Being able to start my career here but leaving and getting an opportunity elsewhere and just being able to contribute is what you want to do. – Ian Clark on his time with the Jazz
SALT LAKE CITY — Back in the summer of 2013 when he signed with the Utah Jazz, Ian Clark was expected to bring his deft shooting touch to a team in need of good shooters.
Clark had wowed the Jazz and other NBA teams in the Orlando and Las Vegas summer leagues, the latter in which he was named MVP. After receiving interest from several teams, Clark signed as a free agent with the Jazz on July 28, 2013, because of the “opportunity” to play in Utah.
The 6-foot-3, 175-pound guard had played for Belmont University in Tennessee where he became the school’s all-time leading scorer and a four-time all-conference performer. Besides being a 45.9 percent 3-point shooter, third-best in the nation, he was also his league’s defensive player of the year.
As it turned out, Clark was never more than an afterthought in two seasons with the Jazz as he played in just 23 games each year and spent time with the Idaho Stampede of the D-League.
But look where Clark is now.
Clark is part of what many are calling perhaps the best NBA team of all time, the Golden State Warriors. And he’s certainly not an afterthought for the Warriors, who take on the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals beginning Thursday night.
Clark is a key member of the Warriors' “second unit,” which usually starts the second and fourth quarters. After averaging 3.6 points his first year in Oakland and 6.8 points this year, Clark is averaging just under 15 minutes a game in 12 playoff games this year and is averaging 7.5 points per game on 52.4 percent shooting and 40 percent shooting from 3-point range.
So how did Clark go from an end-of-the-bench player for a poor (at the time) team to a key reserve for one of the best teams in history?
For Clark it comes back to the word “opportunity” that he used when he first signed with the Jazz. He has earned the opportunity to play important minutes for the Warriors, after being the 12th or 13th man during his time with the Jazz.
“It’s been a journey,” Clark said when the Warriors were in Salt Lake finishing off the Jazz in the second round of the playoffs. “Being able to start my career here but leaving and getting an opportunity elsewhere and just being able to contribute is what you want to do. Being a competitor, you want to be able to help your team win and be a factor and I’ve gotten the opportunity and I’m blessed to do that (with the Warriors).”
When he was waived by the Jazz on March 26, 2015, the news was worth only one line at the end of a Deseret News story and most local fans probably figured Clark’s NBA career was over, if they even noticed he was gone. Denver did pick him up and he played seven games for the Nuggets in the final month of the season.
The Warriors knew about Clark from that 2013 Las Vegas Summer League when he teamed with Draymond Green, and invited him to camp in the fall. Coach Steve Kerr was impressed with Clark, who grabbed the final spot on the roster when Ben Gordon was waived.
When Golden State visited the Jazz early that season, Clark came off the bench in the second quarter and hit four 3-pointers, something he’d never done in a game in his two seasons with the Jazz. And he did it in a mere six minutes of action. He ended up playing in 66 games that season, 20 more than he played in his two Jazz seasons combined. This year he nearly played in every regular-season game (77 of 82) along with every playoff game.
“To be able to get the opportunity to get the call last year to join this team was definitely great news for me,” Clark said. “Them coming off the championship and being able to be in position to win — everybody doesn’t get the same opportunity. You want to be able to take advantage of what you’re given and try to thrive in it.”
While you might think a guy who really was never given a chance by the Jazz would be a little bitter toward the franchise, Clark harbors no bad feelings.
“I’ll always be thankful for the time I was with the Jazz,” he said. “I made a lot of lifelong friends and everybody here is good people. I still talk to them to this day. They took a chance on me and I learned how to be a professional and I learned how to stay ready even when you don’t know when your number's going to be called. I learned a lot here.”