This guy is the #1 betrayer in Jazz History.
Care to explain? I bet there's a great story.
1 Day After Tomorrow
- Thread starter nightmare3983
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Care to explain? I bet there's a great story.
This guys is the #1 most reviled player in Jazz history:
In Jazz history, or JazzFanz history?
Stifle Tower
Punch Bowl Re-Filler
This guys is the #1 most reviled player in Jazz history:
Braille doesn't even crack the top-10 on my list, primarily because of his outstanding effort the first time around.
My list:
1. Derek "YOU GO LIVE IN UTAH" Harper. For refusing a trade and furthering the stereotype of Salt Lake.
2. Rony Seikaly. See above.
3. John Starks. For creating a monster rift in the locker room that tore the team apart. Sorry John, the team ALWAYS belonged to that other "John," the one whose jockstrap you aren't worthy to carry.
4. Derek Fisher. For his lack of basic geography knowledge. Utah is closer to NY than LA, idiot.
5. John Amaechi. I don't care about your orientation. But if you have an employment contract, you should put forth some effort outside of walking to the bank to cash your checks.
6. Carlos "Dribble the clock away" Arroyo. At least when he left, his legion of annoying admirers on Jazzfanz went with him.
7. Carlos Boozer. On a positive note, he'll never suffer from the condition that Channing Frye has since Boozer has no heart.
8. Tie: Jose Ortiz and Eric Leckner. Back-to-back draft busts. I could put Humphries, Snyder and Wright in here, too, but Kris has turned himself around in NJ. Snyder and Wright have mental illnesses so I'll leave them off my list.
9. Tie: Brevin Knight and Jason Hart. Was there something in the water. Both forget how to play after signing contracts with Utah
10. Deron Williams. OK, I'll get blasted for putting him on here. He was a fantastic player. But his body of work, IMO, does not mitigate his final season of being a complete ^&%$#. For disrespecting a HOF coach by refusing to run his plays, quitting on his teammates and forcing Greggy Boy to choose between him and Jerry. Rot in Brooklyn, Benedict Williams.
Good post MoTown.
addictionary
Well-Known Member
Funny how two players -Arroyo and D-will - from motown's top 10 had played in the team I support in Turkish league. Maybe my sub-conscience plays tricks on me. More than maybe if to be out of topic.
Hitman
Well-Known Member
Um, I think you mean Mark Jackson.
The Fresh Prince
Well-Known Member
He does. People tend to hate on John Starks though. Don't know why!
addictionary
Well-Known Member
The Fresh Prince, because he was the one to psyche out his Majesty in Pat Riley's Knicks era.
Stifle Tower
Punch Bowl Re-Filler
Oops, I did mean Jackson. My proofreading is almost as bad as that on Yahoo.
mellow
Well-Known Member
Starks played for Utah for two years before Mark Jackson came. Starks mostly played the role of undersized sg for the jazz.
PJ Carelessimo was a college coach at Seton Hall in 1992-93 where he coached a young athletic center who entered the NBA draft after his sophomore season. Normally a 7-2 center with muscle and athleticism would be considered a top pick, but this particular player had a shaddy past and rumors about drugs still swirled around him. Because he was 'falling' in the draft, the Utah Jazz did their due diligence, it was clear the guy could play, but what about his past, his character, and his reputation?
"No, problem." "He's a good kid, who just needed a chance." "He's clean." " Absolutely you can draft him and feel good about it" "he'd fit in great in Utah" says Coach Carelessimo to the Utah Jazz who use their highest draft pick in 5 years to select Luther Wright. Later the Jazz would find out that the character reference they got from Carelessimo was not the same report that Carelessimo had given other teams, but it was too late.
Luther Wright would sign a 5 Million Dollar guaranteed contract, and would 'start' using drugs again almost immediately after arriving in Salt Lake later claiming it was because of the stress of expectations . Wright would also be diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and speculation has been that Carelessimo knew about that too, but 'forgot' to mention that to the Jazz. Wright would appear in 15 games before he got caught in a drug enhanced manic episode at truck stop in Tooele.
The Jazz payed Luther Wright 158K last year, just like they have every year since 1996 and just like they will every year until 2021. And every year the Jazz are reminded that Carelessimo told them "Don't worry, he's a good kid, none of the rumors are true."
The Jazz got screwed, PJ got a job in Portland.
PJ Carelessimo was a college coach at Seton Hall in 1992-93 where he coached a young athletic center who entered the NBA draft after his sophomore season. Normally a 7-2 center with muscle and athleticism would be considered a top pick, but this particular player had a shaddy past and rumors about drugs still swirled around him. Because he was 'falling' in the draft, the Utah Jazz did their due diligence, it was clear the guy could play, but what about his past, his character, and his reputation?
"No, problem." "He's a good kid, who just needed a chance." "He's clean." " Absolutely you can draft him and feel good about it" "he'd fit in great in Utah" says Coach Carelessimo to the Utah Jazz who use their highest draft pick in 5 years to select Luther Wright. Later the Jazz would find out that the character reference they got from Carelessimo was not the same report that Carelessimo had given other teams, but it was too late.
Luther Wright would sign a 5 Million Dollar guaranteed contract, and would 'start' using drugs again almost immediately after arriving in Salt Lake later claiming it was because of the stress of expectations . Wright would also be diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and speculation has been that Carelessimo knew about that too, but 'forgot' to mention that to the Jazz. Wright would appear in 15 games before he got caught in a drug enhanced manic episode at truck stop in Tooele.
The Jazz payed Luther Wright 158K last year, just like they have every year since 1996 and just like they will every year until 2021. And every year the Jazz are reminded that Carelessimo told them "Don't worry, he's a good kid, none of the rumors are true."
The Jazz got screwed, PJ got a job in Portland.
That PoS Carlesimo! I feel less bad now about him being attacked by Spreewell and I am glad his butt got fired by the Thunder before Scott Brooks took over.
Just out of curiosity mellow, do you have any sort of link on that. I would like to find out as much detail as possible about this. After having my long drive to work to mull it over, one explanation is that Carlesimo felt bad about seeing Wright's stock drop so far and that the Jazz were one of the last teams to ask about Wright, so the Jazz fell victim to Carlesimo's lies.
mellow
Well-Known Member
The Jazz people have dropped parts of the story on the radio from time to time, I think Locke knows if you can convince him to talk about it sometime, but I have never read a story covering the details. The betrayl by Carelessimo had to do with someone within the Jazz who considered Carelessimo a friend, it might have been Frank Layden, but I'm not sure. Anyway prior to the draft the Jazz guy calls Carelessimo and gets buttered up, later when the Jazz realize there is a problem Layden, or whoever the friend was, calls Carelessimo to find out what the Jazz can do to help Luther, Carelessimo won't return any of the calls from the jazz guy.
Shockingly you can read stuff from Luther Wright, who is now a minister and missing his big toe, where he feels like he was the victim of the Jazz and the contract. Wish I could be a victim of a 5 million dollar contract to bounce a ball.
Shockingly you can read stuff from Luther Wright, who is now a minister and missing his big toe, where he feels like he was the victim of the Jazz and the contract. Wish I could be a victim of a 5 million dollar contract to bounce a ball.
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