The Jazz Intentionally Fouled While Up 30+ In The Final Minute, In Using A Shameless Tactic To Combat A Shameless Attempt At A 60 Point Performance

59 PTS | 5 3PM @DevinBook records the second 50+ point performance of his career! pic.twitter.com/MPZirILyqv

— NBA (@NBA) March 26, 2019

The Utah Jazz intentionally foul up 30 to stop Devin Booker from getting 60 pic.twitter.com/kLqpLAPqqC

— The Render (@TheRenderNBA) March 26, 2019

THE JAZZ INTENTIONALLY FOULED SO THE SUNS COULDNT GIVE BOOKER THE BALL THIS IS AMAZING!!!!

— Tony Jones (@Tjonesonthenba) March 26, 2019

The Jazz not happy at all when Booker checked back in to try and get to 60, I’m told. Hence, the intentional foul at the end

— Tony Jones (@Tjonesonthenba) March 26, 2019

Here's the thing, worrying about an opponent's stat line in the waning seconds of a game that you have well in hand is pretty pathetic. Intentionally fouling someone to stop them from scoring 50, 60, 70, or 8,000 points, as opposed to just playing another possession of solid team defense and hoping for the best while the actual outcome is already decided in your favor is a bush league move. That much is pretty inarguable. 

Here's the other thing, however. The same could be said about worrying about your own player's stat line in the waning seconds of another emasculating and embarrassing defeat. The same could also be said about inserting your own star back into a complete laugher of a blowout for no other reason than to give him a chance at scoring 50, 60, 70, or 8,000 of the most meaningless points en route to the most empty of milestone. That much is also inarguable. 

We're talking about a complete soap opera of a professional league that uses super premium pettiness to fuel their full-speed-ahead popularity, so you won't find me bitching about a lack of class in a situation this stupid. If anything, I find it funny. That said, if last night's scoreboard read the amount in which each team maintained the integrity of the game of basketball then it would have been a 0-0 tie. It would have been a low-scoring struggle of shamelessness, with the Jazz "winning" by technicality in denying Devin Booker, a prominent player that belonged nowhere near the court at the time, of a stat night that wouldn't even have come close to eclipsing his career high (that was achieved in a much more palatable fashion, mind you) anyway.

I honestly don't care if NBA organizations want to make a punchline of themselves for nothing more than pretty point totals, nor do I care in what form or fashion particular players achieve those totals. You just can't get upset with a competing NBA organization for being just as ludicrously laughable in their retaliatory attempts at defending themselves against those totals when you initially wiped your ass with the spirit of the sport in trying to attain them in the first place. It's a classic case of fighting fire with the fire...but with the fire instead being feces that was being thrown between benches as a sideshow to an uncompetitive professional basketball game.