Jordan Clarkson hit a home run with the New York Knicks last season. Beyond winning a title with them, the Utah Jazz paid him over $10 million in dead money. He still earned eight figures from another team and won a title in the same year. Not many NBA players can boast about that, but Clarkson can.
This isn't a backhanded insult either. Clarkson and the Jazz needed a fresh start, and both were better off without each other. When this happened, no one was trying to win the breakup.
Anyway, Clarkson will still be remembered by the Jazz fanbase, especially for taking the rare double zero jersey numbers. Why did Clarkson take that number? Because of Greg Ostertag, apparently.
In an exclusive interview with The Athletic's James Edwards III, he revealed how Ostertag factored into that decision.
“When I got to Utah, I was trying to think of a number,” Clarkson told Edwards. “The only player I remembered as a kid who played for the Jazz (whose number wasn’t retired) was Greg Ostertag.
“So, when I got to New York, I kept it.”
Clarkson is 33, so it's very possible he was watching the Jazz when Ostertag made his brief return for them in the 2005-06 season. It's just funny that Ostertag, who was also a fan favorite for a time by Jazz fans, was who he thought of first, and not some of the other notable Jazzman from that era, like John Stockton, Karl Malone, or even Deron Williams.
Clarkson and Ostertag made their imprints with Utah
As Edwards points out in his article, Clarkson and Ostertag could not have been more different as players. Even so, they definitely left their own legacies as Jazzmen. Clarkson was a microwave scorer who made Utah tougher to stop when his shot was on. That wasn't all the time (if it was, Utah wouldn't have let him walk), but his gravity helped Utah's offense.
Ostertag was a rim protector who gave their frontcourt a lot more beef. In the mid-to-late 1990s, his presence factored into why Shaquille O'Neal and the Lakers simply couldn't get over the hump until the Jazz got too old.
For that reason, like Clarkson, Ostertag was beloved by fans even if his impact was limited. It's abundantly clear that the double-zero jersey number has gotten Utah some good luck over the years. That same luck helped Clarkson and the Knicks win their first title in five decades.
With any luck, the next Jazzman to wear 00 will continue the tradition of being an impactful fan favorite.
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