{"id":34260,"date":"2025-07-03T03:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T03:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/34260\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T03:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T03:20:09","slug":"ace-bailey-enjoying-warm-welcome-from-jazz-fans-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/34260\/","title":{"rendered":"Ace Bailey enjoying warm welcome from Jazz fans \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ace Bailey<\/a> wasted no time getting into the gym.<\/p>\n

As soon as he got off the private jet that brought him to Utah on Saturday, the first stop was Zions Bank Basketball Campus, the Jazz practice facility, where he got up some shots and got the lay of the land.<\/p>\n

Then, a quick stop at the Apple Store to get a new phone. It didn\u2019t take long for the 2025 No. 5 overall pick<\/a> in the NBA draft to be recognized, and the fans were ready with their Salt Lake City recommendations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just felt the love soon as I walked through the door,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cI mean, \u2018Ace, you need somewhere to eat? Ace! Ace! I can help you!\u2019 It\u2019s just awesome that I\u2019ve got that type of fanbase at the Utah Jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday the players were formally introduced at a press conference<\/a> and on Monday they had their first Summer League practice. Tuesday the incoming rookies helped out at a basketball clinic at the Boys and Girls Club<\/a> in Murray and on Wednesday it was right back to practice.<\/p>\n

Despite having only been in town for a couple of days and only just been drafted by the Jazz last week, Bailey said he was shocked at how much the kids were excited to see him at the Boys and Girls Club.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I opened the door they were chanting, \u2018We want Ace! We want Ace!\u2019 I just loved it,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cThat was fun … From them just asking me how tall I am … and they just want a picture and an autograph. It\u2019s just a blessing to be in that position.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s not a lot of down time with the Jazz\u2019s first Summer League game right around the corner. Bailey, Walter Clayton Jr.<\/a>, John Tonje<\/a> and the rest of the Jazz\u2019s summer squad are all trying to get acclimated to the altitude and learn as much about the Jazz system as possible before games tip off on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be able to teach a whole lot in four days in terms of schemes and systems,\u201d Salt Lake City Summer League coach Scott Morrison said. \u201cBut we can set the bar for the ball pressure we want to have, the type of pace we want to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also in the gym helping the rookies get up to speed were Keyonte George<\/a> and Isaiah Collier<\/a>. Though still young players on the roster, they at least have institutional knowledge that can be helpful to the rookies.<\/p>\n

Bailey and Collier actually played against one another while in high school and knew each other before becoming Jazz teammates. And, Bailey has another familiar face in the building. Omar Cooper Jr., the son of Bailey\u2019s longtime manager Omar Cooper<\/a>, is a guest coach for the Jazz\u2019s Summer League team.<\/p>\n

The younger Cooper, who has known and worked out with Bailey for years, recently finished his playing career at McNeese State University. Looking to get into coaching \u2014 whether as a grad assistant at McNeese, or elsewhere \u2014 Cooper took the Jazz up on an invitation to observe and help out this summer.<\/p>\n

\"\"Children scream after getting a glimpse of the Jazz Bear before his entrance into a basketball clinic at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Salt Lake in Murray on Tuesday, July 1, 2025. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ace Bailey wasted no time getting into the gym. As soon as he got off the private jet…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1260,1680,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-34260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-news-feed-local","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114787151049060244","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}