Why does Albus Dumbledore think Harpring is good?

The Harry Potter series of books, despite the controversy they have elicited from the religious right, has been nearly universally hailed as a modern classic in childrens literature because of its vivid descriptions of fantastic events and relatively complex (for children's literature) main characters. Like many works of modern fiction the antagonistic relationship between the main characters and their traditional adversary, Voldemort, is carried out through the use of external events that rock the world of Harry and his friends. The external objects and events that have generated this drama have been varied: quests for philosopher's stones, a rogue basilisk, the escape of an infamous prisoner, the TriWizard Championship Tournament, and the search for Horcruxes containing Voldemort's soul.

The best (at least in my personal opinion) of the Harry Potter books, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, deals primarily not with the literal demons attempting to harm the heroes but with the demons within that prevent the magical community at large from seeing the truth of the matter: that Voldemort is back and threatens grave danger to the world. One of the primary lessons of this installment in J.K. Rowling's franchise is that the worst sort of evil is the invidious way in which those who seek their own personal glory are able to distort the perceptions of others for their own personal gain and hurt those they are supposed to serve in the process.

Sound like any Jazz player to you?

Like Dolores Umbridge did to the Ministry of Magic, Matt Harpring has managed to pull the wool over the eyes of many Jazz fans and the coaching staff into believing that he's a solid "glue guy" and a vital weapon in the Jazz arsenal. That he has been able to maintain this illusion is stunning given the Jazz were one of the most surprising teams in the league in season where he sat out most of the year with injury and reverted to putridity when he returned as team captain. Even those who only want to look at stat sheets should have seen through the Harpring facade long ago as his vital statistics (points and rebounds, because he's never been much of a passer) have declined each of the last four seasons.

However, just as Umbridge was able to maintain the facade of actual control and supreme knowledge for far longer than it was even plausibly true, Harpring has waved for the ball into the hearts of the coaching staff and fans everywhere once again this season. Unconscionably on a team loaded with offensive talents (Deron, Memo, Boozer) and with only one true defensive specialist (Kirilenko), Harpring has managed to work his way into the fourth quarter line-up despite his lack of defensive skills and offense first mentality. Hopefully, like Cornelius Fudge was finally forced to do, Jerry Sloan can realize that he is wrong and Harpring does, indeed, suck.