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SALT LAKE CITY — Donovan Mitchell needed help. He turned to a few of his 18,300 closest friends.
The Utah Jazz were hanging onto a 6-point lead with 1:14 to go against the Denver Nuggets Wednesday and Denver’s Will Barton was set to inbound the ball. It was a critical possession and Mitchell knew it.
So he told the fans surrounding Barton to give him hell.
“I had asked them to yell in his ears,” Mitchell said. “That’s what I kept saying, ‘Just yell at him.’ It distracts you. I told them to kind of act like the Duke crowd.”
Duke has its famed Cameron Crazies. That group may as well have been called Mitchell’s Mads or Donovan’s Dotties — they deserve a nickname for how they took Mitchell’s challenge.
They screamed and they hollered at Barton. And then they cheered and celebrated after he failed to get the ball in, resulting in a five-second violation. Mitchell fist pumped and then gave the fan who was directly behind Barton an excited high-five.
“They were really after it,” Mitchell said. “That’s why I gave him a high-five — because he was in his ear from the beginning. I appreciate the crowd’s aggressiveness.”
It was just the latest example of the connection between the Jazz and the crowd that fills Vivint Arena. The fans aren’t just passive spectators, they are active participants in the action.
“There is a connectivity,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “Sometimes as a fan, you are observing more. I feel our fans are participating and living through it with us. Which if you aren't playing good, it’s hard for them, too. Everyone feels pain.”
📹| "I said, 'Just yell in his ears,' ... that's why I gave him a high-five, 'cause he was in his ear from the beginning." pic.twitter.com/q6nKkflNJ0
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) January 24, 2019
But they also feel the happiness with each made shot and the joy of each victory. They aren’t just watching, they are on the ride with the Jazz — each and every game.
“The best thing about it is every night it’s the same crowd, it’s the same energy,” Mitchell said. “Whether we are playing the worst team, the best team, a TV game, non-TV game — it’s the same crowd. I think that's something a lot of teams don’t get and you get that here. We understand they are a big intricate part in our games.”
There has been some controversy through the years involving the Jazz crowd, too. Just last month Kevin Durant blew a kiss to a fan and then called them an unprintable word. And during last season’s playoffs, Russell Westbrook called the Jazz fans “disrespectful” and “vulgar.”
And during Wednesday's Jazz win over the Nuggets, Denver-based Altitude TV reporter Voc Lombardi tweeted, "If you think the Philly, Boston of New York crowds are nasty, go watch an NBA game in Utah. Relentless. Ask anybody."
But not all opposing players have bad memories of playing in Salt Lake City. During his final season in 2016, Kobe Bryant said he enjoyed going back and forth with the Utah crowd.
“They were really, really tough on me, more so than the other crowds,” Bryant said during his final press conference in Utah. “They were tough from signs, from shooting the free throw to literally just yelling right in my ear when I’m taking the ball out.
"It pissed me off so much. It was like ’08 in the playoffs where I just kind of erupted after the play and started talking back to the crowd because they just kept driving me (nuts). So, that being said, it’s fond memories.”
Maybe one day Barton will look back and fondly remember the Jazz fans hollering in his ear, helping to force the key late turnover. But even if he doesn’t, Mitchell and the Jazz sure will.
“To have a team that is supported on that level and in that way is a pretty special deal for our guys and it’s something you just don’t — I have been doing this for a while — you just don’t see that everywhere,” Snyder said. “You can feel it. It makes coming to work fun.”
