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Today the Utah Jazz announced that they waived non-guaranteed contract holder, and energy player off the bench, Mike Harris. I think it's fair to say that we all appreciated his hustle, and he was invaluable early on in the season when 5 rotation players were injured. I guess the Jazz did not think they needed him anymore and the roster has now been cut down from 15 to 14 players.
Here are the tweets:
Jazz Waives Forward Mike Harris http://t.co/6IHQBg697G pic.twitter.com/N1iulPlV7A
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) January 7, 2014
I would like to extend my thanks to @TheRealMH33. Handled himself like a true professional on&off the court during his time here. Good luck
— Jonathan Rinehart (@jonrinehart) January 7, 2014
Chatted with Mike Harris before Jazz cut him. "I’m just excited while I’m here. I’m enjoying the moment, and whatever happens, happens."
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) January 7, 2014
Enes Kanter on waived Mike Harris: "It’s a business, but I see my teammate leaving like this, it’s tough. I'm just going to pray for him."
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) January 7, 2014
Kanter credited Mike Harris for bringing "a lot of energy" and for giving pointers when he went to bench, called him "good for our team."
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) January 7, 2014
Yup. Good guy, hard worker, just hard to stick in the NBA. The 30 year old forward has played all over, from Kyiv in the Ukraine, Al Qadsia in Kuwait, four times in China, twice in Puerto Rico, and done the NBA D-League dance four times as well. He had previous played for the Houston Rockets in the NBA.
With the Jazz this season he averaged 11.3 mpg (career NBA best), 4.2 ppg (career NBA best), 0.9 rpg, 0.3 apg (career NBA best), 0.8 spg (career NBA best), and 0.4 bpg (career NBA best). In his first five games this season he played 21:52, 12:28, 19:58, 15:34, and 18:17 minutes. He had a very good game against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first game of the regular season -- finishing with 13 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, and fouled out trying to guard Kevin Durant.
That's how I want to remember him, working hard despite limitations. The 6'6 forward was written about here before in a humorous way, but today let's just say thank you to this guy.
Mike Harris will return home, and I am sure be kept up nights with his newborn.