A friend of mine from Chicago once said that anytime anyone criticizes the city in which you live, your town, just put a bow on it, like a prized Berkshire hog at the county fair. Place it on the mantel, like some kind of trophy or shiny commendation. Put a potted plant on it, he said. Wear it with pride, whatever it is, like a badge of honor.
And if that critic is a young NBA player who never was defensive, in any way, taken with the 12th overall pick, a pick that should have been used on his college teammate Devin Booker, and a player who only got 16 minutes a game here and didn’t really do all that much with the time he was given, a decent player who could turn out to be all right, after all, but whose usefulness really came to light when he was shipped to Denver so the Jazz could get Donovan Mitchell, pretty much just laugh at it.