Australia’s Utah Jazz duo Dante Exum and Joe Ingles are facing disciplinary action for behaviour ahead of their recent game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
The offence?
Exum and Ingles didn’t wear their pink backpacks, featuring Disney’s Frozen characters Queen Elsa and Princess Anna, to the team’s Monday morning training session.
OK, it won’t book them a meeting with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, they won’t be fined or suspended by Jazz management and Exum’s mother Desiree and father Cecil won’t have to worry about their 19-year-old going off the rails.
But, there are consequences.
As NBA rookies their failure to adhere to the hazing rules set by the Jazz NBA veterans will lead to some punishment, including being the team’s flight attendants on the Jazz plane.
“Unfortunately, the Australian rooks didn’t bring theirs to shootaround this morning,” Jazz forward Gordon Hayward, referring to the backpacks, told Utah’s Deseret News.
“We might have a couple of extra servers on the plane ride home.”
Dealing out embarrassing tasks for players in their first year of the NBA is a tradition with teams.
Exum, fresh out of high school, came up with an excuse that would have served him well with his teachers in primary school.
“I didn’t have anything to put in the pack so I didn’t know I still had to bring it,” a laughing Exum explained.
“(Hayward) said there will be some repercussions, but he hasn’t talked any further than that.”
It’s an odd situation for 27-year-old Ingles, who has played the past five years in Europe and Israel and is a two-time Olympian with the Australian squad.
Only one other Jazz player is older than Ingles, 31-year-old forward Steve Novak.
Hayward is just 24-years-old.
“It’s all kind of a part of that new experience in this situation,” Ingles said.
“You’ve just got to enjoy it.
“There’s no point being embarrassed about it.
“It’s all in good fun.”
Build your own ultimate team! Pick your key players and take a shot at big cash prizes every day with Draftstars. For great odds on NBA games every day head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
Nikola Jokic has scored 32 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead defending NBA champions Denver past LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers…
There will undoubtedly be upset results here and there in the NBA playoffs but there’s an overwhelming sense of fait accompli that Boston will…
LeBron James is going back to the Olympics for the first time in 12 years. Steph Curry is headed to the games for the…
The only realistic threat to Boston’s chances of strolling through the Eastern Conference is a team that could still end up in the play-in…
Australian guards Dante Exum and Josh Giddey have both come up big for their NBA clubs in crucial wins in the lead-in to the…
Minnesota Timberwolves fans have endured plenty of pain in their 35 years of being a laughing stock in the NBA. In all that time,…
