For a few minutes, it all seemed like the perfect match; the Utah Jazz just selected Turkish giant Enes Kanter at No. 3, which set the stage for possibly the biggest news in Utah since Donny and Marie had a hit TV show.
That’s the 1970’s for any of you wondering. Meanwhile, on Draft Day, 2011, the Jazz still needed a shooter.
Whither The Jimmer at No. 12, the Jazz' second lottery selection?
Fate didn’t cooperate, and Jimmer would not find his way back to Utah, sadly, as the Sacramento Kings nabbed him with the No. 10 selection, hereby nullifying all the Jimmer-to-Utah talk, and crushing the hopes and dreams of his followers, most of whom packed Energy Solutions Arena with banners proclaiming love for their prodigal son.
No riot went on, luckily, but the boos continued pouring down from the ESA seats well after Jimmer went 10th to Sacramento.
In hindsight, it looked like Jimmer and his camp took the news that he was going to Sacramento a wee bit better than his legions of fans, who packed the arena in Salt Lake City sporting his No. 32 BYU jerseys.
Not only that, Jimmer had a cool reaction from his seat when the pick was announced, like he was expecting the news.
So, what was that all Jimmer jabber about the Maloof brothers--the Kings owners--not having any pull when it came to this first-round pick?
Several news sources reported that the Kings brass did not like Jimmer as well as the Maloofs. Of course, when you’re the owners, and you may have been involved in some way in trying to move your team to say, Las Vegas, or Anaheim--though nothing was confirmed--you might have more than a little pull.
It probably would have been interesting to have been in that war room, when the Maloofs gave the directive to pick him. They were reportedly high on the Player of the Year during his workout, and well after the fact.
Some news sources had reported that the Kings also liked Klay Thompson, but that turned out to be false, as Thompson was also available at the time the Kings selected Jimmer.
Actually, the order to pick Jimmer probably came down last week, when the Kings still had their No. 7 pick and hadn’t traded it yet to Charlotte.
Once Sacramento knew that there weren’t any other teams interested in either moving up to snag Jimmer, or to pick Jimmer before No. 7, the decision was made to trade down and get back former guard John Salmons from Milwaukee.
In all, it is not a bad move from a team that is slowly amassing a pretty good roster of young talent, something that the Utah Jazz--another team literally in the same boat as the Kings--is beginning to do.
From the outset, when the Jazz’ No. 3 pick Enes Kanter was introduced to the ESA crowd, he worked the buzzing arena like a pro, uttering words in his first video interview that were both hilarious and eerily foreshadowing, and just shy of predicting a playoff run.
"I’m so happy. I’m so excited for you guys. I know Utah Jazz fans are crazy and I love them. I will bring toughness and post moves, rebounding — everything. I will try to do everything to make the playoffs." - Enes Kanter in video interview broadcast to Energy Solutions Arena, June 23, 2011
In all, Kanter--much like Jimmer--looks like he likes microphones (actually, based on his first few interviews, reword that to really likes) and so not having Jimmer around will certainly bust local sponsors in the chops, but it looks like they may be able to recover and adjust their marketing campaigns around a 6-foot-11 inch, 260-pound guy who sounds like a cross between Ahnuld and Andre the Giant.
And, that’s something Jimmer can’t do, despite the best efforts of his marketing team, his reality show traveling circus--which now ends its run--and all the Jimmerites in the world.
So, in a way, it’s sad to see the Jimmer circus leave. He brought Utah a ton of notoriety, and gave us writers something to talk about for a long time.
In a perfect world, and had Jimmer not had a tremendous workout in Sacramento, a city much like Salt Lake in terms of a smaller market and a boisterous fan base, you may have seen him put on an Adidas Jazz cap and shake NBA Commissioner David Stern’s hand.
Alas, the dreams of many Jimmer followers weren't to be. Even after admitting that something must have happened between Jimmer's workout with the Kings and the Jimmerites' hopeful drive tonight to the arena, his legions vowed that he could still be traded to the Jazz, someday, somehow, unwilling to accept defeat.
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