SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - OCTOBER 02: Jordan Clarkson #00 of the Utah Jazz speaks during the Utah Jazz Media Day at Zions Bank Basketball Campus on October 02, 2023 in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)
The Utah Jazz players had an eventful, and terrifying summer
Well, that’s certainly one way to spend your summer vacation, Jordan Clarkson.
The NBA has one of the shortest offseasons in all of pro sports, but unlike so many other sports, at least in North America, their offseason happens in the summer. That means parties, vacations, and traveling around the world with your loved ones. And that’s exactly what Utah Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson did.
He went on tour with his musician girlfriend Maggie Lindemann. Lindemann, most known for her 2016 single “Pretty Girl”, was touring Europe, and Clarkson went with her. With time off prior to the FIBA World Cup, it seemed like a relaxing way to spend some time.
That was…until it wasn’t. Clarkson told the media at the Jazz’s Media Day that while on tour with his girlfriend and her support staff, the group nearly died. At some point in their travels, the bus they were riding on crashed, and the bush dangled off the edge of the highway.
As Clarkson (via KSL.com) tells it,
I went on tour with my girl for like two weeks and we got in a tour bus crash. The driver, uh, sorry for the driver. I mean he got sick and like almost passed out and the bus swerved off the road on the highway. …Yeah, everybody was fine, but the bus was like sitting like this… (he said, using his hands to show how it was tilting.) I was at a random gas station. I think we were like in Germany and we stayed there, I want to say, like 14 hours waiting for a new driver.
Thankfully everyone was fine.
That said, Clarkson wasn’t the only Jazz player to have a tale to tell when they came back from break, with All-Star Lauri Markkanen spending his summer vacation serving in the Finnish military. All males in Finland have to serve at some point prior to the age of 30.
The usual length of time is six months, but Markkanen only did about four, leaving to play for the Finnish National team in the FIBA World Cup. So he’ll likely have to finish his service at some point.
Now is the time for someone to find another team in the NBA where two of their players had such unique and interesting off-season stories.
