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Going one on one against Rodney Hood, and more Utah Jazz stories! The Downbeat #1646

Jazz player camps, and fantasy camps; WWE in the SLC, and the Jazz players who loved it; playing one-on-one against Rodney Hood; One Way NBA Players; and changes to come!

By AllThatAmar
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

While the rest of the NBA has nothing to do as only two teams are playing right now, and the coaches and front offices are busy worrying about the NBA Draft, what's a player to do? Well, clearly, hold basketball camps and give back to the communities of their youth.

Alec Burks is having one in his home state.

DeMarre Carroll has one going on:

And long-time vet Trevor Booker even had his catered!

Let's flip the script a bit . . . if you could sent one CURRENT Utah Jazz player to a historical camp led by a former Jazz player what would your dream scenario be? Alec Burks learning from Pistol Pete Maravich? Trey Burke learning how to be effective and undersized with Gail Goodrich? Dante Exum at the intensive 4 week Ronnie Price Try to Dunk everything camp? Jack Cooley learning to yell at his teammates to "get it" or "get that" from Carlos Boozer? Personally, I'd send Ante Tomic to Greg Ostertag 's American citizenship and civics class to learn about the USA and decide to live and work here.

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Last night there was WWE wrestling in Salt Lake City. No, the 1990s Jailblazers weren't in the audience, it was actually wrestling. I don't follow the sport by choice (I have no choice in the matter because many people I follow on twitter do, and on Sunday about 60% of my tweet deck columns are talking about it). But a lot of people still do. There were Eight matches -- and I'm just going to use info from this Wrestling Blog to give you the deets:

  • Match 1: Neville beat Heath Slater, is Neville in the Harry Potter books? I don't know. Does he have Wizard powers? I hope so. Is this awesome? Yes.
  • Match 2: R-Truth beat Stardust, apparently with a move called the "Lie Detector."
  • Match 3: This was a Twitter poll match between a bunch of ethnic stereotypes.
  • Match 4: Dean Ambrose beat Kane. "Finish came when Dean reversed a tombstone into a rebound lariat and Dirty Deeds." - Nick Paglino, Wrestle Zone 2015
  • Match 5 and 6: Women fighting one another, which I didn't know was a part of the WWE
  • Match 7: Sheamus beat Dolph Ziggler -- are these even real names?
  • Match 8: Roman Reigns beat Big Show in something called a "Salt Lake Street Fight." Which I guess is what you call it when 5,000 people show up to watch WWE in a 19,911 capacity arena.

So, why did I even bother with this in the downbeat? Because, apparently our Utah Jazz players went to this. No, not just Karl Malone (in Spirit).

I don't know how many guys from the team are a) in town, and b) went to the WWE show last night. But I guess it's a good thing. They are bonding. They're not getting into street fights themselves. And, probably no pillow forts were made in hotel rooms after. So I guess that's progress.

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I don't get enough chance to represent some of the amazing work coming from all the other parts of the internet, so here are a few of the cool things people have sent my way lately:

I love this, it has an old MTV feel to it. For the kids out there, MTV used to play Music Videos. Uh, a Music Video is something that used to come on TV. Oh, TV is that thing that we had before YouTube.

This is beyond awesome! Thanks Diana and ScottyG311!

This is fantastic, and a must click. Kenny seems to go out there and find himself in games against some pretty big names -- some you may remember as NBA starters like Kenny Anderson, Chucky Atkins, DeShawn Stevenson, and now most recently Rodney Hood!

You need to read his blog here for his amazing experience -- but check out this video to whet your appetite!

I can't believe how cool this all is, and all the best for the future Kenny. I hope you do get to play against Michael Jordan! Also, if you are keeping score at home, Rodney won all three one on one games. Hood has decided not to take this summer off, because he missed so much of his rookie year. He may just dominate Summer League as a result.

I'm excited.

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Oh, you wanted something of substance to read? Thatcher Olson breaks down the importance of having a two-way player -- and he goes from one extreme (Enes Kanter) all the way to the other (Tony Allen).

There is no questioning the brilliance and genius of Tony Allen. His defensive skills have been well documented. Throughout his career with Boston and Memphis, he has often received the toughest defensive assignments, guarding everyone from Kevin Durant, to most recently, Klay Thompson. He is a very versatile defender who takes great pride in his defensive skills and effort.

On the other end of the spectrum is Enes Kanter. He hasn't had as long or proven career as Tony Allen, but his prowess on the offensive end has been well documented. He is able to bully his way into the paint with a foray of paint moves. He's strong, and he has even extended his game out to the three-point line with some success.

- Thatcher Olson, The Sports Quotient, 2015

Check it all out here.

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You may have noticed that there were three Downbeats today. We were missing a few, and part of that is just because it's the summer and I'm doing a poor job managing this blog. This may be one of the last DB's I write because we are making some minor changes to the schedule -- all in the service of making this a better blog. I hope that you all can keep up with the amazing content you'll find in the future Downbeats starting this Monday!

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