SALT LAKE CITY — The NBA could soon hurt Utah Jazz fans who dig Jimmermania.

Barring a negotiating miracle, the Jazz’s first game against Sacramento in the Jimmer Fredette era — Nov. 23 at ex-Arco Arena — will be added to the NBA lockout casualty scrap pile.

That contest against the former BYU star/rookie-in-limbo was among six Jazz games that were to be canceled Tuesday along with most of the November schedule, according to the New York Daily News.

Though it hasn’t yet officially happened, the report claimed the league is about to chop off its second two-week block of games, prolonging the NBA-less period through Nov. 28.

The Jazz’s official schedule on the team website still includes a game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 18. Contests against Oklahoma City, Chicago, Portland and Golden State will also be pulled off the slate if/when the official announcement is made.

Nearing the four-month mark of the lockout, the NBA previously canceled the eight-game preseason and scrapped all games from Nov. 1-15.

Various reports claim the league still hopes to cobble together a full 82-game season beginning Dec. 1. That could push the playoffs back a bit and result in less time off between series and games in the postseason, among other modifications.

It’s also been reported that the NBA could announce the start of the season will be put “indefinitely” on hold until owners and players reach a labor agreement.

The problem with that, however, is that the two bickering sides haven’t even agreed to resume face-to-face discussions after last week’s marathon mediated sessions ended Thursday with acrimony but no resolution.

SALT LAKE CITY — The NBA is about to really hurt Utah Jazz fans who dig Jimmermania.

The Jazz’s first game against Sacramento in the Jimmer Fredette era — Nov. 23 at ex-Arco Arena — might soon be added to the NBA lockout casualty scrap pile.

That contest against the former BYU star/rookie-in-limbo will be among six Jazz games to be canceled later today when the NBA whacks most of November off its official 2011-12 schedule, according to the New York Daily News.

The report claimed the league will chop off its second two-week block of games, prolonging the NBA-less period through Nov. 28.

The Jazz’s official schedule on the team website still includes a game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 18. Contests against Oklahoma City, Chicago, Portland and Golden State will also be pulled off the slate if the official announcement is made as reported.

The NBA previously canceled the eight-game preseason and scrapped all games from Nov. 1-15.

Various reports claim the league still hopes to cobble together a full 82-game season beginning Dec. 1. That could push the playoffs back a bit and result in less time off between series and games in the postseason, among other modifications.

It’s also been reported that the NBA could announce the start of the season will be put “indefinitely” on hold until owners and players reach a labor agreement.

The problem with that, however, is that the two bickering sides haven’t even agreed to resume face-to-face discussions after last week’s marathon mediated sessions ended Thursday with acrimony but no resolution.

Email: jody@desnews.com Twitter: DJJazzyJody

CHICAGO, (AFP) – Carlos Boozer officially became a member of the Chicago Bulls who convinced the two-time NBA all-star to leave the Utah Jazz for the Windy City.

Boozer agreed to a deal reportedly worth 75 million dollars over five years on Thursday. The team did not disclose the exact terms.

“I feel we have the talent here to begin competing for a title and I cannot wait to get started,” Boozer said.

Boozer is expected to compliment point guard Derrick Rose and forward Joakim Noah nicely. Chicago signed the free agent with the hope he would be able get them into the second round of the playoffs after two consecutive first round exits.

The Bulls had also tried but failed to convince Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to switch teams.

“We are confident that his skill set, toughness and leadership are all qualities that make him a great fit for the Bulls, and he will add a low-post element to our team that we have been searching for,” Bulls general manager Gar Forman.

“Post players, with the skills that Carlos possesses, are at a premium in the NBA and we believe that we have landed one of the best big men in the NBA.”

Boozer spent six years with Utah, averaging 19.5 points and 11.2 rebounds last season.

In other signings Thursday, the Orlando Magic have signed point guard Chris Duhon.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Duhon is expected to play behind Jameer Nelson.

The Milwaukee Bucks also signed their 2010 first round entry draft pick forward Larry Sanders.

© Copyright (c) AFP

By Wendell Maxey, For the Deseret News

BAMBERG, Germany — Enes Kanter was only two years old in 1994 when Nihat Izic was appointed by the Turkish Commission for Youth Basketball to lead a new program for the development of young basketball players in Kanter’s native Turkey.

The goal? To nurture and grow the top players in the country who would one day be able to compete for the Senior National Team and secure basketball supremacy in European basketball.

Seventeen years later, Izic is an assistant coach on the National Team and Utah Jazz rookie Enes Kanter remains one of his prized prodigies.

“I’ve known him since he was like this,” said Izic, bringing his right hand up to his waist.

