In January, Ryan Smith the new owner of the Utah Jazz pledged to offer a college scholarship for each regular-season Jazz win. The scholarships would be given to students from underrepresented groups. Following this pledge Utah went on to have the NBA’s best record in 2021 with 52 wins. So 55 wins (including preseason) means 55 students will be awarded a four year college scholarship.
On Wednesday, the Jazz released video of thirty scholarship recipients getting the news. However, the news was delivered by Jazz players in the video. Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Joe Ingles, Mike Conley, Royce O’Neale, Jordan Clarkson, Derrick Favors, and Georges Niang notified students of the life changing scholarship.
“The Utah Jazz are providing a full scholarship to a student from an underrepresented group,” host Nayo Campbell says in the video posted by the Jazz. “That’s four years of tuition, room, and board, books, fees, everything. And after selecting the first 30 scholarship recipients, we had a few special guests help us share that life-changing news.”
Many of the students had a hard time believing the news. Joe Ingles promised one student that accused him of lying saying “No, I promise you,” Ingles responded. “I would never lie to you.”
Meanwhile the Jazz still have 25 more scholarships to award to students, however, that number may go up with postseason wins.
This type of initiative is the first of its kind in the NBA, and is extremely generous. But the initiative is about much more. It is about driving change and helping underrepresented communities.
The opportunity also helped motivate Jazz players. Following the announcement Jazz owner Ryan Smith said about the players:
“They were asking, ‘Okay, we had a preseason win, does that count as one?’” Smith said. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, that counts. A win is a win. In reality, we’re just trying to drive change.”
Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson quote tweeted the video saying “makes the winning feel so much better ❤️❤️❤️ no cap haha 😂”.
The Jazz hope to add 16 more scholarships to that number with each postseason win counting. 16 wins would mean the Utah Jazz winning their first NBA title. The Jazz are set to take on the eight seed following the Play-in tournament.
