Should the Utah Jazz randomly decide to hold some sort of legitimate popularity contest during the NBA’s coronavirus-caused hiatus, Deron Williams likely won’t be winning. Throughout his six-year stint in a Jazz uniform, he caused a great deal of good out on the hardwood, but it’s the way he left — and the reasons for it, of course — that’s still most fresh in the minds of Jazz fans.
Obviously, NBA franchises don’t hold actual popularity contests with campaigning, mail-in ballots and an eventual victor. What they do, though, is retire the jerseys of the most beloved ballers to ever play for ‘em — a kind of popularity contest in its own right, if you think about it.