“Enes was always a big kid and pushed the other kids around. He’s always had the competitive mentality. That is inside of him. And if they are patient in Utah, they will see he can be a very important player.”?

Knowing the current unsettled state surrounding the NBA’s lockout and collective bargaining agreement, patience most certainly is a virtue for Jazz fans — and Kanter too.

Good thing he has plenty of practice.

While it feels like yesterday since Utah selected the 19-year-old 6-foot-11, 260-pound center with the third overall pick in June’s NBA Draft, it’s been two years since Kanter has competed in any meaningful basketball games.

“It’s easy for me to say that I am the unluckiest guy ever. I couldn’t play in college, and right now there is the lockout. The only thing I can do is just wait,” said Kanter, reflecting on his failed college basketball career with the University of Kentucky and head coach John Calipari.

In January, the NCAA denied Kentucky’s appeal and ruled Kanter permanently ineligible as a collegiate athlete because he received $30,000 from Fenerbahce Ulker, with whom he played professionally in the Euro League before attending Stoneridge Preparatory School in Simi Valley, California.

No one ever imaged playing nine games during that 2008-09 season would cost Kanter his college career and come to haunt him the past 24 months.

“I haven’t played in almost two years and it’s hard within that time to go from not playing to being ready for games,”? Kanter added.

Despite tedious workouts before and after the draft with famed basketball trainer Tim Grover with Attack Athletics in Chicago, there’s no substitute for in-game experience.

It affects players both physically and mentally.

“Those two years of not playing hurt him a little bit and he’s a little lost in space,”? explained Izic, as Turkey prepares for the 2011 European Basketball Championships.

EuroBasket, as it’s commonly known, will be held in Lithuania from August 31st through September 18th.

RUSTON, La. — Scotty Robertson, a former Louisiana Tech coach and the first coach of the NBA’s New Orleans Jazz, has died.

Louisiana Tech athletic director Bruce Van De Velde, who confirmed Robertson’s death on Thursday, says the longtime college and pro coach will be remembered as “one of the all-time greats at Louisiana Tech.”

Robertson, who had battled cancer in addition to a stroke last year, was 81.

During his years in the NBA, Robertson also served as head coach with the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons.

He coached 10 seasons at Louisiana Tech, compiling a mark of 165-86, and was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1997. Later in his career, he was an assistant with Phoenix and a scout with Miami.

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August 5th, 2011 @ 12:59pm

By Con Psarras

By Reporter, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz held two pre-draft workouts at their training facility in the past three days, but they won’t have any tryout sessions in the Beehive State for another week or so.

Trips to Chicago and Europe are next on the itinerary.

And those are business trips, not vacations.

Jazz brass, including general manager Tyrone Corbin and general manager Kevin O’Connor, will get a chance to work out and interview Turkish center Enes Kanter in the Windy City on Thursday and Friday.

O’Connor and Walt Perrin, the Jazz’s vice president of player personnel, will then pack their bags for an overseas swing that will include a stop at the three-day EuroCamp in Treviso, Italy.

Thirty players — early entries and draft eligible international prospects — are expected to attend the only pre-draft camp held outside of the U.S. from June 11-13.

The Jazz will get a chance to evaluate intriguing power forward Bismack Biyombo of the Republic of Congo. Lithuania’s Donatas Motiejunas, Latvia’s Davis Bertans and Brazil’s Lucas Nogueira will also attend.

It’s uncertain whether international lottery hopefuls Jonas Valanciunas (Lithuania) and Jan Vesely (Czech Republic) will be there.

The Jazz, owners of the third and 12th overall picks for the June 23 draft, expect to bring many lottery prospects through Utah for workouts and/or interviews in upcoming weeks.

Utah continues to attempt to secure an interview with Arizona forward Derrick Williams, whom experts believe will go No. 2. It appears, however, that Duke point guard Kyrie Irving, the draft’s top prospect, will not do anything with teams other than Cleveland, which has the No. 1 overall pick.

The Jazz have scheduled a workout with BYU point guard Jimmer Fredette in Utah, but the team has not released the date.

JEALOUSY JIMMERED: Jackson Emery can shoot the lights out, and his shot was even praised by Jazz coach Corbin after Tuesday’s workout.

But the former BYU shooting guard admitted that there was “some sacrifice” on the part of players not named Jimmer at BYU — and it was for the good of the Cougars.

That sacrifice was not accompanied by ill will, by the way, even if others were constantly playing in Fredette’s large shadow.

“It’s hard to get mad at a guy for shooting shots if he’s shooting 48 percent. It’s hard to get mad at a guy for shooting shots if you’re winning all the time,” said Emery, whose Cougars won 32 games and made the Sweet Sixteen last season. “So we were happy with our roles. The most important thing to us was team success.”

