MOUNT VERNON, Texas — Greg Ostertag has two camels on his farm in East Texas. Norman and Harold have plenty of company on the 47-acre property that the 7-foot-2 retired NBA center owns, including five horses, six chickens, five peacocks, four turkeys and two emus.
“A circus is what it is,” Ostertag said.
Ostertag finds serenity here. He spends many Sunday mornings in what he calls his “happy place.” His farm is an escape — and also where he sometimes speaks to constituents.
In early May, Ostertag shot a video on his property thanking voters in Mount Vernon, Texas — a tiny town in the eastern part of the state Ostertag has called home for the last 11 years — for electing him mayor. Ostertag defeated the incumbent, Brad Hyman, by a vote of 245-210. Ostertag’s win meant his camels got to dine on a sugary breakfast. Ostertag fed Norman a blueberry cake donut, then walked back to the bed of his pickup truck and retrieved a chocolate-glazed donut, which he popped into Harold’s mouth.
“A lot of big things coming,” Ostertag told his constituency. “Changes. To do what we can to make Mount Vernon better.”
Ostertag, the former Utah Jazz big man who also played a season with the Sacramento Kings, settled in the place that calls itself “a Texas treasure” with his second wife, Shannon, and their now-13-year-old daughter in 2015. Ostertag had dreamt of owning a farm since college. He chose East Texas and its pine trees over dry and dusty West Texas. Ostertag spends his days substitute teaching, his nights refereeing youth basketball games and the time in between with his animals. He also owns a sports bar, Tag’s Hometown Bar & Grill, located in the town square.
The thought of entering local politics never crossed Ostertag’s mind — until Mount Vernon residents began telling him he’d make a good mayor.
“I don’t like politics. I hate politicians. They’re vile. I don’t see it that way for me. I’m just here to try to do the things people ask,” Ostertag said. The municipal position is nonpartisan, and Ostertag has not publicly given a party affiliation.
“This town has come a long way in 10 years. When I first moved here, it was dead. Paint falling off the buildings. You could park on the town square 24/7, 365 days a year with no problem. Now on Fridays and Saturdays, you’d be hard-pressed to find a spot.”
Ostertag has helped make Mount Vernon more vibrant and wants to ensure it doesn’t backslide. That’s why a former NBA player who made $48 million in career earnings has agreed to become the mayor — an unpaid position — for the next two years.
“I have a lot of people who are asking to get code enforcement done,” Ostertag said. “Get people to mow their yards. Get junk out of the front of their yards, whether it be a car, a trailer, a motorcycle. There are some things we have to work on there.”
On May 11, Ostertag was officially sworn in as Mount Vernon’s mayor. He wore a short-sleeved, black polo T-shirt with the name of his restaurant stitched across the front during the proceedings.
“I will never wear a suit,” Ostertag assured voters in a Facebook post that night.
During his campaign, Ostertag told Mount Vernon’s residents that he’d be more communicative with them than his predecessor. He also pledged to be more supportive of small business owners. Food truck vendors there are required to pay a $400 annual fee, which Ostertag wants to eliminate. Additionally, Ostertag wants local farmers to be able to sell wherever they’d like without owing any upfront costs to the city.
“We had some really great momentum,” Shannon said. “Then, the past couple of years, things kind of stalled a little bit in terms of things that make Mount Vernon great. The small-town events. The things on the square. Farmer’s markets.”
Former NBA center Greg Ostertag, in addition to being the new mayor of Mount Vernon, Texas, referees youth basketball games, works as a substitute teacher and owns a sports bar. (Jesse Bruner / Special to The Capital-Journal / USA Today via Imagn Images)
The goal is to make Mount Vernon as event-friendly as possible for its residents and the visiting Dallas-area crowd. Ostertag grew up in Duncanville, a Texas high school sports powerhouse a short drive south of Dallas’ urban core.
The Duncanville varsity boys basketball program has won six state championships in the state’s largest classification. Ostertag was the star player on the Panthers’ first title team in 1991.
That year, the Panthers had three rules.
“Rule one was to throw the ball to Greg,” said Sam Lowe, one of Duncanville’s guards. “Rule two was to remember to throw the ball to Greg. Rule three was if you don’t throw the ball to Greg, go to the bench.”
Duncanville had a 37-2 record. In the state championship game, Ostertag singlehandedly outscored Duncanville’s opponent before going to the bench for good because the game was so lopsided.
Ostertag was a well-rounded athlete who excelled in baseball, hockey and football, but he grew so much that basketball became his future. Lowe remembered Ostertag as a “country kid.” One Saturday, the two of them played golf with some teammates. Ostertag whipped out a shotgun from his bag of clubs.
“He wants to start shooting at squirrels on the golf course,” Lowe said. “I’m like, ‘No. You are going to get us arrested. We are in the playoffs. We can’t do anything stupid.’”
