Monson: Jazz G.M. Dennis Lindsey offers up his reasonable sales pitch to...
Exactly where Gordon Hayward ranks in the pantheon of NBA stars is arguable, but one thing is not: He is the Jazz’s top player, an invaluable piece in a rebuilt engine that is moving the team through...
View ArticleMonson: Sacre bleu! Rudy Gobert's climb is just beginning
There is no ending to Rudy Gobert’s story. Not yet. And that’s what makes it so intriguing. Many pages have yet to be turned, yet to be written. He remains what he’s been for the past few years — a...
View ArticleMonson: Utah spring football brings hope for a better tomorrow
Spring is good for a lot of profound things — renewal, hope, optimism, the turn of a page, the warmth of a new season. Spring football at Utah, which started Thursday, is good for all of that and more...
View ArticleMonson: For Utah football, there's good news, better news, and the best news...
After years of substandard play at the most important position on the field at Utah, there’s good news and better news and the best news of all for the Utes. We’ll save the best for last. What’s good...
View ArticleMonson: From the familiar to the never-been-done to the lucky, SLC's NCAA...
Let’s admit it. The state of Utah is better at doing some things than others, and we don’t need to get all specific and comprehensive and political and proud and butt-hurt in either direction, but one...
View ArticleMonson: NCAA Tournament field at Vivint Arena offers a crap du jour
What’s my motivation? What’s my reason to root? Without a whole lot of passion for or connection to any particular school playing here — seeing that none of the Utah teams made the field — college...
View ArticleMonson: Jazz-Clippers feud is a beautiful thing
I love this stuff. The Jazz and Clippers mixing it up in their game Monday night. It’s what the NBA needs more of, what the Jazz need more of. Enough of the playing nice and patting everybody on the...
View ArticleMonson: Tragedy, losing streaks, injuries and brutal cold have brought South...
It’s easy to feel affinity for a team like the South Dakota State Jackrabbits — for all kinds of reasons. They aren’t exactly playing on Broadway. They’re playing in Brookings. They aren’t playing...
View ArticleMonson: Is Gonzaga really a No. 1? Is it?
After No. 1-seeded Gonzaga breathed deep and beat South Dakota State at Vivint Smart Home Arena on Thursday, Zags coach Mark Few was asked if the Jackrabbits really were a No. 16 team. A better...
View ArticleMonson: A tale of two Western teams -- Saint Mary's and Arizona -- and one...
The sincerity flowed freely from Jock Landale as he explained why he loves playing basketball for Saint Mary’s College, a small school with a big game on a bucolic campus in Moraga, Calif., a game...
View ArticleMonson: Cinderella gets in a bar fight -- and loses
The NCAA Tournament can be one mean, fickle sucker. It creates and celebrates Cinderellas and sweethearts, and then, in the space of a couple of hours, ends their dreams, sweeps them aside, breaks...
View ArticleMonson: Disappointment wrapped in dignity -- the Jazz's 1996-97 season is...
John Stockton walked off the court that last night in Chicago, sweat rolling down his face, his body spent, his work put in, the bitterness of elimination circling him like invisible vultures hungry...
View ArticleMonson: An easy answer to NBA's most complicated problem
NBA fans are getting screwed over. And if that was the worst of it, that’s the way it would stay. It’s not, at least not as far as the league’s powers are concerned. NBA TV partners are getting...
View ArticleMonson: Rudy Gobert has earned NBA's defensive player of the year award
You don’t need to read this — because you’ve seen enough to already know. The people who do need to read this are those who haven’t necessarily seen enough — the voters for the NBA’s Defensive Player...
View ArticleMonson: Study ... this! Utah football deserves a greater, grander stadium
So the University of Utah is studying whether to expand and enhance its stadium, the south end in particular. Save the study, save the cost of the study. Have a little faith. Have a little...
View ArticleMonson: Greg Hardy playing for Salt Lake's Screaming Eagles would be an abuse...
The Salt Lake Screaming Eagles are considering signing former NFL defensive end Greg Hardy. And, as is its way, the club is allowing its fans to vote on the matter. To which any clear-minded human...
View ArticleMonson: Tanner Mangum owns BYU football now
Provo After a rough go during BYU’s spring game, an ice-rain-soaked showing well beneath his personal standard, Tanner Mangum was only minimally troubled. The sun would shine the next day, and the day...
View ArticleMonson: Rudy Gobert firing off on the Jazz was the right thing to do
A lot of people have taken Rudy Gobert’s famous post-Clippers-loss comments, the ones questioning some of his teammates’ motivation and competitiveness, all public the way he did, one of three ways:...
View ArticleMonson: Jazz showing playoff pluck and grit because ... they have to
Coming off Sunday’s loss at San Antonio, the Jazz could look at themselves and Tuesday night’s home game against the Trail Blazers one of two ways: 1) As that of a victim of the NBA’s...
View ArticleMonson: Jazz have survived rash of injuries; now it's time to get everyone...
The Jazz faced a much-anticipated challenge against the best team in the world on a cold Thursday night in early December, a challenge that was made almost impossible to overcome by circumstances...
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