Rudy Gobert might protect the rim, but who protects him and the rest of the Jazz?


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SALT LAKE CITY — On a September afternoon in Shanghai, Donovan Mitchell couldn’t contain his excitement.

It wasn’t due to the United States’ FIBA World Cup game that evening — it was because a fan had just asked for a photo. And this was no normal picture request.

Ever since Mitchell entered the NBA two years ago, Steve Smith, the vice president of team security for the Utah Jazz, has served as the buffer between him and the fans. Smith has to be the bad guy; telling the supporters that Mitchell can no longer pose for a photo or sign an autograph and that it’s time for him to move on.

But on that day in China, Smith was the celebrity. A woman had wrongly assumed that he was a player on the team and had asked if he’d be willing to take a picture with her.

“He (Mitchell) hears it and he's so excited,” Smith said. “And he jumps up he goes, 'Yes, you are taking it! You are taking it!' I think ‘OK, if I take this photo, she'll go away, it'll make my life easier.' I take a quick photo. Well, I don't realize that he's behind me filming.”

A few hours later, Mitchell had posted the encounter on Instagram for his 2.6 million followers to enjoy. And soon, Smith was receiving text messages all about his new-found internet fame.

“I thought it was pretty funny,” Mitchell said. “I made sure that I captured the moment.”

It was a rare moment in the spotlight for Smith, who partners with Samu Sitake to make up the Jazz security team. The two are always there, standing in the entry tunnels at games, lurking in the background as fans take selfies with players like star center Rudy Gobert, or running out to break up on-court altercations. They are there — they just aren’t often noticed.

“There's a term we use: it’s being gray,” Smith said. “You're going to see us in the background of photos and nobody's looking at us.”

Last January in a game against the Denver Nuggets, Derrick Favors got into a shoving match with Miles Plumlee that led to both players being ejected. You saw Favors and Plumlee fighting, but you probably didn’t see Smith take an elbow from Plumlee as he cocked his fist back and you probably didn’t see him quickly recover and drag Favors away.

“The coaching staff is pretty good at cracking jokes,” Smith said laughing. “PR team is pretty good at it as well. If you get out there a little bit too slow, you'll hear about it in a couple of weeks.”

Being in the background suits the two men just fine. And you could even say they have grown used to it by virtue of their names alone. Both played football at the University of Utah but Sitake wasn’t the best known Sitake there and Smith wasn’t the best known Steve Smith.

Sitake walked on at Utah in 2011 after playing at Snow College to be with his relative Kalani Sitake, who was then the Utes defensive coordinator. While Smith transferred to Utah immediately after another Steve Smith had just left Utah for what ended up being a pretty successful NFL career (no, the all-pro receiver is not working for Jazz security).

Steve Smith and Same Sitake stand outside the Jazz locker room following Utah's preseason win over Adelaide on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019. (Ryan Miller, KSL)
Steve Smith and Same Sitake stand outside the Jazz locker room following Utah's preseason win over Adelaide on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019. (Ryan Miller, KSL)

For Smith, the confusion got to a point that he practically ended up changing his name during his college days — even if it was by accident. It all started when he was with a group of players and someone asked him for his name. His response: Vic Smith.

“I was like, ‘I'm changing it, I'm changing it right now,’” Smith remembers. “It was a joke; completely a joke. I was only going to do it with that one person.”

Try and find a Steve Smith that played for the Utes from 2001-2003. You can’t. But a Vic Smith? He’s there.

His teammates started calling him Vic as a joke, then the coaches followed suit and soon enough that name was appearing in media guides and everywhere else, too.

“I had to call my mom and tell her sorry,” Smith said. “It really hit really hard when I got my jersey and instead of saying ‘S. Smith’ on the back, they put ‘V. Smith.’”

Vic Smith headshot in the 2003 Utah Media Guide (Utah athletic)
Vic Smith headshot in the 2003 Utah Media Guide (Utah athletic)

Both Smith and Sitake didn’t experience football glory during their days as Utes. After his first season at Utah, Sitake opted to solely focus on school.

“I decided football wasn't for me,” Sitake said.

Smith, meanwhile, tore his patella tendon, an injury that essentially ended his career. He ran down the field a few times on kickoffs, but that was it. Without that injury, though, he would have been a part of the 2004 Fiesta Bowl team.

He was reminded of that fact a few weeks ago when that team was reunited for a Hall of Fame celebration. It was Sitake that gave him some perspective: “Imagine if all the things like you transferring from Oregon to Utah or your injury didn't happen, you wouldn't have this job here,” Sitake told him.

