Monson: NBA playoff draft order -- who would you pick and when?
If you were to create a lottery draft order for the 14 best players in this year’s NBA playoffs, based only on the merits of their current level of postseason presence and play, what would it look...
View ArticleMonson: Utah was lucky to have Gene Fullmer as a native son
Forty thousand people lined the streets from Salt Lake City to West Jordan on a frigid January day in 1957 when Gene Fullmer returned home from New York City after beating middleweight world champion...
View ArticleMonson: Warriors' Curry passed through Utah on his way to greatness -- and...
Steph Curry may be the best basketball player on the planet, at least outside of any born in Akron, Ohio. Wait. Curry was born in Akron, too, just like … LeYou Know Who. Either way, he’s handled his...
View ArticleMonson: Is BYU where NFL dreams go to die?
Loyalists and apologists can spin it any which way they'd like, but there is a dark fact hanging over BYU football that provides more evidence that the program's competitive goals, and the...
View ArticleMonson: BYU football wants to win big? Relax the Honor Code
BYU is offering more money for cost of attendance than all but 10 percent of football programs around the country. Why? It’s either because … a) hamburgers and clothes and video games and phones and...
View ArticleMonson: Golf and guns, punches and pars don't mix
A hot news story came off a golf course in Connecticut the other day. According to reports, 22-year-old Alejandro Baeza, angered by a group playing directly behind his own that was complaining about...
View ArticleMonson: Deflategate has been way overblown
Maybe like Tom Brady’s footballs, I’m getting a little too soft. But the NFL’s penalty handed down on Monday for the Patriots quarterback, and the Patriots themselves, for his and their involvement —...
View ArticleMonson: Parents can learn from a man who played at Wimbledon
Seconds before the biggest moment of his career, Brad Pearce stood in a room with a small door that led out to one of sports’ most hallowed grounds, listening to the strict protocol he was supposed to...
View ArticleMonson: Coaches who are egomaniacs and jerks, beware
The power given to coaches, as it pertains to and affects the players subjected to them, is and always has been a fascinating study, from the time of Knute Rockne straight through to Woody Hayes and...
View ArticleMonson: Lady Luck can take a flyin' leap -- the Jazz have a plan
Maybe none of this will matter a whole lot. But fortune went ahead, anyway, and gave the Jazz pretty much what they deserved on Tuesday night in the NBA draft lottery. Dennis Lindsey sat in his seat...
View ArticleMonson: Utah's Andrew Bogut playing big for the Warriors
A couple of seasons back, Andrew Bogut was hopeful but frustrated, bemoaning the Golden State Warriors’ defensive struggles, calling them “horrendous.” He had fought through injury to return to the...
View ArticleMonson: Jazz need possibilities to become realities
In talking with Dennis Lindsey, it’s plain to see the man has a plan. He isn’t being specific, but he is laying out a general set of possibilities, tossing them around like a chef juggling shrimp over...
View ArticleMonson: Steph Curry is OK, we're all OK
Sometimes we forget how grueling and unforgiving basketball can be, how hard the floor is, how sharp the edges and elbows are, how high the rim is, how vulnerable the ligaments are, how exposed the...
View ArticleMonson: How BYU can get into the Big 12 -- and find some peace
Here’s the truth about what BYU can do to make itself more attractive to the presidents of the Big 12, increasing its chances for inclusion in the conference and making its position more acceptable....
View ArticleMonson: Utah can beat the team formerly known as USC
Friday night’s USC-Utah game is a classic match between a team whose name is bigger than its actual game and a team whose name, at least according to the casual masses, isn’t as great as its game. And...
View ArticleMonson: BYU's potential pivot point comes against West Virginia
Landover, Md. • Kalani Sitake says his team, especially his offense, has to improve, all around. Ty Detmer says his offensive line “hasn’t played terrible” — not exactly a ringing endorsement — and...
View ArticleMonson: BYU's adversity aside, can it win?
Landover, Md. If this was any kind of audition or showcase for BYU’s Big 12 hopes … it was as crazy and undulating and exciting and, at times, troubled as the entire bid process has been, maybe more...
View ArticleMonson: No BS -- the Jazz can be real, real good
Spoken expectations were tamped down on Monday by Jazz players who opened training camp by repeatedly cautioning themselves that they had not yet accomplished anything and that making the playoffs for...
View ArticleMonson: BYU's Great QB Divide rages on
The beautiful thing about sports is that it’s OK to disagree about stuff. The whole idea that everybody has to walk in lockstep, that everyone must agree when it comes to the way they think about...
View ArticleMonson: Utah did almost everything right -- and lost
Berkeley, Calif. Somewhere the leather-skinned, buzzard-tough, bloody -knuckled, bust-you-in-the-chops-and-laugh-at-your-pain guys are crying, the Buddy Ryans, the Bud Grants, the Chuck Nolls, and the...
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