Ostertag went on to play college ball at Kansas. As a junior, he averaged 10.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.8 blocks. He left the school as the Jayhawks’ all-time leader in blocked shots.
The Jazz selected Ostertag with the 28th pick in the 1995 NBA Draft. With the gargantuan Texan as a supporting piece alongside John Stockton and Karl Malone, the Jazz reached the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998. Ostertag spent 10 of his 11 NBA seasons in Utah before retiring in 2006 at 32.
One of Ostertag’s best statistical NBA seasons was 1996-97, when he averaged 7.3 points and 7.3 rebounds and started 70 of 77 games on a Utah Jazz team featuring John Stockton and Karl Malone. (Rocky Widner / NBAE via Getty Images)
Ostertag attempted an NBA comeback in 2011, but it was short-lived. He tipped the scales at more than 300 pounds. He played in 11 games with the Texas Legends of the NBA Development League (now the G League), then called it quits again.
In those years, Ostertag felt a sense of aimlessness. He had gone through a divorce and struggled when the structure that sports had given him all his life was gone. He decided it was the right time to move back to Texas and buy some land.
Mount Vernon’s population then was approximately 2,500. The “country kid” could hunt and fish all he wanted there.
But moving to the tiny Texas town wasn’t just about getting away. It was as much about becoming a part of something. Running Tag’s, substitute teaching, officiating games and taking care of his animals fill his time. Now, he’s become Mount Vernon’s volunteer mayor on top of it all.
“One thing that has been a demon for him was a lack of purpose,” Shannon said. “He didn’t really feel like he had a purpose or was bringing value because his life had completely changed.
“I think moving to Mount Vernon and becoming more involved in this community really helped shape his purpose, not as an athlete but as a human. More than anything, that’s the change I’ve seen in him. This little town has kind of made the second chapter of his life pretty amazing.”
In January 2002, Ostertag received a call from his sister. Amy, who was diabetic, needed a new kidney. She asked Greg if he would be willing to donate his.
“I said, ‘All right. Let’s do it tomorrow,’” Ostertag said.
Six months later, doctors at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas performed a successful transplant. For Ostertag, the worst parts involved the urinalysis tests he had to perform, which required him to chug water and refrain from urinating for hours.
He made a quick recovery and was able to play in 81 regular-season games (and start 74) for the Jazz in 2002-03. The kidney transplant allowed Amy to live 17 more years. She died in 2019. Amy could be sweet or acidic, depending on the day, Ostertag said. The last two times he spoke to her on the phone, he hung up on her.
“It wasn’t being mean,” Ostertag said. “She knew I wasn’t going to take her s—.”
Amy was especially close with Ostertag’s youngest daughter, whom she took to the circus. His willingness to give his sister an organ was part of what initially drew Shannon to him: the inherent gentleness inside his massive, heavily tattooed frame.
Greg and Shannon found each other on an online dating site. They met in Las Vegas for their first date. He showed up wearing basketball shorts and a Chewbacca T-shirt. They had dinner, then walked around a casino floor.
“From that night, it was perfect,” Shannon said. “Never ran out of things to talk about. Got along from the very beginning.”
Shannon grew up in San Diego and spent most of her career in digital marketing. She never envisioned a rural lifestyle for herself. Now, she can’t imagine living anywhere else than Mount Vernon. She helps run the day-to-day operation at Tag’s, as well as her husband’s social media accounts.
Shannon is well aware of the bigger-picture issues that could impact East Texas in the coming years. In Sulphur Springs, a town 24 miles away from Mount Vernon, development is underway on one of the largest artificial intelligence data centers in the country. If legislation moves forward, East Texas could soon become a major domestic supplier of lithium, the alkali metal used in rechargeable batteries. There is anxiety about the fresh water supply, too, as the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex creeps outward.
Shannon hopes that Mount Vernon can face that change and remain a place where her children want to plant roots of their own.
“There are so many things that are happening in East Texas,” Shannon said. “I have no idea what the future holds for us. But I can tell you I hope it stays a place our kids want to come back to and families return to. … I hope this is a place where they might go off to college, but they come back to and raise their children.”
To do that, Mayor Ostertag knows he needs Mount Vernon to remain on the upswing. When he arrived, buildings in the town square were peeling with paint. That area now teems with life on Friday and Saturday nights. Ostertag wants to make sure the progress Mount Vernon has made over the last 11 years isn’t lost.
“I’d rather sit in my truck on my property and watch my animals,” Ostertag said. “But they asked me, so here I am. I got a lot to learn. And I’m always out and about. I already have people asking me, ‘Hey, can we do this?’ I can tell them, ‘We’ll look into it.’ And that’s all I can really say. If you have an issue, bring it in front of the council and we’ll go from there.”