Jazz camp: Pardon the interruption
The Utah Jazz give media members a small window to talk to players before practices. Most reporters arrive ahead of time and watch players warm up or goof off. After the team’s PR staff gives us the thumbs-up to talk to players, we’ve got about 15 or so minutes to do our jobs.
And that is your How It Works tip of the day.
There’s a reason I share this with you, of course.
On Wednesday, I decided to do a story on the nonguaranteed contract players hoping to win a spot on the team. There are five guys in that situation. Speaking of Five Guys, I’m still dying to try that burger joint out, but, sorry, I won’t let my stomach distract us here….
The dynamic that sometimes makes that 15-minute window a bit awkward is that players are warming up for practice while we’re trying to do interviews. You almost feel strange making a basketball player stop shooting baskets to chat – well, until you remember that the story would be awfully boring without quotes.
That long intro brings me to a short story about Jeremy Evans and myself.
The Jazz’s second-round draft pick was shooting around with a staff member and a couple other players when I approached him.
Evans smiled and acquiesced my request, of course, but in as nice of a way as possible it was obvious that he wanted to be shooting. Very obvious. Answers were polite, but short and distracted. His attention drifted toward where he was shooting. He was DYING to warm up instead of chat it up.
Considering he’s fighting for his NBA life, I completely understand. This blog entry isn’t a complaint, just an observation. Evans wants to be as prepared as possible. I was merciful and kept our interview short. It was a few seconds longer than one minute. At the end, I joked with him, “You’re aching to get back out there?”
He smiled. “Yeah.”
Seconds later, he was back to shooting and running. Ahhhhhh…
A friend joked that I shouldn’t eat onion bagels before interviews. But this was about Evans’ intense focus on hoops, not a slight on me. (I had cereal for breakfast anyway.)
Not surprisingly, here’s what Evans believes is his ticket to an NBA roster spot: “Just come out and work harder than the next guy.”
Early indications are that the Jazz really like the 6-foot-9 forward. His athleticism is off the charts. We don’t get to watch practice, so reporters and fans will get their first chance this fall to watch him and the team on Saturday at the open scrimmage (noon, ESA).
Just for fun, I might try to talk to him before tipoff.