The hardwood court was missing, taken apart and temporarily set aside for an upcoming comedy show when Grayson Allen got his first glimpse of his new basketball home. The Utah Jazz rookie stood at the top of the darkened lower bowl at Vivint Smart Home Arena last week, gazing at the retired numbers hanging from the rafters and then scanning all of the empty seats below.
“I can’t wait to see it filled up,” he said. “That’s going to be when I really get my first taste of it.”
Allen did not imagine that taste would come so soon.
With 11,758 fans cheering him on, the first-round draft pick made his Utah Jazz Summer League debut Monday night.
“I was surprised a little bit,” Allen said. “That’s just incredible for Utah fans. A lot of the Summer League [games] I’ve watched, they haven’t been that full. The Utah fanbase is incredible.”
The rookie finished with 11 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in his first Utah Jazz Summer League action, but said he would not give himself a passing grade after a 4-of-16 shooting night.
“I’ll look at film and probably see some of the things that I actually did good,” he said. “But in my mind right now—going through footwork on defense; I could have made some shots; different reads on the ball; I missed a layup right at the rim, that’s still in my mind—so there’s a lot of stuff.”
The game was just the latest in a series of firsts for Allen during a whirlwind 11 days since being selected by the Jazz with the No. 21 pick in last month’s NBA Draft. After walking across the stage and shaking NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s hand at Barclays Center on June 21, the 22-year-old spent a few days back at home in Jacksonville, Florida. He and his parents, William and Sherry, then flew to Salt Lake on Wednesday for the rookie’s introductory press conference.
“It’s a very beautiful city,” Allen told reporters. “It’s my type of city. I feel like I’m going to really love living here.”
The four-year Duke University standout believes he’s the right type of player for this franchise’s fans, too.
“I don’t think it will take long,” he said when asked about winning over Jazz fans. “I think when fans see me night in and night out, and the love I have for the game, the passion I have for the game, and how much I want to represent the Utah Jazz, the team I play for, in a great way, and how much love I have for the team—I think it will happen right away.
“It’s a lot different watching a guy play night in and night out and give his all than it is seeing the same clips replayed for the last three years. So I think it will come quickly. Obviously, it’s something that has to be earned. Utah has great fans, they have very passionate fans. So it’s something that has to be earned. But I think when I go out there and play with that kind of competitive fire and passion and emotion that they’ll respect it.”
A day after his first press conference at the Zions Bank Basketball Campus, Allen got a chance to see firsthand how quickly Jazz fans had taken to him. A few hundred people lined up at Vivint Smart Home Arena to meet the new Jazz rookie. One man brought a drawing of Allen he had stayed up all night to finish. Another’s hands shook long after her favorite player had signed a jersey for her. And another wept when she thought she’d missed a chance to meet the newest Jazzman.
As her son signed autographs, Sherry Allen walked through the team store in the arena, looking at the rack of jerseys with Allen’s name and No. 24, and marveling at the support.
“We see that they just love him,” Sherry Allen said. “As a mom, that’s just a comforting feeling. These people love him and he’s being welcomed into Salt Lake City just like he would be welcomed into our hometown. That’s just beautiful.”
The firsts continued for Allen on Monday night. The rookie’s evening started around 5pm at Vivint Smart Home Arena, when he signed his first NBA contract and officially became a member of the Utah Jazz.
“It was definitely an exciting day,” he said. “It’s official now. It feels very real. Signing a contract is huge. It was awesome. I’m sitting there and I’ve seen pictures of guys signing their contracts my whole life. Now it’s like, ‘Dang, it’s me sitting there.’ It’s cool.”
A couple of hour later, Allen stepped onto the court to a raucous applause from the 11,000-plus fans who had come to see him make his Summer League debut. Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey said Allen “fits the program almost seamlessly” with his competitive nature, playmaking, athleticism and 3-point shooting. And the rookie showed flashes of all of that in his first minutes of NBA action.
“I thought he was aggressive,” Utah Jazz Summer League head coach Mike Wells said. “I liked the way he got into the paint and put pressure on the rim. He saw the floor, eyes out, and played the way we want him to play.”
Allen said he still has to get into game shape and adjust to the size and speed of the NBA game. Overall, though, the rookie said he felt comfortable on his new home court.
“The nerves were definitely there. The nerves, the anxiousness, the excitement,” Allen added.“But it felt good to get my first game out there, and it feels good to be playing in a Jazz uniform for sure.”