Like this year’s Jazz, the classic Jazz began by reaching the second round of the playoffs. But it was a dozen-year wait before they reached the championship game.
SALT LAKE CITY — Life is good for Donovan Mitchell and he’s not afraid to admit it. Last week he was named to the league’s All-Rookie first team by unanimous vote. Soon after, the NBA Players Association bestowed him the Leader of the New School Award, honoring a rookie star in the making.
“This is the start of something special,” the Jazz guard wrote in The Players’ Tribune, adding, “the sky’s the limit here.”
Two days earlier, Rudy Gobert tweeted, “Our turn is coming.”
Is it?
It’s possible. But they’ll need to be patient. The Gobert-Mitchell combination is the most interesting the Jazz have had since John Stockton and Karl Malone. Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer were proficient, and even reached the conference finals. But theirs was a complicated relationship with fans (and coach). This Jazz team sends an entirely different vibe.
So how long until the Jazz get a turn in the NBA Finals spotlight?
Could be a dozen years.
It took Stockton and Malone that long.
Twenty years ago Sunday, the Jazz tipped off their second consecutive NBA Finals series with Chicago. Both teams had won 62 games in the regular season, but the Jazz held the home-court advantage and opened with an 88-85 overtime win. The state of Utah went mad. One writer declared the series basically over after the first game.
So it was, in a convoluted way. The Bulls proceeded to win four of the next five.
Still, back-to-back Finals appearances were the highlight of the Jazz’s history. It could occur again, but the 1998 Jazz had two future Hall of Famers. This team has two emerging stars who haven’t fully reached their potential. Mitchell has only been in the NBA a year, Gobert five. Stockton had completed 13 seasons and was age 35 when he reached the Finals. Malone, who had 12 seasons behind him, was 33.
Gobert is just 25, Mitchell 21.
Teams can quickly rise via smart drafting, personnel moves and first-rate coaching. But getting to the top is a higher leap. The Jazz have proven themselves an upper-echelon team, but not an elite one. They’re unlikely to pass Houston or Golden State with their current makeup.
Thus the Jazz need to get better and hope other teams don’t.
“But maybe most of all, I know I made the right decision because I ended up where I belong. Playing for this team, for this city,” Mitchell wrote.
Jazz fans could die happy right now.
In Stockton’s rookie season, the Jazz reached the second round of the playoffs, same as Mitchell. But they didn’t get that far again until Stockton’s fourth season, and didn’t reach the conference finals until his eighth year.
To get where the Jazz were 20 years ago, this team will have to:
At the Stockton-Malone rate of progression, the Jazz will reach the Finals in 2030.
Get your tickets now.
Youth rules in the NBA, but experience counts. LeBron James is 33. Two decades ago, Jordan was 35. So Mitchell and Gobert have a long time to grow.
In fairness, not all teams take a dozen years to succeed. Jordan won his first title at 27, Scottie Pippen at 24. Magic Johnson won a ring on his first try. But as good as the current Jazz were this year, they haven’t surpassed what the classic Jazz did. Utah made the second round of the playoffs in 1985, Stockton’s rookie season. But the years-long grind to the Finals had only begun.
Maybe the Jazz of today can just pop something in the microwave, Hot Pocket style, and they’re set. More likely they’ll have to slow cook things like good spaghetti sauce. Great things are always worth the wait.