“So let's say I played that extra year. What would have changed in my life where I don't come full circle to even being in this room?” Smith said.

He’s glad he doesn’t know.

Smith started off working for the then-Larry H. Miller Motorsports Park where his still-used nickname of Cobra was born (Steve Smith apparently didn’t sound “tough enough” — he’s really had a hard time getting to use his actual name in Utah). He then transitioned to Vivint Arena before becoming one of the first-ever Jazz team security members.

As for Sitake, he’s on his third stint with the Larry H. Miller group. He’s worked for Apple and Tesla in between stops with the company and returned to the Jazz full-time a few months ago. So it’s no surprise that when the topic of potentially going and doing security for his family members down at BYU came up, Smith pleaded, “He already left twice, don’t try to get him to leave again.”

Steve Smith and Samu Sitake pose for a photo at the Jazz's practice facility. (Ryan Miller, KSL)
Steve Smith and Samu Sitake pose for a photo at the Jazz's practice facility. (Ryan Miller, KSL)

In July, the parking lot northeast of Vivint Arena was turned into a blacktop basketball playground. Court after court was drawn onto the asphalt and around 1,000 players came out for the SLC Summer League 3x3 tournament.

During the event, Sitake and Smith got a call informing them that some of the Jazz players were on their way over to watch. The already busy scene was about to become a chaotic one.

Usually, the pair do an advance of a location. They figure out parking, the safety hazards, the first aid situation, how to get the players in and out, etc. They knew none of that as they ran over and on the fly tried to control a very excited crowd.

“Once they got out of their cars, everyone left their games and were following us around,” Sitake said. “Some of the refs were getting upset at some of the players because all the people were just getting in the middle of the courts.”

“It was kind of funny to see everybody just stop thinking,” Smith said. “Like the referees are looking and are like, ‘Are you guys just not going to play your game?’ They just dropped the ball and just left their games.”

The mindlessness that sometimes comes when a person sees or meets one of the players is the reason Smith and Sitake are there.

In late September most of the Jazz team went to the Real Salt Lake vs. LA Galaxy match together. Even in a large crowd, a dozen professional basketball players stick out. People started snapping picture after picture and as those started to make the rounds on social media, a crowd started to form.

“At some point, it's only two of us and there were 12 players there and we could no longer control the crowd,” Smith said. “We don't want anybody to get hurt. We don’t want little kids that are down below to get trampled by people who have no idea there's a little kid right there.”

Sami Sitake watches the action during the Jazz Meet the Team event on Friday, Oct. 4, 2019.
Sami Sitake watches the action during the Jazz Meet the Team event on Friday, Oct. 4, 2019.

The two might not be famous like the players they follow around, but they do get to be known by what they do — or at least who they are often with. There have been multiple occasions when Smith has gone somewhere with his daughter only to be asked, “Oh my gosh, who's coming?” No one is. It’s just him and his family.

It’s a career that makes it hard to live a normal life. It demands travel, it demands to be on-call at nearly all times, it demands strange hours and late nights. Sitake has two little toddlers and a wife; Smith has an 11-year old daughter. That can make things difficult. But, to them, it’s worth it.

“I love it,” Sitake said. “If I love my job, I don't consider it a job. It's just something that I do and I love every day.”

And Smith and Sitake don’t want to think of it as a sacrifice because they don’t want the players to see it that way. That might make them hesitant to call if they need help.

“I don't want that to enter their mind because that shouldn't,” Smith said. “Our job is to figure out a way to make it so they're safe. They should think of us as a tool, as a basketball almost, like when they need to pick it up and use it, it's there for them to use. They shouldn't have to think about what it took to make that happen.”

It’s a balancing act when it comes to the relationship with the team. Smith and Sitake are with the players more than most. They are at off-court events, at games, at practices, on planes, so the relationship needs to be cordial, personal even, but Smith said he wouldn’t ever want to consider it a friendship.

In his years of being around the team, Smith seems to have found the perfect balance.

“Obviously, his job is to do security, but having someone you can talk to and be personable with, that’s what’s huge,” Mitchell said. “He builds a relationship of trust, where you can understand that this is someone that I can trust and trust your life with really. Trust that you can go places and be able to control the environment — that’s something I really appreciate.”

“He looks out for us,” Royce O’Neale said. “You can joke around with him, but he’s always serious. He’s a great guy.”

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