Oneye’s delusional, Jazz fans that expect Donovan to play for 1 team his entire career are delusional, and as always, all the sane people reside in the middle ground.
The Hayward saga taught me A LOT about getting butthurt over a non-superstar jilting your team. Even if Hayward hadn’t suffered the gruesome ankle injury after leaving Utah high and dry for Boston, once us fans were able to view him through non Jazz-colored glasses, we would have seen the truth: Hayward is simply a nice NBA player who will probably never have a major effect in winning an NBA team any championships. We were NEVER winning a title with Hayward making $30+ mil in Utah. With the benefit of hindsight, there was a Zero% chance of that happening had he stayed.
While Donovan is a considerably better player IMO, we still haven’t seen this Jazz team become a legit threat to win an NBA title while hitching our wagons to Donovan and Rudy.
I find that looking at it this way really helps with my “please don’t leave the Jazz” anxiety:
If the front office ever figures out the right roster to put around Don and Rudy and the Jazz make a finals or 2, maybe even winning one, Donovan isn’t gonna want to leave. On the flip side, if this team never grows into a legit title contender with the Don/Rudy foundation, why should we stress Don wanting to leave? When it comes to that point, it didn’t work out. I’m not really interested in seeing another 2 franchise cornerstone’s spend 15+ years in Utah without winning a ring. I’ve already seen that movie. Nothing wrong with maxing our value on DM and trying to make another run at it.