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Share Which Jazz players you have met and how/where.

Baby Snooks said:
First time poster.
I would share a story about meeting Ron Boone. My father had been a Utah Stars fan and then a Utah Jazz fan for as long as I can remember. In the early 1990’s my father was just diagnosed with prostate cancer shorty before his birthday. He was in his 70’s at that time so I wanted to do something very special for his birthday. I bought a pair of Jazz tickets and called the Jazz office. I told them the situation and said for his birthday I would like to know if I could make arrangements for him to meet Ron Boone since my father has always been a big fan of his. They said they couldn’t promise anything but took my phone number. Several days later, Ron Boone called me! Long story short, when we arrived at the arena I told my father I would join him at the seats because I had to do something. I met Ron Boone at the announcers table and let him know where we were sitting. Prior to tip off, I saw him walking up to towards us and I said to my father “here comes your birthday surprise” His jaw literally dropped when Ron Boone stood in front of him and wished him a happy birthday and they chatted together for a few minutes. My father battled his cancer for over 20 years before it finally took him. He always commented how he never forgot how kind and gentlemanly Ron Boone was.
We also met Jeff Hornacek at Hogle Zoo. He was kind enough to take a picture with my father. On a side note, when I worked at a rehab center quite a number of years ago, I was in a patients room and noticed a beautiful flower arrangement. I looked at the card and it was from the Hornacek family. The patients neighbor was in the room and commented that Jeff lived on the street with the patient, (who was elderly and widowed) and he would take out the garbage for her and help in the yard.
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Welcome to jazzfanz! Fantastic first post.
 
LifeOnaPlate said:
Favors, at a AAA location after winning the Jazz Get Away prize to New Orleans.

Gobert, multiple times after games waiting out where the player parking lot is at Vivint.

Ingles at Macy's.

Ekpe multiple times at his book club.

Donovan Mitchell during summer league.

Royce during summer league.

Snyder at a Salt Lake City ice skating rink. Had a funny and kind exchange.

Crowder after a game by lot at Vivint.

Raul Neto after a game by lot at Vivint.

Mike Brown, the brown bear, at RC Willey's.

Mark Eaton, at Layton Hills Mall

Memo walking around the Viv.

Eric Murdock at jr. jazz event.

Ostertag on Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland (for real).

Sloan before a jazz game down by the floor.

Millsap before a jazz game down by the floor.

Big Dog Antoine Carr at Circuit City when I worked there in college.

The Booner, after a game up by where Locke broadcasts.

Frank Layden at Tony's Pizza in Ogden, incidentally.

I think that's everyone.
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Holy heck. Which ones recognized you from the restraining orders?
 
Michell, favors, royce, Bradley etc all lived in my building and we talked shop a bunch. They’re all gone now, but it was special. I had a hot tub bro down with Donovan and his girl a few nights. Kids, man.


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latin jazz said:
2005-2006 season. Emailed Linda Luchetti (PR manager at the time) how hard was to follow the Jazz from Peru and that it would be a dream come true if one day I could actually meet the team. She emailed back telling me she could introduce me to the whole team if I ever come to SLC. And that's exactly what I did. Flew from Lima to SLC.

Meet the whole team (Memo, Dwill, Millsap, Boozer, Brewer, etc), except AK. That bastard always stayed in the locker room reading a book during shoot around. Couldn't meet Jerry either. He was chatting with some old ladies and didn't want to interrupt him. Got pics and autographs from everyone.

Everyone, from management to players were really nice. I remember there were some spoiled kids who were jelous of all the attention I was getting. Little wankers.
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I think actually remember you telling us you were gonna do this. Were you on the board then?
 
Jeff Hornacek used to live on my street. My Dad delivered newspaper to his house, he would give us a gift card to TGI Friday's as a Christmas gift. I would wave to him all the time when I would see him driving down the street.

Met Thurl Bailey a couple of times. First time was when he was doing a signature signing event at a McDonald's. Second time was I was asked to say one of the prayers at one of his devotionals.

Met Karl Malone at a signature signing event at some sporting good store that doesn't exist any more.

I work at Target and I've seen many Jazz players in the store. The players that I've personally helped have been Greg Ostertag, he was kind of a jerk when I asked if he wanted his receipt. Helped Masha Kirilenko many times, it was funny one day she applied for our credit card and she was declined! LOL George Hill, went through my line one time. Helped Deron Williams once. Helped Kris Humpries carrying his order out to his car.
 
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My wife and I and some of her friends went out to the bar with the dueling pianos after a jazz game several years ago. Ron Boone was in there. We did a “Bro nod” across the way to each other.


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Archie Moses said:
Now that I think about it, I've played ball with Ronnie Price a few times at UVU a long *** time ago. He was a quiet dude, but deadly.
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I guess I forgot to include him. I got back from my mission in February of ‘06 and then in May moved down to Village on the Parkway across the freeway from then UVSC. He was dating his now wife and she lived in the apartment across the hall. He’d always park his car in between two spaces. Anyway, a year ago we were flying home from Kona and he was there. I recognized his wife and my wife actually initiated conversation with him.
 
