Utah Jazz Media Day has come and gone. We chuckled as a mustachioed Kevin Love took to the podium, and we gawked at the purple mountains’ majesty upon the crisp and new white uniforms. We groaned internally
(and perhaps a bit externally) when Austin Ainge all but confirmed the rebuild is still a few more years away from being a few more years away from its resolution — that roast still has a few more millennia in the slow cooker, it seems.
But the most welcome information shared on the local media’s playground was that of Ace Bailey moving on from his former agent, Omar Cooper.
The more we’ve learned about Cooper’s influence on Bailey’s pre-draft fiasco, the more it has become clear that Ace has no ill will toward his own team, nor was it his decision to decline workouts for the top teams in the draft order. In fact, all indications suggest the exact opposite: Ace seems thrilled to be playing his NBA basketball in Utah.
It’s the funniest thing when national coverage strikes the Utah Jazz. When the team doesn’t receive it, fans may believe the team is underrepresented in mainstream media (you will be missed, Tony Jones). When the team does receive new coverage, it’s often not for reasons one would welcome.
Without the pedigree, history, or market of a Los Angeles, New York, or Boston, Salt Lake City’s basketball team often receives little to no mention from national media outlets. Who cares if Jordan Clarkson had a random triple-double? What does it matter if Kyle Filipowski dropped 30 points? Do you honestly expect us to get excited over Isaiah Collier’s assist record?
In truth, recent output from the Utah Jazz has been very stale as far as national intrigue goes — heck, at times it hardly even registers as striking local interest.
But the recent coverage circus surrounding Ace Bailey’s pre-draft oddities gave the Utah Jazz, his eventual selector, far more coverage than they ever really wanted. The entirety of the NBA thought they knew everything going through Ace’s brain, as if his mental activity were being broadcast to a nationwide audience. The Jazz were in the spotlight, but you know what? As it turns out, it seems Utah prefers life not beneath a microscope.
The frenzy has been traded for tranquility. The howling, rioting monkeys have been released back into the wild, and the buzz around Ace Bailey can finally be filtered into what’s happening on the court, rather than speculation about what Utah’s exciting youngster may or may not be thinking about life beneath the mountains of Utah. Yes, the circus is leaving town.
Officially, this is no longer Bailey’s circus. Those are no longer his monkeys. Let us all breathe as one and summon inner peace.
Official (Unofficial) Utah Jazz Guided Meditation and Affirmations
Ommmmm, ommmmm, ommmmm.
Please sit cross-legged upon the hardwood of the Delta Center floor. Opening your third eye, visualize the scuff marks, and listen to the squeaking of sneakers across the court. The pounding bounce of the ball. The rattling of the rim as the ball jostles its stance. The salty spray of sweat delivers a hazy, savory mist upon the courtside observers.
You are on the court now. You control your destiny. You are Lauri Markkanen lining up an open three-ball. You are Ace Bailey with an open lane and a date up above the rim. You are Kevin Love skiing in Park City.
Namaste.
Ace Bailey’s decision to cut ties with any representation whose interests seem detrimental to his life in Utah and his NBA career as a whole is a major vote of confidence in his team. From his coaches to his teammates, and now to the outside observer, there is no more room for doubt: Ace Bailey is all-in with the Utah Jazz.
He’s the most exciting young player in Utah since Donovan Mitchell. A player with sincere, honest-to-goodness All-Star upside. All the tools to become a high-level defender and franchise-altering shot creator lie in his grasp, and the desire to reach those heights goes hand-in-hand with the Jazz’s long-term plans.
Maybe the rebuild takes another seven seasons to really get off the ground. Maybe the Jazz don’t make a run in the playoffs until Ace Bailey is nearing his first round of unrestricted free agency. Maybe the team changes its logo to a hyper-realistic close-up of Cody Williams. Maybe this. Maybe that.
One thing is for certain: by all indications, Ace Bailey is focused and determined to carve out a great career with the Utah Jazz. He’s made that perfectly clear.
Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Tokyo, Japan. He has covered the NBA and College Sports since 2024.
