had for the guy, anyone can. He's not coming back and we shouldn't want him to if he tried, players who treasure their ego over team ball can go have their fame and fortune in the big markets, see how that's worked out for Lebron and Bosh so far. Give us the hungry, humble, and capable guys like Favors, Kanter, and Hayward. I really like the direction we're going with this group, I think they can do great things. Anywho, back to my point, I think we should cheer Deron when he comes back, give him a nice warm welcome and make sure he knows we don't hate him. I know I'll always appreciate what he did for the Jazz while he was here, but I'll be glad he's in the visitor's locker room from now on.
