PHOENIX — There was about a minute left on the pre-game clock.
Most of the Utah Jazz retreated to the visitors bench at US Airways Center.
Not Bryce Cotton. Not quite yet.
Cotton stuck around, got a few more shots in — from three, and two. As the clock neared zero, Cotton jogged to the bench, and retrieved his warm-up jacket.
The jacket went over his blue Jazz jersey with the No. 8 and “COTTON” on its back.
After team intros and the national anthem, Cotton took his place on the bench, on the next-to-last seat.
Nine rows behind him sat his former Palo Verde High School coach, Chris Klassen, and the coach’s wife.
“This is just the ultimate,” Klassen said, “to watch somebody I coached.”
Cotton doesn’t really care that he’s at the end of the bench, in one of the last seats.
For this Tucsonan, in a lot of ways, it’s hard to believe he even has his own seat on an NBA bench. About three weeks ago, Cotton signed a two-year contract with the Jazz.
“It’s no problem for me,” Cotton said. “I just want to stay around here.”
