Chapter One: Terrance Mann

The end of the era wasn’t on July 6, 2022, or September 6, 2022. Instead, it was a year earlier on June 19, 2021.

The Terrance Mann game.

Perhaps you’ve forgotten my biggest nightmare, my biggest regret, the biggest what-if in my Utah Jazz lifetime. Whether you did or didn’t, take a drink and a painkiller because this context hurts just as much as it did when it happened.

After defeating the Memphis Grizzlies in five games in the first round of the 2020-2021 NBA Playoffs, the Jazz were matched up against the Los Angeles Clippers in the second round. In game one, Donovan Mitchell scored the number on his chest, popping off for 45 points in a 112-109 victory at Vivint, 32 of which came in the second half when he willed the team to victory despite being sick. Then, he became the first player since Karl Malone to score more than 35 points in back-to-back playoff games when he put up 37 in a 117-111 game two victory. Just like that, the Jazz were up 2-0 and two games away from a Western Conference Finals appearance.

But traveling for dates in LA did not end in roses, as the Jazz were blown out 132-106 and then 118-104. The wheels were starting to fall off: Mitchell hurt his ankle in game two. Then he hurt it again in game three. Conley hadn’t played a game in the series since injuring his hamstring in the first round. If there was a silver lining in the injury report, the Jazz would head back to Salt Lake for the pivotal game five and play the Clippers without star Kawhi Leonard. Surely, they would beat the Clippers at home without their best player.

Wrong.

119-111.

Still no Leonard, so maybe the Jazz would get back on track with their backs against the wall and season on the line for game six and even the series, now being down 3-2. For the 24 opening minutes, the Jazz tune sang beautifully with 72 first-half points as their defense cooled the Clippers to 50. Conley returned to give the team a needed boost, the Jazz were nearly automatic from deep, going 12 of 19 in the first half, and Mitchell was putting on a clinic as he scored 16 points in the first quarter alone. Things were breaking right to avoid the collapse, bring the series back to Salt Lake, and give the squad a chance to make things right on their way to the Conference Finals.

But then it became the Terrance Mann game.

A second-round draft pick, Mann averaged seven points per game in 19 minutes a night during that 2020-2021 season. With Leonard out, he was thrust into the starting lineup and found confidence with dunks over Rudy Gobert on his highlight reel. In the first five games of the series, Mann had scored 25 points total, but in a crucial third quarter, he accounted for 20 of the Clippers points as they roared back into the game. Going 15-21 from the field, including seven shots from deep, Mann led the Clippers to the improbable turnaround in the 131-119 victory.

For the first time in franchise history, 50 years, the Clippers made it to the Western Conference Finals. After having a 25-point lead, the Clippers posted the largest comeback victory by a team in a series-clinching win over the last 25 seasons. The Clippers were 30 of 42 from the field in the third and fourth quarters, including 14 of 19 from beyond the arc as they outscored the Jazz 81-47. Never having lost four straight games in the regular season where the Jazz took the #1 seed with a 52-20 record, the Jazz coughed up four straight in the playoffs to bow out.

I remember where I watched that game. I remember who I watched that game with. I remember how I felt in that first half. I remember how I felt in the second half. I remember how I felt with each of those four straight losses to exit the playoffs.

I remember knowing it was a lost golden opportunity.

The Clippers went on to face the Phoenix Suns for the opportunity to represent the West in the NBA Finals. I stay steadfast in my confidence that the Jazz would have beaten the Suns in that matchup, had they not choked and sputtered the chance away. The doors were wide open: Defensive Player of the Year, best regular season, home-court advantage, and then a series lead against a team without its franchise star. It was unfathomable, yes, without fathom, to envision that door shutting so dramatically in that Terrance Mann game six.

Know what else I remember? I remember knowing, feeling in my gut, that that loss would be the beginning of the end.

Chapter Two: A Three-Year Timeline

The Jazz core was back the next year, but the writing was already on the wall. At the end of the 2021-2022 NBA season for the Utah Jazz, they were fresh off a first-round loss to the Dallas Mavericks in six games. While a season-ending injury forced the Jazz to trade fan favorite Joe Ingles earlier than they’d like, this new playoff exit was technically the last moment for a group that should’ve had more cracks at contention, even an NBA Championship.

Back then, Quin Snyder, head coach, had the Jazz trot out a starting five that consisted of:

• Mike Conley, playing his third season as a point guard in Salt Lake.
• Donovan Mitchell, a shooting guard in his fifth season in a Jazz jersey.
• Royce O’Neale, a small forward in his fifth season, but third as a full-time starter, for the home team.
• Bojan Bogdanovic, playing the stretch-four for the third straight season in Utah.
• Rudy Gobert, the eldest with nine years of Utah history running in his bones as the defensive anchor at the center position.

