Meet
We’re Lucky to Have Al Jefferson
Posted by: JRN5150 on February 5th, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.It probably wont surprise anyone that Al is my favorite player both on the Jazz and in the league. I still remember the night I got on Hoopshype Rumors and saw that the Jazz had come out of nowhere to become the leaders in the trade talks for him. At that point I had only known him by two things: The guy I always mixed up with Richard Jefferson and the guy that wrecked us when we played Minnesota. I did my homework, watched some highlights on YouTube and then flipped out that we were gonna get that kind of talent for such little in return. I was so excited about getting him I was like a little kid on Christmas morning. It didn’t take long into last season for him to push Deron and Paul out of the way and cement himself into the role of My Personal Favorite. There is just something about him that is different from a lot of players. He works hard and is tough as nails but seems like the most lighthearted and straight up nicest guy in the NBA. I read an article about him that said he when he was due an extension in Minny that he signed a five year $65 mil against the wishes of his agent because Al said that he didnt think he was worth a max deal yet and didnt want to strain the team’s salary. That is a rare and noble occurrence in the NBA. One of my favorite pictures of all time was a shot that FSN would put on during timeouts last year of Al with the cheesiest grin on his face and it made me smile every time I saw it. It was easy to tell the attitude he brought to the team compared to Carlos Boozer. After the whole Jerry- Deron thing went down last year Al really kept us together as a team. He had some absolutely incredible games down the stretch where he almost went for 30 and 20. Also, who can forget that incredible buzzer beating wheezy he nailed to beat Toronto. After fighting through all 82 games he was once again watching the playoffs from his couch. If I could redo the 2o1o offseason one hundred times I would take Al over Boozer every time without even the slightest hesitation.
Sentiment aside, lets hope that this year our young and talented team can send the most deserving man in the NBA back to the Playoffs!
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7 Responses
I also forgot to mention that even though he missed out on the playoffs and again was on a losing team after expecting the Jazz to have a great year, he stayed positive about the franchise and was ready to step up into his role as mentor and lead us through a semi-rebuild. I imagine it would be hard to willingly teach the guy that will eventually take your job away from you but Al is doing it with a positive attitude.
Speaking of mentoring when is Kanter going to pick up on the up and under and the push shot? If he could add some Big Al moves to his arsenal he’d be that much better for it.
Big Al is a stud! Always so positive and works so hard when healthy! Great attitude and great player! Truly rare indeed.
Some people would cry if they got hung with a new rope..
Kanter needs to develope some of als moves but not the push shot. Love al hate his push shot it doesn’t look look right how it goes in is beyond me. No one else can shot that shhot like big all can but, I like al not my favorite by any means. He need to be more of a shut down player before he turns into my favorite play. He is for sure top 5 though for me
Jefferson is a beast, and deserves our upmost respect. The Big Guy battles so hard each and every night. We really need him on our team. Last week there was an article about dominant centers in the NBA. Al jefferson was one of four centers listed as being “true” centers (Dwight Howard being the other, and Andrew Bynum as well).
Even though Jefferson can SOMETIMES hurt the offensive flow and hld onto the ball too long, he has improved drastically in terms of passing out of double teams, and getting other players involved (especially Millsap). Seeing those two work on the floor together is just awesome.
I think as fans we sometimes concentrate too much on the negatives of players. Can you imagine where our team would be right now if we had a different center? We wouldn’t even be at .50% i guarantee it.
Jefferson is a truly good center, one of few who is capable of hitting outside jumpers. We are lucky to have him on our team.
Sometimes, you don’t realize what you have until it’s gone. Lets not make that mistake with Al Jefferson. In my mind, the Utah Jazz are a three- headed beast: Paul Millsap, AL Jefferson, and Earl Watson. Those three guys are the key to our team.
Nice job, JRN5150. Jefferson was truly a warrior last year, and there’s nothing I love more than seeing Al pump his fist or celebrate when someone makes a big play late in a game. It simply demonstrates that this guy wants to win. I hope he can do that here.