Warrior Jerebko aims to rock the Jazz once more
STOCKHOLM: Jonas Jerebko’s move to NBA title favorites the Golden State Warriors is paying off handsomely for the Swedish power forward who suffered the indignity of being cut by the Utah Jazz.
The 31- year- old capped his revenge by rocking the Jazz with a late basket to give the Warriors a memorable 124-123 victory on his return to Salt Lake City on Oct. 19, celebrating wildly in front of the Utah bench for good measure.
“I know that I have a lot to give, I want to play and I can play,” he told Reuters in an interview.
Since then Jerebko, who played for the Detroit Pistons ( 2009-15) before joining the Boston Celtics ( 2015-17), has not looked back, posting his best averages for scoring (7.6 points per game) and minutes played ( 20.7) for several years.
Jerebko had just finished a workout on the full-size basketball court at his Detroit home last July when the call came to tell him that he was no longer in Utah coach Quin Snyder’s plans, but things moved quickly.
“I promise you it was like two hours, maybe one hour, before my agent called and said that Golden State were interested, so I didn’t even have the time to worry,” he said.
“I asked i f I could talk to ( Warriors) coach ( Steve) Kerr, and I got to talk to him soon after, so I barely had time to be worried about my situation.”
Jerebko was limited to six minutes against Oklahoma City on the opening night of the season, but in the following game against Utah Kerr threw him into the fray for 24 minutes and he scored 10 points, including the game - winning basket . — Reuters