Have you ever met a Jazz Player?

Ok, I saw this thread in another forum and I thought it seemed kind of fun to hear your stories. And, since there is nothing else good to talk about in jazz land, I thought I'd give this topic a whirl. Have you ever met a jazz player before? Share your stories here.

When I was about 10 I went to a Thurl Bailey camp in southern Utah. Thurl and Hot Rod were there. Got to meet both and shake hands and get autographs. Main thing remember was that at the very end Thurl did a dunk jumping almost from the free throw line. It was pretty impressive to a 10 year old.


When I was about 16, Karl Malone came to my small southern Utah home town driving his 18 wheeler filled with merchandise. It was part of a Zion's Bank promotion. You could stand in line and buy crap off his truck and if you did, you could stand in another line and he would sign it. He was really cool and very friendly. He took quite a bit of time with each fan. I remember he joked around with my friends and me quite a bit. We challenged him to a game of 3 on 1 and he declined citing his own personal fears that we would kick his butt and humiliate him. We felt cool. We went back through the line later and asked him if he wanted to hang out with us....that we would buy his lunch at the local diner (we desperately wanted to look cool). He politely declined saying he would love to, but was on a schedule to get to another town for another gig.
He was really nice and very good to the fans. I remember he made us all feel important and like he enjoyed being with us.

I saw the Mailman again doing a similar promotion at the "mall" in St. George. He was with Isaac Austin this time. This was a year or so after the original meeting. My friends and I bought Mailman posters and hats but no Ike Austin gear. Ike laughed and graciously accepted when we asked him to sign our Malone stuff too. Karl remembered us and before we could get a word out he turned to Ike and said "these guys will challenge you to a game of 3 on 1, but be careful they are better than they look. They kicked my butt last time." Malone was very nice, as was Austin and really seemed to enjoy interacting with the fans.

I have a few more I'll share in a bit....

My meeting with Jazz players all occured with past player. Never met any current guys.

When I was young (elementary age), I attended a scrimmage that the team participated in at a high school (it may have been a school like SLCC, I don't remember for sure). Afterwards I was able to go in hallways of the school and meet the players & get autographs. I was young & for some reason I ripped a paper into small pieces and had the players sign these little scraps of paper for me. I remember Mark Eaton & Thurl Bailey most (crazy since I'm sure John & Karl were there as well). One of them (again, can't remember) asked me why I ripped the paper into such small pieces. In hind-site, I obviously wasn't thinking about how hard it would be for these guys with giant hands to sign my little scraps.

I met Antoine Carr at a streetball tounrnament. He used to come to them pretty often & take pictures with the players & watch games. SUPER nice guy.

I also remember BRuss & couple other players (might have been Chris Morris & Jamie Watson) came to a street ball tournament as well, but I never interacted with them.

I also saw Hornacek, a couple years after he retired, coming out of a movie at Jordan Commons with his 2 boys, but I didn't feel right stopping him when he was having family time.

The second year Kyle Korver was on the team, he had his coat drive. I work for a non-profit that was on the recieving end of a number of those coats & was able to volunteer collecting coats at the door of ESA. After the game, I was able to meet him and get a picture & a ball signed. He was also very approachable & treated all the volunteers very well. One of the woman who I work with was/is absolutely enamored with Kyle. I thought the poor girl was going to pass out when she got her chance to meet him.

Oh, and I met Bear a couple times. Good stuff.

When I was about 17-18 I went to the delta center for a jazz game with a couple of friends. During pre-game we would walk around viewing the concessions and venders for a while. During this ritual we saw the jazz dancers, scantily clad, walking around too. So, like any other self-respecting teenage boys, we followed them. Stalked them is probably a closer description. After about 10 minutes, they noticed us noticing them. We felt dumb, until one of them came up to us and asked us if they could have their picture taken with US!! We were elated. Then they pulled out some 8x10 color pictures of the jazz dancer team and they all proceeded to sign them and give them to us...with a hug. I don't remember who won the game. I didn't really care.
I know, not a jazz player, but still worth sharing I thought.

I have had some passing interactions with various Jazz players over the years. Saw Karl Malone at a Foot Locker function. I met GH at the airport before last season and we had a lengthy chat. I take credit for his blossoming as a player after passing on my great wisdom. I briefly chatted with the Underkanter at a Ute game. He's a good kid. I have bumped into the Booner a few times, he's really nice. My wife and I sat with Frank Layden at a pre-game lunch for Ute football. He sent us an autographed photo by mail after that.

I also met Clint Richardson way back on the 80s. He was married to my friend's sister. I think he played for the Pacers and 76ers. I bumped into Mikael (sp?) Pietrus at the Oakland airport. He's a good guy. Oh yeah, I've also chatted with Michael Doleac, and briefly with Andre Miller and Keith van Horn.

I won a contest and got to hang out with Gordo for about 30 before a game his rookie season. I posted a pic awhile ago. He seemed kinda shy and not really comfortable with the whole NBA lifestyle yet. But he was a really cool dude.

