The Western Athletic Conference basketball tournament is here this week and the state of Utah, the city of Salt Lake and the Delta Center would like to welcome the visitors from throughout the WAC, including Laramie.
History has already been made this week when Hawaii, Wyoming, Air Force and San Diego State played the first-ever college games in Delta Center existence last night. They were the first games in the arena's brief almost two-year history that allowed undisguised zone defenses and players who don't own Mercedes Benzes, at least not in their own names.As you're no doubt aware, the Delta Center was built so the Utah Jazz wouldn't move to Minneapolis, Florida, Denver or the Virgin Islands. Larry H. Miller, a local legend who worked in the parts department of a Toyota dealership and one day pulled up the entire dealership on his computer screen and bought it, built the arena himself two years ago when he realized the city wouldn't be ready to make a decision, let alone a building, until the year 2092. He built his arena in the shadow of Salt Lake City's West High School, where Miller went to school, thus vicariously fulfilling the dream of high school kids the world over - erecting a daily reminder to their teachers, counselors and truant officers that I DID TOO AMOUNT TO SOMETHING.
Until recently, the Jazz have greatly enjoyed their existence in the new arena and so has Miller. If you want to be thankful for anything this weekend, be thankful you're not paying Jazz prices, which are on the high side even when you include the dealer incentives, the factory rebate, the two free ski passes to ParkWest, and the special 60-month financing.
Although the arena is practically brand new, it has already had a number of memorable games and events, climaxed most recently by the NBA All-Star Game three weeks ago when Jazz players John Stockton and Karl Malone acted like THEY owned the place and were named twin MVPs. In a curious turn of events since that weekend, however, the arena's penchant for favoring natives seems to have disappeared. If the Jazz can lose to Sacramento in Salt Lake, the Utes can lose to San Diego State.
For the best possible tournament spectating experience in the Delta Center, a few tips might help, headed by: DON'T HANG UP SIGNS DEMANDING THAT JERRY SLOAN BE FIRED. Last week some Disgruntled Jazz Fans - a redundant phrase lately - hung just such a banner and it was confiscated. Signs demanding that other coaches be fired, however, may or not be subject to confiscation.
Security, as you might guess in a new arena, is rather stringent. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO GO ANYWHERE YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO GO. The Delta Center has people with all the personality of a Rottweiler in need of dental work who have been guarding the Jazz's locker room and other important areas, such as drinking fountains, since two months before the building opened. Karl Malone's locker is harder to get to than East Germany used to be.
Overall, the arena is being well cared for. The building's manager, Scott Williams, was lured away by Miller from BYU, where he was in charge of the Marriott Center. DON'T EVEN TRY TO STICK THAT WAD OF GUM UNDERNEATH YOUR SEAT.
Players from all schools should enjoy their Delta Center experience this week, however brief. Most will no doubt have reactions similar to hockey player Rod Buskas of the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, co-residents of the arena with the Jazz. Buskas was recently loaned to the Eagles from the Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League, where he has played the past 12 seasons. Buskas took one look at the Eagles' locker room and wondered if he'd been sent down or up. "This is better than 90 percent of the arenas in the NHL," he said, and that was without getting a peek at where Mark Eaton lockers.
If possible, however, it would be best for teams to avoid the locker room reserved for visiting NBA teams because of the carbon monoxide fumes that waft into the room from the bus-parking area not far down the hall. Whether this adjacency was designed or is just one of those unfortunate things, no one's saying.
All in all, it should be a week for the WAC to remember and Salt Lake and the Delta Center are happy to host it, although there remains a good deal of local confusion as to why the tournament is actually here.
The mystery lingers: If the WAC isn't going to hold boondoggles like this there, why did they let Hawaii in in the first place?