Utah Jazz alum Jordan Clarkson is officially an NBA Champion. After spending his last few years as a Jazzman in NBA purgatory, the team gave Clarkson the chance to put his services to good use, and it has all culminated in a title. He may not have won it in Utah, but even so, everyone should still be proud of him.
Clarkson was an awesome story in Utah because even though he had proven he could score before he joined the team, there were questions about whether those were effective numbers or empty calories. When it was all said and done, he had proven himself to be an asset, going so far as to win the league's Sixth Man of the Year award in 2021.
While it's a shame it didn't go much further than that, Clarkson has never had a bad word to say about Utah and has even gone out of his way to praise it after leaving the Jazz. That's what made it all the easier to root for him to get his ring.
It's also easier when Utah was going through a rebuild, and hence made rooting for any alumni to succeed all the more enjoyable. Since that won't be the case next year, it's nice to see an alum succeed before he or the others around the NBA become an obstacle for the Jazz's aspirations going forward.
He didn't have much to do with it, but still!
Clarkson didn't play the biggest role in the Knicks' title, but he impressively adjusted despite not quite being the player he once was when he was a Jazzman. Clarkson's MO has been his scoring abilities. He wasn't consistent, but opponents always took him seriously because when he got hot, he was hard to stop.
Because Landry Shamet, Deuce McBride, and Jose Alvarado all proved to be more dependable options, New York typically went with them over Clarkson, but he did what he could when he got his shot. In fact, he even had a productive game, though it was the one that they lost.
Clarkson's role diminished over the course of the Knicks' dominant title run, but even so, they were paying him pennies to be ready for when they called his name. There's no telling if the Knicks plan to bring him back with their other free agents weighing more heavily on their minds, but Clarkson at least got his ring.
It's cool to see Jazz alumni get a title before they hang it up. Now it's on the current Jazzmen to get a ring of their own.
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