<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">This is the time of year when NBA draft prospects visit Utah and declare their love of the state, admiration of the Jazz organization and respect for coach Jerry Sloan. It's all very reassuring and validating, except that the visitors are either lying or naive or simply shrewd businessmen, knowing now is not the time to offend anyone with millions of guaranteed dollars at stake. The truth about the perception of the state and its professional basketball team is more readily found in a recently published Sports Illustrated survey, asking 248 active NBA players which team they would least like to play for. The winner? Your Utah Jazz. And convincingly so. The Jazz claimed 27 percent of the votes, trouncing the closest contestant, Toronto (16 percent). The question is whether this is just an innocent conversation topic or something that should worry the Jazz and their fans about the team's ability to attract free agents and put a contending club on the floor. "It really doesn't deter us," said Jazz president Dennis Haslam. "It's not an issue that we're overly concerned about." Still, the survey says something. Why would 67 players list Utah as their least preferred NBA home? One of these five explanations is absolutely correct; I'm just not sure which one.</div> <div align="center">Source</div>