That winning had another benefit. It put BYU players — even the ones not named Jimmer — on the radar.

And he thoroughly enjoyed being a blip on the Jazz’s screen at Tuesday’s workout.

SALT LAKE CITY — Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor was impressed by the level of effort displayed during the team’s first workout of draft prospects.

“We saw a lot of good competition,” O’Connor said. “Guys got after each other pretty good today.”

Whether that means any of the six players in attendance — none of whom are projected to go before the Jazz’s third and 12th picks — will be drafted by Utah on June 23 remains to be seen.

And good luck trying to pry that information out of O’Connor. Though he spoke for 15 minutes, he offered up six “no comment” answers during a media interview Sunday in regards to specifics about the draft.

Do the Jazz think Kyrie Irving or Derrick Williams will be available at No. 3? Is Utah looking for a point guard to groom? Are any of this workout’s attendees — Norris Cole, JaJuan Johnson, Dallas Lauderdale, Shelvin Mack, Markieff Morris or Jeremy Tyler — in the No. 12 range?

“No comment,” O’Connor repeated.

O’Connor only offered up that the Jazz are keeping their options open, that they are doing their homework on all of the prospects and that they won’t pass up Michael Jordan if his name is on the board.

“I think you take the best player available,” O’Connor said. “In this draft, I think you look at it and say, ‘Who’s the best player available?’ and you take him.”

O’Connor did give some insight into what the Jazz are looking for from a player:

“How hard do they play? How successful can they be in our league? And what kind of character do they have?” O’Connor said. “After that, everything else is on the periphery.”

The Jazz will hold their next round of workouts Tuesday, although they haven’t released names of participants.

Utah brass will meet with Turkish standout Enes Kanter, a 6-foot-10 center many mock drafts have going to the Jazz at No. 3. O’Connor brushed off how Kanter canceled an interview opportunity with Utah — and other teams — at the Chicago combine.

“It was a lot about nothing,” O’Connor said of speculation surrounding Kanter’s decision, which some took as him not wanting to play for the Jazz. “He felt uncomfortable because of his background because of his language to sit down for 16 interviews.”

But Kanter did take part in the camp’s drills, which impressed O’Connor.

“He did something to me that obviously no other player has done, and that’s work out there at his draft quote-unquote status,” the Jazz GM said. “We’ll get a chance to sit down with him and have coach with us and get a chance to see him.”

By Chris Tomasson, For the Deseret News

CHICAGO — For four years, Jimmermania has been building up in Utah. Has it possibly not reached a crescendo in the state?

The Jazz have two of the top dozen picks in the June 23 NBA Draft. A source said Thursday that while Jimmer Fredette isn’t being looked at for Utah’s No. 3 selection, he definitely will be given consideration if available at No. 12.

Consider the interest mutual.

“Yeah, that would be something that would be very cool,” the star guard from BYU said Thursday at the NBA Draft Combine about the possibility of being drafted by the Jazz. “Obviously, I have a big following out there. I feel comfortable there. I have a lot of family and friends in the area. It’s a good system, a lot of pick rolls.

“A guy like (former Utah guard) Deron Williams flourished in that type of system. I think I could do the same.”

Fredette, a native of Glens Falls, N.Y., said he would be “very happy” if drafted by the Jazz. He said he would have no problem with being selected No. 12, saying it’s “not how high I get drafted, it’s all about the system and where I can flourish the most.”

Jazz officials, who didn’t want to discuss Fredette in Chicago, were to have an interview with him Thursday night at the combine. Among those who were scheduled to meet with Fredette include general manager Kevin O’Connor, director of player personnel Walt Perrin, head coach Tyrone Corbin and assistants Scott Layden and Jeff Hornacek.

Fredette anticipated sitting down with nine NBA teams on Thursday in Chicago. But most important for Fredette is what he’ll be doing while standing up at the combine, which began Wednesday and runs through Saturday.

There’s not a lot of doubters when it comes to the offensive ability of the 6-foot-2 Fredette, who led the nation in scoring as a senior with a 28.9-point average and was the consensus National Player of the Year. But he’s determined to prove to scouts what he can do on the other side of the ball.

“I thought I impressed them,” Fredette said about Thursday’s drills. “Defensively, I thought I did pretty well on the one-on-one stuff. I think that’s what they want to see mostly out of me. They know I can shoot the ball. But they want to see the defensive end and see the lateral quickness.

“There’s definitely a perception (about him being a weak defender). When you get a stereotype, it’s hard to get rid of that stereotype until you go out and they see it for themselves. … I’m looking forward to showing them I’m a complete player, a guy who can not just score the basketball.”

Scouts will make a determination on whether Fredette can “D” up. But there’s no doubt he can fill it up.