The Utah Jazz Blog

Every year the Utah Jazz and Russell’s ice cream have a contest among local elementary schools to see who can read the most combined minutes. There were some schools in U.C. that won some prizes and my little sister teaches at one of them. The school combined to read almost 800,000 minutes which is about 450 hours per day for the school as a whole. All of the reading was done away from school.

My sister knowing how huge of a Utah Jazz fan I am asked to come and take some pictures and help with her class. I got to go take some pics and listen to A.K. answer some questions about all sorts of stuff. Here is a recap of the Q and A session A.K. had with 600 or so kids followed by some pics.

Q- Are your parents tall?
A.K. No not really, actually I don’t know how tall they are.

Q- Who is your favorite Utah Jazz Player.
A.K. Well I love Stockton and Malone but my all time favorite is Jeff Hornacek (and all the kids screamed). He is my personal coach, he helps me with my shot.

Q- Can you dunk the basketball?
A.K. I think so as he proceeds to flat footed jump and hang on the rim(all the kids scream).

At this point I almost raised my hand and asked how his “one extracurricular activity” went this year but decided it was not the time or place.

Q- What is your favorite part about basketball?
A.K. Blocking shots, especially when you knock the ball into the stands(more screams).

Q-Can I have a hug?
A.K. Proceeds to give a teacher(huge Jazz fan from what I could gather) a hug.

Q- What is Russia like?
A.K. Like Salt Lake sometimes cold sometimes hot, Russia is very large so you get all types of weather there.

Q-What team do you not like to play the most (6th grader).
A.K. San Antonio Spurs, they match up really well with us and the Lakers they are good(reason #12 that I hate the Los Angeles Lakers).

Q-When is your next game?
A.K. Tomorrow night against the Houston Rockets, they have a player that is 7′6″(holding his hand a foot or so above his head) he is very tall and very good.

Q-How did you get so tall?
A.K. By reading books, listening to my parents, and eating healthy. Sometimes you don’t have to be tall to play basketball, you just have to work hard.

Q-Do you like playing for the Utah Jazz?
A.K. Yes. Yes I do. I have been here for 8 years and have been able to play with some of the best players ever to play basketball.

As a Utah Jazz fan it is always fun to see the players give back to the community and support the locals here. I realize that they make millions a year and would probably rather not do some of things that they do, but do it anyway and I’m sure they have fun, once they get into it. It was cool to see how AK interacted with the kids and got them whooping and hollering in the Gym.