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What do the Utah Jazz have to do to be Respected by National Media?

There is a massive lack of national media respect for the Utah Jazz. National media outlets should highlight this team.
Donovan Mitchell (45) dunks over Malik Monk (1) in a game against the Hornets Friday night.

Donovan Mitchell (45) dunks over Malik Monk (1) in a game against the Hornets Friday night.

The Utah Jazz are in first place in the NBA. 

Let me repeat that. The Utah Jazz are in first place in the NBA.

You wouldn't know that by how national media outlets portray them, however. 

Just Friday night, brilliant performances by Bojan Bogdanovic and Donovan Mitchell led the Jazz to victory over the Charlotte Hornets. ESPN posted a stat line for LaMelo Ball without any mention that the Utah Jazz are the team that took home the win.

Granted, Ball had a fantastic game on Friday night and he has a solid argument to why he should be named Rookie of the Year.

That's not the issue though. The issue is that the Utah Jazz aren't getting the respect that they deserve. 

They are the hottest team in the NBA. Against the Hornets, in the same game that national media outlets were drooling over Ball's stat line, the Utah Jazz broke their franchise record for three-pointers in a game with 26. With the exception of the Utah Jazz social media outlets, there wasn't many (if any) national media outlets that posted this fact.

What would've happened if the Lakers, Warriors, Celtics, Clippers, or 76ers broke their franchise record for three-pointers in a game? National media outlets would be jumping on the click-bait potential. 

But it's the Jazz, right? They're a small-market team with no national relevancy in the eyes of national pundits. They're a team that's going to fall off sooner or later when they play some better teams, right?

The Utah Jazz have at least two NBA All-Star's on their squad in Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell. They also have the frontrunner for the Sixth Man of the Year award in Jordan Clarkson, one of the hottest shooters in the NBA in Bojan Bogdanovic, and Mike Conley who is a key playmaker for the Jazz

According to StatMuse, "The Jazz have outscored their opponents by nine points per 100-possessions when Mike Conley is on the court...That 23.7 net point difference is the biggest by any player in the league this season."

This is one of the most entertaining teams to watch in the NBA right now. They are setting franchise records seemingly every time the television is turned on, and they are the types of records that are worth noting. In January, the Jazz broke the record for the most threes in one month - NBA fans outside of Utah probably don't know that.

Lest you forget, THEY ARE THE NUMBER ONE TEAM IN THE NBA.

The NBA instagram account has posted about the Utah Jazz once since January 29, 2021. That was the day that they beat the Dallas Mavericks for their eleventh win in a row. They are 3-1 since that date and continue to hold the best record in the NBA. 

It was easy to miss the lone appearance the Jazz made on the NBA Instagram. It was about the "Kumho Handles of the 2020-2021 season thus far!" with clips of nine different plays from eight different players this season. One of those happened to include a short snippet of the Jazz.

If you compare that to the NBA's Instagram featuring LeBron James on the other hand, you'll find nine separate posts of him dishing off an assist or scoring a basket during one game against the Nuggets this past Thursday.  

The SportsCenter and ESPN accounts have tweeted about the Jazz once since the start of the season. They have tweeted about Lebron James 79 times during the same time period.

The bias is unreal, but we already knew that.

If that wasn't bad enough, lets take a stroll on over to ESPN's Instagram account. Since the season began, the Jazz have been showcased four times. Once because of an eleven-game win streak, once because Jason Tatum and Donovan Mitchell had a chat on Twitter, once because Mitchell was being "spida-like" and once because a former Laker told Mitchell that he couldn't raise his play to an "Elite" level.

Aight.

Let's look at how many times the Brooklyn Nets  have been featured on the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" Instagram page since the beginning of the season. Over 40-times. The third place team in the East has been featured over 35 times more than the first place team in the entire NBA.

Don't believe me? Go look for yourself. These are only a few examples from social media. If I had more room to write, I could talk about the highlight reel that ESPN attaches to Jazz wins on their app, or TNT and SportsCenter being just as guilty as the NBA and ESPN.

Jazz fans are upset, and rightly so. This looks like it could arguably the best team since the Stockton and Malone era and there is minimal publicity coming from national publications.

The Utah Jazz are the number one team in the NBA, that is a fact. They are playing better than the Los Angeles Lakers, Philadelphia 76ers, and every other team in the league. Take that for what its worth. 

They may take a loss or two, and this first-place run might not last beyond the end of February, but come on national media outlets. Let's be better at showcasing the best teams throughout the season. Not just the teams that reside in big markets. 

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