CHARLOTTE — When Collin Sexton was on the Utah Jazz roster, he would compete daily to get to the gym before head coach Will Hardy, and they would call one another to gloat about their wins.
If Hardy got to the gym at 9 a.m. one day and called Sexton to say that he arrived first, Sexton would be at the gym the next day at 7 a.m. just to prove his commitment to winning.
“Collin is one of the most intense workers I’ve ever been around. Collin is one of the kindest human beings I’ve ever been around,” Hardy said.
“I think I told Collin in three years that we were together, probably 100 times, ‘I love you and you drive me insane.’ Both can be true. Infectious energy as a human being. There are a lot of good guys in the NBA. He’s one of the best.”
Sexton was also the loudest person on the bench and in huddles. He would pick guys up full court — even guard them until they were literally off of the court and in the tunnel. He had so much energy going into games that he needed to listen to meditative sounds just to calm down before tipoff.
“I just miss him. I love Collin, honestly,” Keyonte George said. “I was just telling him, ‘I miss you bro, your energy.’ Like, I remember my rookie year, I came back and shot at night, just getting ready for Summer League, and he was already there working out.
“Like, I just see the level of commitment that has to happen in order to be really good in this league.”
Energy, intensity and consistency are words that feel they were created solely to describe people like Sexton, but just six games into this NBA season, those same words are the ones that have been used to explain what the Jazz are lacking.
On Wednesday night Hardy was nearly pleading that his players show some semblance of consistency and care for the game by displaying some effort and competitiveness. On Friday night, Hardy called the Jazz’s effort against the Phoenix Suns pathetic.
Once again on Sunday, against Sexton’s new team, the Charlotte Hornets, the Jazz failed to maintain a level of energy that befits a team with so many young players. They were outworked every step of the way in a 23-point blowout loss to the Hornets, 126-103.
And the Jazz don’t have any excuse. They’re young and they’re only six games into the season, so they aren’t tired. The Jazz were without their rim protector, Walker Kessler, but the Hornets were without their leading scorer, LaMelo Ball, and the defense on the perimeter was what hurt the Jazz the most.
The Jazz showed on opening night that they can use their energy and speed and effort to win, but they have let it all fade away since then.
It’s not that Sexton was the only reason the Jazz ever played hard when he was on the team, but he provided an infectious energy that fueled the other players, and to this point, no one on the Jazz roster has taken on that mantle. Someone has to fill the void.
“When you when you watch Collin, he’s picking up full court, biting his tongue, whatever it is,” George said. “People see that, you see the bench is involved, coaches are involved, everybody’s clapping, cheering. Somebody has to fill that.”
George suggests that it needs to be him and Lauri Markkanen as leaders of the team that are the ones to empower the rest of the group, and he admits that when it comes to perimeter defense, he isn’t doing enough and has to do better, if for no other reason than to set an example for everyone else.
But, when it really comes down to it, that person can be anyone on the team.
“It doesn’t matter who it is,” George said. “Once somebody sets the tone, everybody else follows, so it don’t matter who it is, we just got to — we’ve got to just have the energy. Honestly, it’s just unexplainable...We’ve got to respect the game."
The Jazz are unlikely to have Kessler for the rest of this five-game road trip, as he returned to Salt Lake City after the Phoenix game to undergo further imaging and testing on his sore left shoulder. And, of the games on this trip, Sunday’s was the most winnable for the Jazz from a talent/competition perspective.
But even if the Jazz come home with an 0-5 record from this trip, they don’t want to come home having given the rest of the league more of a reason to doubt them and think that a game against the Jazz is an easy win.
“We’ve got to continue to find our identity,” George said. “When we come into town, or teams come into (Utah), what are teams saying about us? That reputation and that respect level, we’ve got to continue to hunt, we’ve got to scrap, we’ve got to play hard.
“Our whole team is young. There’s no reason Will should be constantly talking about our energy, our effort, our competitiveness...those three things are controllable. We’ve got to look in the mirror, honestly.”
The Jazz will turn around to play the second game of a back-to-back on Monday in Boston before traveling to face the Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves this week. They are now 2-4 on the season.