No One Realized what "REALLY" Goes Into Free Agency

Today I read something from Steve Aschburner of Sports Illustrated in their Inside the NBA segment. Although I can't take the credit for actually finding this thing, Colin Cowherd was the one who brought it up. However, I am glad that someone finally brought up what I have been saying to my friends for years,
NO ONE WANTS TO PLAY HERE BECAUSE IT IS FREAKIN COLD AND FREAKIN EXPENSIVE!

Now when I say here, I mean Salt Lake City, I currently live here in Utah, enjoy it somewhat, but would like to show why we'll never have free agents come to Utah without continuing to overpay for them.

Now how did we arrive at this well there are a number of things. Steve Aschburner, Sports Illustrated said, "My methodology: I identified a dozen separate categories allowing for both objective and subjective evaluation, among them Climate, Night Life, Tradition, Marketing Potential, Facilities, Local Economy, Lifestyle (schools for kids, diversions for spouses), even Tax Implications. A few were hardcore hoops stuff: Readiness to Win, Teammates, Salary-Cap Space, Coaches. I consulted with statisticians at a local community college to concoct a point system, assigning scores ranging from plus-5 down to minus-5, and then calculated weights for each category, mathematically prioritizing them."

1. Los Angeles (Lakers)
2. Miami
3. Phoenix
4. Houston
5. Orlando
6. Dallas

Now I put Dallas in my top of the list because it is also a big city, warm, lots of stars to go to your games most of them athletes, and because well it's my home town. Even though the Mavericks are worse than the Cubs just because they can't win the big one. At least the Cubs have one in the last 100 years right?

So there must be a point to all of this, well here in Utah we have none of those things. Our true celebrities are playing basketball unless you want to consider Ralph Becker a celebrity. Although, newscasters, sportscasters, broadcasters, and anyone that is in our state's public eye comes in at an almost celebrity. We don't have a night life unless you want to consider hanging out at the Gateway Mall, but I guess you could go up to Park City for a laugh or two. It's only too bad you have to go a mile up to get any decent entertainment around here for athletes. Sales Tax for food Utah is 3% in Texas it is 0%. For restaurant food it is 7.85% and on everything else it is 6.85%.
In Oregon unlike here in Utah it is 0%! Holy Cow, even the Blazers have that leg up on us.

In these other cities mentioned it is warm pretty much all the time, in Utah not so much I mean this past winter is practically extending into this Summer just because it has rained here more than it has in Oregon for goodness sakes. Who wouldn't want to play in Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Los Angeles, and even Dallas or Houston. Especially if you have aging veterans they like it warm too, John Stockton of course is the exception, but I got to believe they kept that locker room like 180 degrees to keep him and Karl Malone warm for all those years. Just think if Jerry West had to play in Minnesota it would be the NBA logo with a fur coat and an Elmer Fudd hat all brought to you by Thermaflu.

Then let's not forget the state income tax, ours is 5%, in Florida there is none, now yes I know it is more in California, but Florida is a much nicer area. So Florida if you were to do an overall best place to play Florida is probably it.

Finally, Utah has odd laws regarding the consumption of alcohol. Now of course being a member of the predominant religion here in Utah of course I don't really care what the rates, costs, etc. on booze really is. However, maybe we should consider changing them a bit with stiffer penalties for for drunkenness. If laws are violated i.e. drunk driving then let them suffer the consequences ten-fold. If a person, celebrity, or athlete wants to drink stronger wine, beer, vodka, or whatever, then let them. There isn't any problem with this anywhere else. Another thing against any athletes better than the ones we have playing here.

Now the Miller Family is a great family who has put their hearts and souls into this Utah franchise. They have had and continue to have a great coach in Jerry Sloan, they have a good flagship station for the Jazz games, and they have a good fan base. It is an overall great organization with the President and Vice-President of the team down to the people who bring us nachos. We just need to change a few things here in our state in order to possibly get some of these bigger named free agents out here. The Utah Jazz are a big part of our economy, they employ a ton of people, they are our major league source of entertainment. So if that is the case why not change things a bit? It might help them stay here for another 30 years like are just recently retired voice of the Jazz, Hot Rod Hundley.

Yet, today heard on "Locked on Sports" on 1320 KFAN the Jazz were able to keep Carlos Boozer, Memo Okur, and Kyle Korver. This is definitely an enigma of epic proportions if you ask me. This put the Jazz in the hole as was said by Randy Rigby on that same program. Not only are they past the luxury tax threshold but at right around 73 million with everyone still being here says the Deseret News, but no chance at landing someone who could help improve this team. Let's just hope it was all worth it for the 2009-10 season. By the way Utah landed 24 on this list of Aschburner's which is about right for them, if you were dying to know.