As the dawn of training camp approached, the Jazz were on a countdown, with the fate of Keyonte George looming over the front office. They had been down this road a year ago with Walker Kessler, and it didn't end well then.
This time, the Jazz didn't play hardball. They signed star guard Keyonte George to a historic five-year, $157.5 million extension to remain in Utah through the 2030-31 season.
And in doing so, he became the first Utah-drafted player to sign an extension during his rookie contract since Alec Burks in 2014, and the first cornerstone player drafted by the Jazz to do so since Deron Williams in 2008.
This is a historic moment, as the Jazz have not done a great job of retaining their own draft picks for over two decades now. And while many of the players they passed on extending didn't amount to much later on, it's a disturbing trend that needed to come to an end.
For those hollering about Rudy Gobert or Donovan Mitchell, here's some clarity: both did indeed sign extensions with Utah during their rookie-scale contracts. However, NEITHER player was initially drafted by the Jazz. Denver did us a solid by drafting both players and moving them to us in draft-night trades.
And the other Jazzmen who stuck around after their rookie deals? CJ Miles (2008), Gordon Hayward (2014), Dante Exum (2018) all hit restricted free agency and were pushed to get offer sheets before the Jazz were persuaded to match.
So Keyonte made history and in a good way. Now the fun begins.
Keyonte's deal is pivotal to Jazz moving forward
Like Deron Williams before him, Keyonte is on the verge of being an All-Star at point guard for the Utah Jazz, and locking him up is vital to showing that star players will be rewarded by the Jazz in the future.
With a loaded roster of young talent on rookie scale deals, it is vitally important that they see the Jazz are willing to pay to keep guys in the fold. While Ace Bailey and Darryn Peterson are a few years away from extensions, Brice Sensabaugh is upcoming, and Isaiah Collier and Kyle Filpowski aren't far behind.
Showing that the Jazz will pay and keep their best players will go a long ways to keeping talent in the coming years.
Rudy and Donovan were vital to the last Jazz era. Keyonte will be vital to this one, and let's hope he makes history in a good way from here on out.
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