Mehmet Okur was traded to the New Jersey Nets in exchange for a 2015 2nd round draft pick and a trade exception worth 10.8 million dollars. A lot of fans are outraged that the Jazz would move a fan favorite. Several people have said that the team should be ashamed for making a business decision. WHAT? Last time I checked, the Utah Jazz were a business. I’m not saying that Memo wasn’t a great guy. He was one of the most down to earth and approachable NBA players around. That doesn’t mean that you keep him on the roster if an opportunity presents itself that makes your franchise better.

Moving Memo allows the Jazz to clear salary cap and pick up an asset in the trade exception. That exception could turn into a future all-star or 10 year rotation player. It could also turn into nothing. The Jazz have until December 22nd, 2012 to use the exception or it expires. Most trade exceptions do expire without being used. Regardless if they use it or not, moving Memo for the trade exception allows them more time to decide. If Memo stayed with the team past this year’s trade deadline, there were only two things that the Jazz could do. The first was to simply let the contract end and move on. The second would be to use Memo’s free agent contract in a sign and trade deal. That’s it. With the trade exception, you get more time to make a decision plus your options are much more abundant. The Jazz are now poised to be real players moving forward. They potentially could add a player worth 10.8 million dollars or an even more expensive player if they trade a current player and the exception. Nobody is saying that shipping Memo to Jersey doesn’t suck on a personal level. Of course it does, but the Jazz are in the business of winning and if you have an opportunity to make a deal that gives you more options…you have to pull the trigger.

Look at it this way, Memo was coming off a significant injury and wasn’t going to play big minutes anyway. In essence, you were going to pay Okur over 10 million dollars to come off your bench and play sparingly. That doesn’t make sense at all. While some fans see this as a callused move by the Jazz, I look at it like a smart business decision. It’s actually refreshing to see the Jazz make moves that are focused on winning a championship instead of making decisions based on personal feelings. That doesn’t mean that the Jazz don’t care about their players. It simply means that they want to win…and last time I checked that’s what they were in this business to do.

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The University of Kansas announced yesterday that former BYU quarterback Jake Heaps has decided to transfer to Lawrence. I am going to try and take the fan part of me out of this…wait a minute. I’m not going to put my fandom off to the side. The fact that I will actually admit to being a fan of the teams I cover is one of the things that sets me apart from other media personalities. Having said that, I am still bitter about Heaps leaving BYU. I get that his ego was bruised and he felt like he wasn’t given a fair shake. The problem with that logic is that it’s false. Heaps WAS given a fair shake. He was given almost an entire season if you combine this year and last. Jake didn’t get better this season, in fact he regressed.

The ego aspect of the argument is what it is. Heaps was the best quarterback coming out of high school. He had always succeeded at whatever he tried. When you spend your entire life being the best, it’s hard when someone tells you that your teammate is doing a better job. Right or wrong, nobody can truly understand what a slap in the face that was to Heaps. Nobody had ever been better than him on the football field. He had never had to win over any teammates before. His play had done that for him. The problem this time around was that Heaps play wasn’t getting the job done. Riley Nelson was able to come in and move the offense significantly better than when Jake was seeing the majority of the snaps. Bottom line is that Nelson outplayed Heaps and deserved to be the starter.

Fast forward to Heaps announcing he was leaving BYU. Most BYU fans were holding out hope that Jake would redshirt and be ready to lead the Cougars in 2013. For all the reasons above, Heaps decided that wasn’t in his best interest. Obviously Heaps received a lot of interest for schools that wanted him to lead their football programs. We knew several PAC-12 schools had interest but when Kansas emerged as a possibility, I felt like that would be Heaps eventual landing spot. Turns out I was right. The Jayhawks hired Charlie Weiss as their new head coach. Weiss had recruited Jake to Notre Dame a few years back. Knowing that Jake would have to sit out a year, Kansas could bring in a QB for one season and have Heaps ready to go in 2013. I’m not going to pretend that I follow KU week in and week out but what I can tell you is that they aren’t a good football team. Anybody that tells you the situation at Kansas is better than waiting a season to play at BYU is crazy. BYU’s football program is in a much better spot than Kansas. Yes, the Jayhawks are in a BCS conference but let’s be honest…Kansas is a long way away from worrying about the BCS. If Jake could have kept his bruised ego from getting in the way, he could have led the Cougars for two seasons and still fulfilled his NFL dreams. Too bad he wasn’t willing to fight through adversity and reap the benefits on the other side.

Shep