Andy Larsen is the one who asked Joe about it today after shootaround. Andy's question was basically is he thought the process was strange, if they were surprised, and what his opinion was on what happened. Joes full response was:
He kind of snarkily started off "You're not in the room every day and we're here, and I'm not telling you anything so ha ha" and then laughed. Then he went to a serious note and said: "Obviously him not playing was a bit of a surprise, I think everyone said that, but again I'm not gonna ever question the medical staff or their decisions. Because at the end of the day they have the players best health and interest in mind. I mean what does any staff member get out of holding a player out? There's obviously no vested interest in them holding a player out. I'm not in the big boy meetings with the upper echelon, but obviously the staff saw something they didn't like and they held him out."
It felt like Joe's answer was very supportive of the medical staff to me. Video here if you'd like to watch https://www.nba.com/jazz/video/teams/jazz/2021/05/26/328006/1622057103678-joe-328006
He kind of snarkily started off "You're not in the room every day and we're here, and I'm not telling you anything so ha ha" and then laughed. Then he went to a serious note and said: "Obviously him not playing was a bit of a surprise, I think everyone said that, but again I'm not gonna ever question the medical staff or their decisions. Because at the end of the day they have the players best health and interest in mind. I mean what does any staff member get out of holding a player out? There's obviously no vested interest in them holding a player out. I'm not in the big boy meetings with the upper echelon, but obviously the staff saw something they didn't like and they held him out."
It felt like Joe's answer was very supportive of the medical staff to me. Video here if you'd like to watch https://www.nba.com/jazz/video/teams/jazz/2021/05/26/328006/1622057103678-joe-328006