Looking at that starting lineup core from 21-22, and adding Ingles and Jordan Clarkson as main rotation pieces off the bench, the group was together for three years. A few clusters were together longer, but during the offseason and midseason of the 2019-2020 NBA season, the Jazz added Conley, Bogey, and Clarskon to the Utah jersey lineup. Thus, the core pieces were assembled and the three-year run began. As a core during those three years:

• The Jazz went 44-28 in the COVID-lockout season, finishing as the sixth seed with a date in the bubble against Denver in the first round, in which they were up 3-1 before losing three straight including the finale on a missed Conley three at the buzzer. That playoff series was a peak in the tenure, while also providing a pit of ‘oh so close’ feelings.
  • 2019-2020: Mitchell and Gobert were all-stars; Gobert was on the All-NBA third team and the All-Defense first team.
• The next year, the team went 52-20 in the shortened season, finishing atop the conference. As noted before, the Jazz lost in the second round to the Clippers after winning their first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies. The season was a peak in the tenure, but the deepest pit of ‘oh so close’ feelings.
  • 2020-2021: Gobert was All-NBA third team, All-Defense First Team, and Defensive Player of the Year; Mitchell, Conley, and Gobert were All-Stars; Bogey had a player-of-the-week recognition, and Clarkson was the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year, while Ingles placed second.
• By year three, the regression started as the Jazz went 49-33 to finish fifth in the Western Conference where they lost to a hobbled Luka Doncic and Dallas Mavericks team in six games as Jalen Brunson ran circles around the tumbling defense. As for peaks and pits, let’s default to Andy Larsen of the Salt Lake Tribune who said, “This team was joyless to watch, all season long.”
  • 2021-2022: Mitchell was player of the week multiple times and player of the Month in December; Gobert had a player of the week honor and was again All-Defense first-team selection at the end of the year; Gobert and Mitchell were all-stars.

Chapter Three: Elephant in the Room and Some Quotes

Gobert and Mitchell were together longer, playing with Ricky Rubio (I LOVE YOU!) before going for an upgrade in Conley and shoring up rotational pieces.

I know the elephant in the room. I know what you are thinking. Mitchell didn’t like Utah. Mitchell wasn’t staying in Utah. Gobert and Mitchell just couldn’t coexist. Gobert and Mitchell were passive-aggressive to each other all day, every day.

You’re right.

I know that Gobert and Mitchell had differences on lifestyle, Utah, defense, winning, and the pandemic. I know they both said things. I saw the tweets, read the body language, or looked at the passing stats, too.

The squad, particularly that last season, was joyless primarily because of the dynamic between the two stars. I won’t argue against that.

Were they beyond repair? I don’t think so.

• Donovan Mitchell: “Honestly, basketball just didn’t work,” he said. “We live in such a world where it has to be really negative. Basketball just didn’t work. We didn’t see eye to eye. We wanted to win, but we wanted to do it two different ways. It didn’t work. But as far as he and I go as people, I don’t hate him, and he doesn’t hate me. I wouldn’t say we’re the best of friends, but we’re not at the point where it’s like, I can’t stand him.”(Source)
• Donovan Mitchell: “But honestly, it really started with COVID,” Mitchell continued. “Everything we did up to that point was under a microscope to the point where we were getting evaluated on how many times we threw the ball [to each other]. And that’s unfortunate, but it’s the reality of it. And it just didn’t work. I wish it did. I wish we had gone farther. We had the opportunity, but we didn’t. And we’re both in different spots now. But I want to wish him the best and I know he feels the same way.” (Source)
• In Paris in 2024, Donovan Mitchell: “We were here for a few days, actually. He took me to a different bunch of different places. I didn’t get to see where he was from, but obviously, we talked about it quite a bit. It was a cool experience.” Later, “I have no problem with Rudy. I think a lot of it was more media drama than anything else. There’s no bad blood. There’s nothing there. I think it’s more speculation, more of a media thing if anything else.” (Source)
• Rudy Gobert: “I think it was a tough situation for me, just like it was a tough situation for him. After that, we came back to have a lot of success as a team. As of today, Donovan is someone that I want to see him happy. I want to see him succeed. I want him and his family to be great.” (Source)

These four soundbites show that a baseline of respect existed between the two pillars of that Jazz era. They both admit things weren’t perfect, and both admit their own flaws in the relationship but also wish each other the best and can appreciate all the winning they were able to do together.

But, again, I can’t argue against the logic that the partnership had run its course. It was time for something to happen, yet I find it interesting that a very important quote gets lost in the Donny-Rudy narrative.

I know my bias is #TeamDonny, but my biggest piece of evidence that he was willing to give Rudy a shot, the Jazz another chance, and was genuinely interested in running it back (with amendments) was a conversation he had with ESPN after Jazz general manager Danny Ainge said that the team “really didn’t believe in each other.” Mitchell had recently been traded to the Cavs, but the quote went viral, so Mitchell responded,

“I don’t think we didn’t believe,” Mitchell told ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. “I said at the end of the season, don’t trade [Gobert]. Let’s figure this out, let’s do. And that didn’t happen.”

Bro said don’t trade Gobert. Bro said let’s figure this out. Bro basically said, let’s do it.

Instead, Ainge threw his weight around, read the room like all of JazzNation and saw the cracks and crumbles and decided to swing the hammer, big. Ainge has guts – we all know that. But it is striking that he was around the team for six months in a position of power, saw and felt the tensions the fans were nibbling on, and decided to demolish the building, and the foundation. As Mitchell continued, “For him to say that after six months around the team, I disagree. But you know, at the end of the day, that’s his decision.”

In any other setting, if a player of much social, cultural, and basketball stature had said something to the tune of ‘let’s give this another shot,’ that voice holds weight. If that player was as transcendent to the state and the game of basketball, it should take more than a voice, albeit a popular and experienced voice, that had been on the fringes for a hot minute to blow it up.

Here is more from Mitchell’s mouth in a conversation with JJ Reddick on The Old Man and the Three podcast, where Mitchell again reveals he (and others) talked with the front office about giving it another shot and making other adjustments, while also revealing he was with new coach Will Hardy talking about the upcoming season when they found out that Gobert had been traded.

If you want part two, click here. For part three, click here.