Sports Radio Interviews

The Utah Jazz Are Playing Some Great Basketball

Since January 9th, the Utah Jazz have won seventeen of their last twenty games and are now within one game of the division-leading Denver Nuggets.  That probably comes as a surprise to you because the three and four-letter networks never seem to show them love.  The headlines are always dominated by LeBron and the free agent class of 2010, but Carlos Boozer likes it that way.  He likes to fly under the radar and sneak up on teams, but he can’t do that anymore.  The NBA has taken notice of the Jazz and they now have a target on their back.  They are playing their best basketball right now and look to carry that momentum into the last twenty-six games of the season and into the playoffs.  If Utah can win their division and have home court advantage the first two rounds of the playoffs, they can be a sleeper in this year’s playoffs.

Carlos Boozer joined Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio to talk about what the difference has been with the team since January 9th, what his gut feeling is about what LeBron will do, and whether he thinks Coach K will ever be an NBA coach.

What the difference has been with the team since January 9:

“Well I mean I don’t know.  We might have had some young folks take over our bodies.  All we really did is we just started playing better basketball.  We came together as a group of guys on offense and defense.  We started executing our offense and playing consistent defense especially in the fourth quarter when the games matter and we have pulled out a lot of wins.  We have been able to figure out ways to win ball games.”

On Paul Millsap’s game:

“Yeah people need to know about him.  He is a stud man.  He comes in the game and has a nose for the ball.  What people don’t know is that he led the nation in rebounding and scoring for two or three years in a row.  He is a guy that rebounds and doesn’t say a lot of stuff and works his butt off.  He has got a lot of offensive skills that he has gotten better at.  He rebounds the ball.  He blocks shots.  He hustles and gives everything he gots when he is out there.  He is a gem for us because when the starters come out he leads our bench group while he is out there and has turned into one hell of a player.”

When he gets older what will the game be about:

“It is about winning.  After you have established yourself as an individual player you have got some accolades or what have you from All-Star appearances or been to the playoffs a lot of times.  The thing that you take with you is that you haven’t won a championship.  The thing that most of us guys, we are all winning in junior high.  We won in high school.  We won in college.  Some of us have Olympic Gold Medals and the one thing that we are missing is an NBA Championship.  Especially the guys that have been to the playoffs and the Western Conference Finals and have felt that defeat to the team that eventually won the whole thing and that sits with you for awhile.  I think at this point in most of our careers, especially the summer, most of the guys have been in the league for six, seven, eight years or more.  We want to win a championship.  That is going to be one of the biggest deciding factors in where we all go or where we stay.”

What his gut feeling is about what LeBron will do:

“With LeBron, I don’t know.  They have the best team in the league record-wise, they are forty-three and whatever they are, and they obviously got better with Antawn Jamison.  I think they have a great chance to be in the Eastern Conference Finals and probably the Finals this year.  I think for him, it is going to be about what I just said, winning.  I think if you feel like they can win a championship in Cleveland, he will stay.  If somebody is able to put together a dope enough roster an another team I think he will consider it.  I think for LeBron, it is about one thing.  It is about winning the championship.”

On how he stays focused late in the season when he knows they are already in the playoffs:

“Oh we have to.  I think at this point we are in a position where we could either move up a notch where we could get the second spot and catch Denver or we can get caught by the team behind us who is the Dallas Mavericks, who are on our heels.  I think we have to as a group of guys we have to stay motivated trying to climb up that ladder and continue to win ball games because like you said, we all wish the playoffs started at different points in the season, but the truth is at the end of the season, April 14th is when it starts.  We want to be playing our best basketball at that point.  We don’t want to go through lapses where we don’t play good and we lose a bunch of games.  We want to be hot going into the playoffs.  So for us we have got to continue to stay motivated and continue to try to climb up and get to Denver.”

Whether he thinks Coach K will ever be an NBA coach:

“I don’t think so.  I think the one opportunity that he looked at hard and took a chance at even inquiring about it is the Laker job.  Obviously when they were trying to find their next coach and who was going to take over and so on and so forth.  He took like a weekend or a week to decide what he was going to do.  I think he has the best job in the country.  He could run for Mayor of North Carolina or Governor, he would win that because he is at Duke.  He has a bunch of kids that are eager to learn from him that only get to the NBA.  He knows how to get them there and how to win championships in college.  I don’t see him leaving Duke.  I think it has been his dream job for twenty-five plus years and I think he will finish his career there.”

Carlos Boozer on the Herd on ESPN Radio (interview starts at the 20:02 mark)

Tags: 17-3 their last 20 games, Carlos Boozer, currently the 3rd seed in the West, Deron Williams, Duke basketball, Jerry Sloan, NBA, NBA Playoffs, Nothwest Division, on the heels of the Nuggets, Paul Millsap, Salt Lake City, Utah Jazz, Western Conference, Western Conference Finals