Utah Jazz Summer League

One of the things I have missed about living in Utah is watching Utah Jazz games.  Yulia and I went to a few games together after we were married.  We enjoyed watching them on television when they played.  During graduate school I couldn't afford to have the NBA league pass that would have allowed me to watch games from Iowa.  I thought about getting League Pass last year, but since the games are 10-13 hours behind my time, they come right at the time that I am starting work.  I may get the pass so I can watch the games on delay this year.

Watching the game!

The Jazz re-started their summer league (the former Rocky Mountain Review) this year.  I bought tickets for the six of us plus my nephew Luke, who is a big basketball fan, to go to the first night of the summer league.  The tickets were very reasonable - about 8 dollars for lower bowl tickets for two games.

We left Payson at about 3:00 and picked up Luke in Springville.  We drove to Salt Lake and parked at the City Creek Mall.  We ate Chick-fil-A for dinner and then had to wait out a torrential downpour for a few minutes.  When it had mostly passed, we caught the TRAX train to the Energy Solutions Arena (The Old Delta Center) for the game.  We were part of the first 5000 fans so we each received a nice water bottle.  Our seats were good - about twenty rows up behind one of the baskets.  The arena is really nice with new big screens that made catching replays very nice.

The kids are really into the games!

We missed about 10 minutes of the first game - Boston vs. San Antonio, but were able to watch the rest of the game.  The kids had a lot of fun.  After the first game, Yulia took the kids and bought them Cotton Candy and Popcorn to eat - they were in heaven!  We were really excited to see the Jazz team.  We were able to see Dante Exum before he got hurt (and he later tore his ACL playing for Australia, so he'll be out for the season) and Rodney Hood.  The game was very exciting and the Jazz beat the Boston Celtics.

View form our seat.  Look at how nice the screens are.

First game; Spurs vs. Magic

So much cotton candy.  Such happy kids!

Sophie working hard at finishing her cotton candy.

The stadium filled up quite well for the Jazz game.

More action from Jazz vs. Celtics

More game action.

Halftime entertainment was the Jazz dunk team.  They go off trampolines and are quite impressive and fun.

Summersault dunk!

After the game we walked back to City Creek and drove home - we were home by about 11:00.  It was a very fun time.  The kids got to experience the excitement of the basketball game - they loved the Jazz Bear and were yelling at the other team.  During the first game they chose to cheer for Orlando over San Antonio so we could cheer against each other.  We had a great time.  It's something we would like to do again if we are in town during the Utah Jazz Summer League.