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

[JazzBird]

So ive met a few jazz players but i wanted to share the time i met Olden Polynice.
So for those familiar with the area at the top of 45th South in Salt Lake there is a park named olympus hills park and this is where i walked my dog every day. My dog was a boxer about 65lbs all muscle, so anyway im walking my dog and across a larger flat grassy area theres a large black guy and his wife/girlfriend sitting on a blanket they had laid out having a picnic, at this same moment somehow the clip on my dogs leash comes unclipped and my dog goes tearing off 100mph right towards this couple on the blanket and my dog just busts right through their blanket and starts jumping and twirling all over their blanket, so me being totally horrified go running over there as fast as i could to gather up my tsunami of a dog yelling sorry as im running as i get closer i notice the man is none other than olden polynice, apparently he lived just down the street. As i approached and gathered my dog he was understandably upset and yelling something about how my dog needing to be leashed and i explained it was an accident and he left to go get some napkins or something to clean himself up and his wife/girlfriend who was about as nice as Olden gets all huffy and says, " you people need to leave him alone, we just want to be alone and not have fans always trying to meet us and bug us, and i said im sorry mam but i couldnt tell who he was and it was an accident and if it wasnt i would never purposefully do that, she got all bent and huffy and rolled her eyes and yelled something about you people again, and i asked why would i do that on purpose its olden polynice not john stockton and walked away. I saw olden a couple days later at the 7 eleven down the street from the park he looked straight at me shook his head in disgust. i smirked and he left
I actually did get a chance to meet John Stockton later but my dog wasnt there

 

[416Klawzz]

I met Jerry Sloan shook his hand in 2003. I snuck to the front rows during shootaround. I also got a picture with Dee Brown on another occasion during warm ups. A few years prior my sister took a wrong exit at the Air Canada Centre and I saw the whole Utah Jazz team come off the bus. AK47 had one head phone off his ear, I shouted Hey AK he turned, smiled and waved at me. It was so cool.

 

[infection]

I saw Mike Brown at the food court of Cottonwood Mall.

Tyrone Corbin (player) when they were broadcasting at some restaurant.

Greg Foster in the locker room of The Treehouse in Draper.

Got autograph from John Crotty (first stint) before a game after I had just bought a pack of cards that had him in it.

Sat next to Jerry and his wife at Tiburon in Sandy.

I got pulled over once by Olden Polynice. Not the best way to meet him, but it was better than my buddy’s encounter on a golf course.

 

[Miggs]

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.

 

[Miggs]

Not the same but when the Jazz were warming up for the 2nd half of a game against the Nets in mid December about 15 years ago here in NJ, I yelled to AK who was about 25 feet away, “Kirilenko, you have a couple weeks left to use that free pass!!!” He looked at me and grinned his *** off.

 

[Nate505]

So ive met a few jazz players but i wanted to share the time i met Olden Polynice.
So for those familiar with the area at the top of 45th South in Salt Lake there is a park named olympus hills park and this is where i walked my dog every day. My dog was a boxer about 65lbs all muscle, so anyway im walking my dog and across a larger flat grassy area theres a large black guy and his wife/girlfriend sitting on a blanket they had laid out having a picnic, at this same moment somehow the clip on my dogs leash comes unclipped and my dog goes tearing off 100mph right towards this couple on the blanket and my dog just busts right through their blanket and starts jumping and twirling all over their blanket, so me being totally horrified go running over there as fast as i could to gather up my tsunami of a dog yelling sorry as im running as i get closer i notice the man is none other than olden polynice, apparently he lived just down the street. As i approached and gathered my dog he was understandably upset and yelling something about how my dog needing to be leashed and i explained it was an accident and he left to go get some napkins or something to clean himself up and his wife/girlfriend who was about as nice as Olden gets all huffy and says, " you people need to leave him alone, we just want to be alone and not have fans always trying to meet us and bug us, and i said im sorry mam but i couldnt tell who he was and it was an accident and if it wasnt i would never purposefully do that, she got all bent and huffy and rolled her eyes and yelled something about you people again, and i asked why would i do that on purpose its olden polynice not john stockton and walked away. I saw olden a couple days later at the 7 eleven down the street from the park he looked straight at me shook his head in disgust. i smirked and he left
I actually did get a chance to meet John Stockton later but my dog wasnt there

You're lucky he didn't try to arrest you.

 

[Deleted member 95]

Not the same but when the Jazz were warming up for the 2nd half of a game against the Nets in mid December about 15 years ago here in NJ, I yelled to AK who was about 25 feet away, “Kirilenko, you have a couple weeks left to use that free pass!!!” He looked at me and grinned his *** off.

Dude... I think that cheeser he pulled was a hint he wanted to use it on you. You should have gone for it. You'd have a story for the rest the time. YOLO, No regerts!!

 

[Baby Snooks]

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.

 

[Jingled]

I met Karl Malone at one of those hunting expos at the Salt Palace around 10-12 years ago. He seriously could not have been nicer.

Antoine Carr came to my elementary school and spoke at an assembly and I got his autograph afterword.

Sat at a table next to Mark Eaton in a restaurant in Park City when I was really young. All I remember is how damn tall he was.

 

[Baby Snooks]

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.

I forgot to mention about 20 years ago I was at a sports card trading store, and Mark Eaton and Bill Walton were there. I heard about the event from the owner of the store and went there with my father and son. The two men posed for a picture with my father and son standing in between them. It is quite funny to see the height difference.

 

[framer]

I hung out with Antoine Carr at the (now defunct, I think) Nicco's Burger in St. George when the Jazz did Spring training down there. He was there quite often.

I saw Ron Boone and his team at the 3 on 3 Roundball Ruckus tournament at the 49th Street Galleria. That bracket had a couple of Ex pros and a lot of ex BYU and U of U players. Boone's team won and the dude talked smack the whole time. Kinda surprised me as I was only familiar with his work with Hot Rod. Love me some Ron Boone. My team took 4th in our bracket with me playing the Bill Lambier role. We eventually ran into a team with two 6'9" dudes that couldn't easily be roughed up.

 

[homeytennis]

One year the Jazz had their training camp in Boise in DWill's rookie year and I happened to be in a restaurant with pretty much the whole team. The player I thought was cool and personable was Andre Owens who made the team as un drafted free agent.