SALT LAKE CITY — Since the Utah Jazz’s first-round playoff exit to the Houston Rockets in April, Joe Ingles quietly returned to Australia where he’s been minding his business.
As his wife, Renae, pursues her netball career with the Melbourne Vixens, the roles have swapped with Joe at home looking after their twins, Jacob and Milla, while she does her thing in the professional ranks.
Monday, Ingles returned to Utah, wearing his customary low-top Chuck Taylors and black baseball cap, to check out the first day of the Salt Lake City Summer League at Vivint Arena.
Despite overseas reports of a possible finger surgery, the Jazz sharpshooter had no issues clearing up those rumors to the Deseret News. Ingles currently holds the NBA iron man streak at 304 consecutive games played as he prepares to play with the Australian national team at the FIBA World Cup in China this summer.
Ingles also shared his thoughts on Utah’s offseason acquisitions and how it’ll benefit them moving forward.
Deseret News: You’ve got a big summer ahead of you. I know you’ve been back in Australia with the family, but how has your offseason been so far?
Joe Ingles: Busy in terms of off-court busy. Obviously, just with the kids and (wife) Renae’s playing her (netball) season so we’ve kind of swapped roles. I’m the stay-at-home dad and I love it because I know how much she sacrifices to let me perform and play and be away and do all that so it’s nice to be able to do the same thing for her. Her season isn’t as long but I’m definitely not comparing myself to the amount she does and the effort, so the kids are doing great. Jacob’s therapy is going well and Milla’s in a school herself, which is awesome and a bit of independence for her. And Renae is killing it, so it’s been good and a few workouts here and there.
DN: So, that’s where you’ve been mainly, in Australia with basketball kind of on the backburner?
JI: Only Australia … yeah. My vacation is this (at the Salt Lake City Summer League). I’m with the kids and being there for Renae and what she needs. Just getting to watch her play and enjoy being on that side of it to sit up in the stands and watch her play. For me, it’s something that’s really rewarding.
DN: It seemed like last season you were in a completely different role with starting all year and learning how to adapt to teams coming for you. Although you’re seasoned in your career, what did you learn and what do you feel you need to work on this offseason?
JI: Every year for me has been something different … different styles, different defense on me and stuff like that, so I’ve kind of learned some stuff each year. I think this year was the biggest for me with them forcing me right and adjusting to that. Obviously, the playoffs is kind of where it most came out and even for me after that you realize it yourself and that’s where you’re like, ‘Oh, this is going to be a thing now because it’s so obvious.’ So, going right, finishing right and being able to make plays going right is something that I’ll be working on. I think I’ve been lucky, too, to be out there with Coach (Quin Snyder) and Rudy (Gobert) and these guys because they’re pretty good at getting me back left, which has been a blessing in disguise, because they’ve been so good at the adjustments of all positions they put me in to do it so that’s the key. I think even now with the new adjustments in the way we play, I think we always try and play fast but I think even now, we’re probably looking to play even faster and get up and down. And that’s without even speaking to coach or anyone so I’m just staying fit. It’s been good.
DN: So, it was the BS rumor that came out recently overseas about you possibly needing surgery for an injured finger, which you weren’t afraid to call me out about for also reporting, which I respect …
JI: It was a terrible rumor (laughs).
DN: (Laughs) But how did that even get started? Was it a jammed finger or something?
JI: It’s funny because I don’t even know how that came out and that reporter is an Australian football and cricket reporter, so I don’t know how. I didn’t tell anyone. No one knew except my agent and obviously the Jazz, but the only thing I can think of is the place I had an MRI and stuff to get it checked out. I don’t know if someone saw me or he saw me there and just assumed something but obviously with anything these days you get it checked out. I did that and then obviously the next thing was just to send it to the Jazz and speak to them, so it got blown out of proportion.
DN: So, it was nothing serious at all, right? And it wasn’t related to your finger injury you suffered earlier in the year either, right?
JI: Completely different hand, different finger. With basketball, as in any sport, you jam fingers, you do all this stuff and you just get them checked out, especially with it being summer you don’t want to be doing anything silly, so you’ve got time to recover. If something was bad, I’ve got time to recover and obviously with the World Cup coming up it was a quick fix and have a look at it and coincidentally I was coming here (to Utah) anyway so it’s worked out well. I’ll go see the hand guy just to see his opinion and I’ll obviously protect it. It was just a bad jam so I will protect it, but I don’t know how that leaked.
DN: The final thing, there’s been a lot of acquisitions for the Jazz this offseason. There’s a totally different roster almost, but how do you see this season going for you guys? What’s your thoughts on the changes and losing some of the other guys in the process?
JI: For me, it’s tough to see the other guys go because all those guys have played big parts in where we are today. (Derrick) Favors put in eight years here and probably goes up there with some of the most underappreciated guys around. Me, personally, playing with him and everyone knew the connection we had so I’ll miss playing with all those guys. Ricky (Rubio) obviously and Raul (Neto) … I could go on probably five minutes about each of them but on the flip side, I’m excited to get the new guys and kind of see what we can do. It’s hard to kind of predict that because we’ve still got spots to fill and it’s exciting. Every time you get someone, like you trade for Jae (Crowder) during the season and you do different things every year and it’s always like a breath of fresh air. You get some new life in the locker room and it’ll be like that again this offseason when everyone gets here. I’m excited to play with some of those guys. I loved Ed (Davis), he was kind one of those almost annoying guys where you’re like, ‘stop rebounding’ and (Bojan) Bogdanovic is an unbelievable player. I think he killed us both times we played them and probably me, too. It was probably me who got him here (laughs) and then Mike (Conley) and all the guys we got. It’s going to be exciting.