I also met Raja, not a highlight. He was nice enough, but you could tell he didn't want to be involved with fans.

Back in the day I met Malone, Stockton, Horny, Big Dog, B Russel, Ostertag, Blue Edwards, Big Mark, Tom Chambers, David Benoit, Jeff Malone, Greg Foster, Felton Spencer, and a few others. When I was a teenager, If I heard a player was going to be somewhere meeting fans, I was there. It was one of my hobbies. I have a shit ton of autographs.

I actually net B Russ at the grand opening of Boogies in Clearfield. My best friends married sister left with him and the group he came with in a stretched hummer

Romoholic wrote:

I actually net B Russ at the grand opening of Boogies in Clearfield. My best friends married sister left with him and the group he came with in a stretched hummer

What happens in the stretched hummer, stays in the stretched hummer.


I met Jeff Malone and Blue Edwards at Jr. Jazz player days. I remember Blue was hung over (he said he had a rough night and laughed knowingly, later I learned the translation), but still super cool. Jeff Malone was kind of buisness like, I remeember thinking he was too serious. I had a few talks and actually played some pickup ball with Jeff Judkins when he was assistant coaching at Utah.

I've played against and had interactions with a number of NBA future players over the years, some made it longer than others in the league. I got to play against (actually guarded him for a couple plays) Keith Van Horn at a summer camp when he was at Utah. Also played against teenage Mike Doleac and Andre Miller at that same camp, I remember Majerus telling us that Miller was going to be an NBA player someday. Played against Marcus Banks several times when he was down at Dixie, Travis Hansen was a friend of my bothers and I chatted with him for a little while, hung out a little with Jimmer Fredette a couple years ago when he was at BYU. Met Shawn Bradley a couple times, you really can't appreciate 7'6 untill you see it in person. I knocked on Kevin Duckworths door doing a boy scout fundraser and talked him into buying a wreath.

Ohhhh, I'd almost forgotten about this little Jazz tie in, I actually played with a guy named Jaxon Vroman who played a season or two in the NBA himself, but his dad was Brett Vroman who played a season for the Jazz in 1980-81.

I saw Jerry in an airport once, I think it was LAX maybe. He was all on his own, so I walked up and asked if he minded talking. He was cool, gruff, but cool. We talked Jazz, and I asked him why he played Ostertag so much. He laughed and said he tries hard, but that he was probably a bit more frustrated with Goose than I was. He was cool, great 10minutes.

Also ran across this and had 15minutes to spare so watched it. I was pretty excited about the Luther Wright draft pick. Crazy what mental disease can do. Well, that and crack cocaine.

http://www.roopstigo.com/healingagent/luther-wright-the-weight-of-the-world-part-1-with-greg-marotta/

I think I have talked about this before in Trib Talk, I have been hunting with Ostertag a few times. My older brother is a very good hunter and we always went Deer hunting on private property in the Coalvile area and one night while we where all sitting around the campfire the guy who own the land pulled up with Ostertag in his truck asking for my Brother. The two have known each other for many years and that's why we where allowed to hunt on his land he told my brother that Tag only had 2 days to hunt but wanted to get a deer in the first day, the owner said that my brother was the only guy he thought would be able to help Tag get it done in a day so he agreed to take him out the next morning. So me and my brother spent the day hunting with Tag and was able to get him a very nice 28 inch 4 point on the evening hunt, I have to say Tag was a very fun guy to be around and an all around nice guy. He went out a few other time's with my older brother in other years and we got to spend time around the campfire with him where we got to know him as a great guy who like to joke around and have fun just like the next guy.

I didn't "meet" him, per se, but I did see DeMarre Carroll in Nordstroms at City Creek Mall today. He was with a small entourage of fellas. He seemed rather jovial. I decided not to bother him, but to just let him enjoy his day.

I arranged for Thurl Bailey to come to our local high school last year to give a speech to the students. It was a great speech. I had the opportunity to chat with Thurl one on one for quite a while. He was a very nice guy. It was during the lockout and I expressed my discontent for all the greed. He was fun to talk to.

I met AK once back in Europe before he was even playing for the Jazz. You could tell at that time he was going to be special and I was so happy he was later drafted by the Jazz.

In 2011 I met Harpring. I went early to the game hoping I could see a few minutes of the warmups like an hour before the game. I was down for like 10 minutes. Walked around the court and walked right by harpring.

He was looking over notes and stuff so he was busy. Funny thing was I couldnt decide which jersey to wear? I had an AK47, Harpring, and Hayward jersey. I decided Harpring, mainly because it was a homecoming game for Hayward, and I wanted to let people know I was a legit Jazz fan. As I told him I loved his toughness and grittiness as a player, he smiled and said he never thought he would see his jersey in an opposing arena. Got a picture with him, then he went on.

I knew he was busy getting ready for the game, so I didnt want to bother him much. He was really nice though.