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Inverted air? WTF?
Touble in Utah?
Monday, December 12, 2005 - Lexis-Nexis; T. Buckley; Deseret News
When guard Devin Brown and coach Jerry Sloan met Sunday to clear some inverted air, it seems they agreed on a couple things.
One is that the Jazz's uncertain player rotation — something Brown publicly expressed frustration about after last Friday's loss to Seattle, 8-12 Utah's fifth loss in its last seven games — is less than ideal, largely due to cir stances beyond anyone's control.
Another is that that is something Sloan can concern himself with, but Brown should not. "I'm happy with my role on the team — go in there and play hard, you know, whatever. I'm good," said Brown, who has come off the bench in all but three games since joining the Jazz as a free agent this past offseason. "I don't have any problem with anybody here, any coaches, anything."
Sloan seems convinced of that.
"I felt pretty comfortable with what his explanation was," the Jazz coach said Sunday, his first day back to work after the team took a rare day off Saturday. "He said he didn't mean anything like that, and I have to take his word for it — that he wasn't trying to cause any problems.
"His explanation to me indicated he wanted to try to do what's right with the team, and that's fine."
All, though, did not seem fine with Brown on Friday, when he said this: "You come out and you get a start like that (Brown opened at shooting guard against the Sonics, replacing injured Gordan Giricek) and think you'll get more minutes, but then you don't. It's frustrating. . . . It needs to be more defined in what kind of rotation that we're going to have. We don't have a defined rotation. It's just confusion."
On Sunday, Brown expounded: "To make it easier on players, you would kind of like for there to be a system — kind of like, 'OK, you're gonna play 10 minutes in the first quarter, come out, come back in in the second quarter, we'll go from there.'
"Kind of like a set thing," said Brown, who came to Utah from NBA-champion San Antonio. "It kind of makes it easier for you as a player. . . . That's all I was saying — to kind of know what's going to happen in certain situations. I mean, you don't know.
"Last year in San Antonio," he added, "you'd know. . . . Whatever you have to do, (you knew to) start getting loose. Because Pops (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich) told you, right away."
Sloan understands what Brown was trying to say.
He, in fact, is less than comfortable himself with a rotation — how players are rotated in and out of a game — that has become quite unpredictable as injuries or illness have caused point guard Keith McLeod to miss 13 games, small forward Andrei Kirilenko seven, Giricek four and small forward Matt Harpring four.
"There is no way I could be, and I've said that all along. And I told him that," said Sloan, whose Jazz host Detroit tonight. "I said, 'Our rotation is not very good, because we've had a lot of injuries. And I would like for everybody to know exactly where they're going and what they're doing. But the worst thing I can have is people being concerned about other things instead of playing basketball.'
"I don't think a player needs to be concerned about rotation," he added. "Anytime a player has a concern about rotation I think he has indicated . . . he is more interested in what's going on than what he's doing."
When Brown was subbed for in one instance Friday, he expressed his displeasure by flipping a towel over his shoulder.
He is not the only Jazz player who recently has expressed frustration of some sort in a public manner.
When center Greg Ostertag has been replaced in certain instances, body language has revealed his feelings. Kirilenko recently went a step further, voicing unhappiness with how he was being used in Utah's offense.
"Devin (Brown)," Ostertag said Sunday, "said it best: I think guys are starting to get frustrated with losing more than 'the rotation.' "
Still, it does seem to be something of an issue.
"As a compe or," Ostertag said, "you want to be upset with getting taken out of the game . . . Especially, if you're playing well, you want to be in the game to help the team win. If you get pulled out, I think it's more of a compe ive side coming out, like, 'I want to be in the game when (it's) on the line.'
"I want nothing more to be in the game in the last five minutes," he added. "But the way Jerry's got his rotation now, that's just not gonna happen. So, I can understand. It's frustrating as a player when you see things going on the court where you know you can be effective . . . (But) there's nothing you can do about it. It's his decision, final. And he's gonna go with what he feels is working."
