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by Siri Huntington
A chance to play on an NBA court doesn’t happen every day, so when the boys basketball coaches were given the opportunity, they jumped at it.
At this summer’s basketball camp, coaches Cris Hoopes and Bill Pollock were approached by Grand’s coach asking if NS wanted to play Grand at Vivint arena, home of the Utah Jazz.
“We thought it would be a fun experience for the kids and so we worked it out and got it done,” said coach Cris Hoopes.
The players are excited to share the same court as the professionals.
“I’m just excited to play in the same facility that these NBA players [do],” said senior Devin Palmer. “It’s such a big arena and it’s going to be so fun to just play in a big area like that instead of a high school gym.”
What many people may not realize is that this game is not just going to be like a normal high school game. It will be like a regular NBA game with the announcers, lights and music magnified.
After the high school game, our players will get to be down around the court watching the Jazz players warm up. They might even get the chance to get autographs from some of the players.
“I think it would be cool to get Donovan Mitchell’s autograph,” said junior Dallon Steadman.
Because it is going to be such a big event at an NBA arena, some people may have thought tickets would be expensive and hard to get. However, it’s actually just the opposite because many of the Warriors’ players are now injured. Since this has happened, the Jazz game is not in such high demand.
“I think when Steph Curry got hurt it lost a lot of its awesomeness for some of the boys. They’ll still get to see a lot of the Jazz players, [like] Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert,” said Hoopes. “For me it’s about the experience for those guys, so if it was the Warriors or the Orlando Magic or whoever it was, I think it would be a good experience for them.”
At first the injuries hurt the Jazz ticket sales but then it improved our local sales because the tickets became a lot cheaper. Prices still vary on the tickets, depending on the seats chosen.
“So at first it was like nobody wanted to buy the tickets because they were so overpriced and then the prices all came down and then it got easier for people to go and so it helped,” said Hoopes.
It also helps a lot that the tickets can be valid for both the highschool and Jazz game or just the highschool game. The NS basketball team also had the added bonus of their tickets being provided by the Jazz.
In order to play at the Vivint Arena both the Grand and NS teams had to sell about $3000 worth of tickets.
“We haven’t really stressed about it. Grand sold more than $3000 and so they kind of bought into ours,” said Hoopes.
