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JazzBird

Well-Known Member
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;)
 
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.
 
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.
 
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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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.
 
JazzBird said:
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;)
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You're lucky he didn't try to arrest you.
 
Wes Mantooth said:
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.
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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!!
 
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 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 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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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
DeMarre Carroll did a Junior Jazz event that my son went to when he was little. He was an instant favorite of mine from that moment on (he wasn’t really playing yet when he had that assignment.) He was just such an awesome dude. Took an absolute ton of pictures with the kids and seemed to genuinely have a fun time interacting with them.

Was really disappointed when he left for Atlanta and have hoped for a reunion since then. Kinda sad how he’s out of the rotation in San Antonio. Wouldn’t hate to see the Jazz swap Ed Davis for DMC. Still think he’d be a solid fit for what they wanted Jeff Green to be.
 
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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Talked with DM a few times in Vegas... he’s signed shoes and cards and pics at every game I’ve attended in Sacramento... he’s always been awesome and engaged with my son and his buds.

met Niang at summer league right before he signed... I told him that they just released Jerebko and that I was going to talk with DL about getting him signed... later that week it actually happened. He was super cool.

willie Reed was awesome at summer league too... had family with him after the game... talked with the kids for a while and even challenged my buddy’s kid at pop a shot... played a couple rounds... smiled and laughed the whole time.

my dads had a few encounter with Hot Rod at this dive bar in Heber City... if you want to make him cry you just ask him to tell the story.

One of the funniest encounter my pops had was when he worked for this high end guided hunting company... these hunts are in the middle of nowhere... like where the polygamists hide out and there are no laws and ****. He looks out on this road and sees an enormous black man jogging down the road... gets his binoculars out and it’s the mailman jogging shirtless down the road. He was with another group out there... bagged his deer and then jogged like 10 miles back to camp.
 
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.

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.

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

I think that's everyone.
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We need a JazzFanz meetup for the summer league...

I need to add one... met memo at summer league and talked for a while... he smelled so good... it was intoxicating.
 
My dad has met Sloan a few times... said he could not have been nicer... like he reached out and did the double hand handshake thing and talked a lot... everyone I know that has met Sloan says he’s the nicest dude... kinda funny given his on court persona
 
Late 2001 I had floor seats for a Jazz-Nets game. Got there super early and a couple Jazz players were on the court warming up. One of them was John Crotty. He was practicing corner 3's and at one point he was less than 10 feet from me. I asked him if he was going to hit shots like he did last week in Miami (he went something like 7 for 7 with a couple 3's). He shrugged his shoulders and said something like "we'll see" (damn arena music). I said do it for Orange (he's from Orange, New Jersey) he laughed and dribbled away from me.

The other player on the court was John Stockton who was with a trainer stretching. I was told Stockton was notorious for ignoring fans before a game so I figured better I said nothing than say something and have him ignore me.
 
I met Memo at best buy.

Before you all laugh, I worked there and he came by for real. I also saw hornacek and D 'Slick willy" Williams there was well.

Also, I met Byron Russell at benihana when he was on the bench. He shook my hand. After he did so, he got his first few minutes and it was all history after that. As a 14 year old I knew I played a roll in his rise.
 
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