Ten seasons playing for Sloan in Utah makes that easy for Ostertag to understand.
"Guys that have been here, they know what's going on," Brown said. "I haven't been here, so I'm still kind of like, 'Are we gonna go this way, are we gonna go this way?' That's where the confusion comes in.
"I'm not questioning anything that Coach Sloan is doing," he added. "I (told Sloan), 'I want to win, and win at all costs. I don't care who's in the game — just let the people that don't know what's going on know what's going on, and we can go from there."
Sunday's chat helped, Brown suggested.
"He knows, 'Hey, when we go to war, Devin Brown is going to be there fighting with you, in every sense of the word,' " he said. "If I come out of the game and I flip a towel over my head, you know what? I care.
"But I will never, ever do anything that is going to put him in jeopardy of (people thinking) . . . 'he's lost control of his team.' "
Inverted air? WTF?
Perhaps that means that they're just blowing it out their ass. Brown is p/o'd.Inverted air? WTF?
Sloan needs to go. Maybe they should hire Ron Jeremy
I like Brown, but I still dont like Utah. Im sorry, but I could not stand the 90s with "Stock to Malone". UGGGGH!!
When Slone leaves (if he ever does), I may feel better. But for now, I cant put my behind in my past. ;-)
I ain't sayin' nothin'.
If Brown had known he'd be coming off the bench, he would've stayed in SA. He may not say that - because he's smart - but you know he'd thinking it. Coming off the bench for a losing team versus coming off the bench for the NBA champs? It's a no-brainer.
U sure say nuthin alot
It's a Utah thing. Means they were bustin' 720s up at the Canyons. Pretty impressive for a guy Sloan's age...Inverted air? WTF?
Is Carlos Boozer still on this team?
Thanks.
Curiously,
LittleGeneral
yes
but he is rehabing in la on his own since he does not trust the owner of the jazz doctors
He does?
Since when?
Devin Brown can post up the Detroit guards and should go for 30 tonight is a big upset.
i think jerry sloan knows what he is doing. devin will get pt if he earns it. it's probably not too different from SA in that respect. what he needs to get through his head is that he's on a new team.
Yes, he does. And a lazy one at that. Devin should be wearing one more ring on his fingers than he actually is.
Why is Johnny Tightlips banned? Just curios.
Sloan is an overrated toolshed.
For being a bag.
I wanna know who Johnny Tightlips really is.
"Inverted air"
WTF?
I did not make it up the article had that word in it !
Come on people....cold air collects in valleys, and as warmer air descends (like from a mountain, which they have in Utah), the warm air traps the cold air, making the bottom layer of cooler air more dense and polluted. This is called inversion/ inverted air.
This has been your science lesson for the day.
I already explained this; it's a common pastime in Utah this time of year, but I'm still impressed that Sloan can pull it off at his age.
Here's Candide Thovex clearing an inverted air:
Disappointing. If he would actually play well, Sloan would be more apt to have him on the court for regular minutes. Complaining about the rotation isn't going to get him anywhere. Working on his game might.
Dear Addy,
Thanks for the meteorology, and geography, lessons.
Mountains in Utah? Who wudda thunk that?
Now, on to the English lesson.
The phrase, idiomatically, customarily is "an air inverson", not "inverted air". As you said, a mass of warm air moves over cooler boundary layer. The inversion comes from the fact that normally the lower, boundary air, is warmer due to solar heating. The lower, less dense warm air then moves upward and the cooler upper air moves downward, causing convection currents.
Abnormally, the lower, cooler air is "capped" by the warmer upper air, shutting of the convection currents that would, over a polluted city, normally carry away the polluted air. During an inversion over a city, like the bowl of Mexico City, the pollution builds up in the boundary layer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature_inversion
And the idiomatic metaphor the ed writer was reaching for is "to clear the (bad, unclean, stinky) air" (WITHOUT reference to inversion).
This sports "journalist/wannabe-meteorolgy-nerd" needs to go back to 10th grade English composition class.
Sincerely,
Boutons
Devin Brown went 1 of 5.
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