CLEVELAND — On Monday night at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, Dante Exum was just another player on the opposing team.
“As of today he’s the enemy,” Joe Ingles said of his former teammate and fellow Aussie.
But, on Sunday night, Exum was a friend.
After arriving in Cleveland on the day before the Utah Jazz’s game against the Cavaliers, Ingles, Exum, and Rudy Gobert went to a steakhouse and broke bread.
“I already saw him so I’m over it now,” Ingles said jokingly. “But yeah, I went and ate with him last night just to catch up. Obviously we were teammates for five and half, six years, and with the [Australian] national team so yeah, good to see him.”
For those few hours in the Buckeye State, now long-distance friends sat at a Morton’s steakhouse and talked about what had been going on in their lives, on and off the court.
“Just to catch up with them and everything that I missed, just to go through everything and see how they’re doing,” Exum said. “It felt like I’d been away from the team forever — it’s only been two or three months. But yeah, just good to catch up.”
It’s not every player in the NBA that is able to maintain the bonds formed with their former teammates. Obviously Ingles and Exum’s national ties help in some regard, but Exum’s personality made him a guy that players were drawn to.
For Gobert, coming into the league just a year before Exum, he felt like he grew up in the NBA alongside Exum, and despite their differing roles on the team, they grew close.
“It felt like I’d been away from the team forever — it’s only been two or three months. But yeah, just good to catch up.” — Dante Exum
“It’s the NBA, we know it’s a business. You can be friends with someone and the next day they can be traded, that’s kind of part of it,” Gobert said. “For Dante, I was in my second year when got drafted so we kind of grew together as a team and as players. It’s different, it’s more than just come and go, we spent five years together, so it’s different.”
Exum’s story of course is headlined by the injuries that have plagued his career, with one after another forcing him to miss the majority of his time in the league. That, paired with the Jazz’s desire to win and move forward as Exum languished at the end of the Jazz rotation led to the mid-season trade that sent him to Cleveland in exchange for Jordan Clarkson.
“He needed to play and that obviously wasn’t really the case here with how deep we were I guess at the time and he’s had some really good games since he’s been here,” Ingles said. “Obviously his health is something that he kind of needs to stay on top of, some of the injuries have been freak things out of his control.”
On Feb. 24, Exum suffered yet another injury, getting tangled in a fight for a rebound against the Miami Heat. That resulted in a significant left ankle sprain.
Before his most recent injury Exum had finally started to see regular time on the court, scoring 28 points in his sixth game with Cleveland, and gaining an increased role following the All-Star break under Cavaliers interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
The Cavaliers, the Eastern Conference’s bottom dwelling team, are obviously not going to be a team that will see the postseason, but the collection of young players has been a place where Exum can get what he was not getting in Utah — minutes.
“It’s been a bit of an adjustment,” Exum said of getting use to a new system and a new team. “Now it’s just getting on the floor — obviously that’s one of the biggest things I’ve wanted to do. And, obviously just try to stay healthy as much as possible.”
Even from afar, the Jazz have been glad for Exum to have a fresh start and continue to monitor his career and keep with his progress as much as they can throughout the season and wish him well through his struggles.
“Obviously he’s a guy that we follow and anytime you have a player that was as invested as Dante was ... you always want to see him have success and do well,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “I’m pulling for him, for things to go his way.”
In order for things to go Exum’s way, health will be the biggest factor moving forward as it has been the entirety of his career. The good thing is that when he is healthy it seems that he is in an environment where he will get as many opportunities to prove his mettle when he is able to hit the floor again.
This summer, Ingles is hopeful that Exum will be healthy and able to participate in the Australian national team play, as a friend and once again as a teammate.