The Utah Jazz have sent Kelly Olynyk and Ochai Agbaji to the Toronto Raptors in a trade deadline move that saw the team get back Kira Lewis, Otto Porter, and a 2024 first-round pick. The pick will be the least favorable of the first-round picks that the Jazz, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Houston Rockets all own.
Does that make sense? No, but is it where the NBA is currently, yes. What else doesn't make sense is trading away Olynyk and Agbaji for a potential draft pick in the late 20s, where the odds of finding a good bench player, let alone a starter, are low. It makes no sense to horde bad picks in exchange for good talents.
But again, it's where we are. The prospect of potential seems to outweigh the reality of talent. But Olynyk didn't depart the Jazz fandom without giving them one last gift. At some point during the season, the players took very toned-down photos that were either done to highlight their off-court personalities or were a part of some 1990s throwback catalog; we're not sure which.
And when Olynyk sat down to take him, he must have just finished eating some ribs, because he went full ham. Decked out in the one shirt that every kid tried to wear on Photo Day in elementary school and a baseball cap we can only assume is older than he is, Olynyk sat for one of the most 1990s photos we've ever seen, over 20-odd years later.
it's a treasure that we will never let go of and we'll thank him endlessly for giving us this memedom-worthy photo. Agbaji didn't let himself off the hook much either, as he looked like a character out of a 1990s sitcom with his striped button-up and understated necklace.
Fontecchio for his credit just looks like he's trying to sell CDs at a local coffee house in 2004 and thinks James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" is the deepest song he's ever heard.
We're not sure when and why these photos were taken but they are delightfully memeworthy. Jokes aside, we are going to miss all three men, as they all played key roles in the Jazz being as good as they are this year. We'll have to wait and see if the players that are asked to step up in their sted can provide what they did, but we're hopeful they can.