Archie Moses said:
Now that I think about it, I've played ball with Ronnie Price a few times at UVU a long *** time ago. He was a quiet dude, but deadly.
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I played basketball with price too. We had a work basketball tournament and one of my co workers was related to him so he showed up too.
I was a pretty good basketball player at the time. He made me look incredibly stupid

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The last time the jazz had training camp in St. George (2004) I hurried to the hotel after the open to the public practice one night. I was one of about 10 people who did the same most of us were kids and teens and we gave the players high fives as they got off the bus except for a few. Boozer and Arroyo stand out as a couple that had that F off look and didn't give us a high five or anything. AK actually stopped and talked with us for a minute and even signed some things, super cool.

By far my favorite is being one of like 6 kids that got a private lesson with Antoine Carr and a couple games of speed in the summer of 2000. Carr did a basketball camp in St George in the summer of 98,99 and 00, fun times.
 
I know the question is about Jazz players, but I met Patrick Ewing once. I think it was either in 1995 or 1996. I attended college classes at Universidade de São Paulo at night, but during the afternoons I usually went to a health club nearby that was really famous at the time and was attended by many celebrities. So, one afternoon, I took a break from lifting weights and went to the WC and then I saw -- from the back -- a guy riding a stationary bike. My thoughts were: "What a tall black dude!" On my way back, I saw his face and: "Oh... that's Patrick Ewing!" Later, I was between sets in a seated pull down machine when I was approached by Ewing's translator: "Are you finished?", he asked in Portuguese. "I have one set left", I said lifting my index finger to Ewing, "I'll finish it in a minute". Then, I did my set with the maximum load of the machine. I am 5'11. At that time, I was 19 or 20 and probably looked slightly younger. Also, I weighted about 200 pounds, with 8 to 10 percent of body fat, so I was really in great shape. Ewing probably thought that someone so young and small could not pull down the maximum load. Thus, when I finished my set, I turned to him and saw that he was quite surprised. Then, I said to the translator: "I'm finished. He can used it now", and gave Ewing a smile. As I was leaving, I saw him actually decreasing the load of the machine and, I must confess, that put a big smile on my face. Later, I discovered that Ewing was in Brazil to sell shoes and was meeting Oscar Schmidt to play pick-up ball in front of the cameras.
 
Wes Mantooth said:
How the heck does a clip on a dog’s leash become unclipped? That would’ve been literally impossible with the leashes we had for our dogs, which were just regular old leashes. And you couldn’t yell the dog’s name so it stopped running?

Sounds like amateur hour.
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He meant to say that the paperclip holding his dog to the piece of used Christmas ribbon he was using as a leash somehow came unbent.
 
I ran into Antoine Carr twice in the same week. The first time was at a hot dog restaurant he had opened up in Sugarhouse. The second time was at a gas station kitty corner from Westminster College. He was in line in front of me. I was stunned when he paid for the pack of gum I was buying. I should have bought a lot more that day.

Met John Stockton at Book Expo America in NYC. Another person at the event introduced us because he knew we both had Utah connections. Stockton looked pissed, but I think he was just overwhelmed by the attention he was getting at the event. I'd always heard that he hated being a celebrity but it was only after meeting him there that I really understood how much he disliked it. I met Dr. Ruth and Ken Jennings on that same day. Neither of them looked pissed at all. Dr. Ruth was hysterical, super nice, and mind-bendingly tiny.

Had lunch with Bill Walton in Breckenridge during a bicycle race. I was with a friend who had never heard of Walton before that day. Afterward my friend asked me if Walton was legitimately insane.
 
Joe Bagadonuts said:
He meant to say that the paperclip holding his dog to the piece of used Christmas ribbon he was using as a leash somehow came unbent.
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You caught me

Greg Foster used to always be at the gym i went to over off van winkle. He was always standing around chatting it up, oddly i never saw him lift one weight.
Also said hi to Paul Milsap and his brother at circuit city, they were buying a camera and i looked over and they looked like they didnt want to be bothered i just awkwardly said, was up?
 
Ricky Rubio standing outside of Sephora in City Creek standing on a bench talking loudly in spanish to someone. Dressed like a homless man. One thing I noticed is he is very very tall, for normal human standards, and had really long arms. And looked like a bum.

Karl Malone sitting outside of some factory waiting for his semi to get loaded up with something. This is when I was like 8 or 9 so he was still in his prime, just liked to drive trucks for some god forsaken reason I guess. He wasn't super nice, but wasn't unpleasant either.
 
Back when FishTech opened in Millcreek, I think Karl Malone invested in it. They had a signing and he was there. My little brother had just had surgery on both his feet, so they were both in casts and he was in a wheelchair. We were standing in line to get in, but someone came out and let us skip the line (it was summer so it was super hot). Malone signed my brother's casts, but he was on the phone the whole time.
 
I bumped into Karl Malone's mother at a Jazz game once and said "Mrs Malone we are proud of your son." She replied "Thank you, dear."

In Park City once, I was wearing a "US Army Veteran" baseball cap (yes, I am indeed a veteran of the US Army) and during a crowded street event my wife and I somehow started talking to the couple next to us and the guy looked at my cap and thanked me for my service. The man was Thurl Bailey. Now this one happened so fast that I have to put an asterisk next to it, (e.g., was that really Thurl Bailey?) but hey, that's life.
 
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