CHARLOTTE — There was the time former Jazz guard Collin Sexton started his own “defense, defense” chant in the middle of a practice scrimmage — when he was one of the players on the court.
“That was a first for me,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said.
There was the time he — after Hardy had preached the team to be “solid,” no less — bounced a lob to himself and threw down a 360 dunk on a breakaway.
“He made it, and then he landed and stared at the bench like, ‘That’s not what you were talking about,” Hardy said with a smile.
There was the time Sexton got so aggressive in a box-and-one defense that he ended up leading Jalen Brunson all the way into the Jazz tunnel. And yet, he was still stunned when a call was made over his antics.
“That was an all-timer,” Hardy said. “Then he yelled at the ref, telling him that it was a soft call, even though he was chest-bumping Jalen Brunson.”
It was easy to get reminiscent on Sunday before the Jazz took on the Hornets, their first game against Sexton following the mid-summer trade that sent the guard to Charlotte.
And during the game, it was easy to see the Jazz still haven’t figured out how to replace him — maybe not his on-court production exactly, but everything else that he brought to the team.
The Jazz were blasted by Charlotte 126-103 Sunday in another contest that got away from them early.
“I felt like our energy just sort of fell off there at the end of the first, beginning of the second, and then we were kind of a half step behind,” Hardy said. “And there’s no excuse for that.”
Charlotte went on a 30-9 run between the end of the first quarter and the start of the second to build a 21-point lead that the Jazz never challenged.
There will be times this season when Utah’s roster will be simply overmatched, but that wasn’t the case on Sunday. The Hornets, already one of the league’s worst teams, were without Lonzo Ball and Brandon Miller — and they still made easy work of the Jazz.
“There’s no reason Will should be constantly talking about our energy, our effort, our competitiveness — no matter if the ball goes in or not, those three things are controllable,” Keyonte George said.
Energy. Effort. Competitiveness.
Three things that — warts and all — Sexton consistently provided in his three seasons in a Jazz jersey.
“I had so much fun with the Jazz,” Sexton said before having 10 points and 12 assists in Charlotte’s win. “I feel like I learned so much about myself.”
And he taught plenty of others around him.
George remembers watching Sexton pick up players full court. He remembers him biting his tongue and hitting his own face to amp himself up. He remembers him cheering from the sidelines, waving towels and screaming.
It was infectious.
“Will talks about sacrifice — that’s a sacrifice,” George said. “Somebody has to fill that void, and we just have to figure out who’s going to sacrifice what. All of us have to sacrifice something.”
For the Jazz, maybe seeing their old friend will serve as a stark reminder of that, because without it, plenty more losses like Sunday’s will be ahead.
Utah’s first two games of their five-game road trip were supposed to be on the easier side; they lost them by a combined 45 points. That’s not a great sign for things to come.
“Honestly, it’s just unexplainable,” George said of the long stretches of recent lethargic play. “It’s almost like we’ve got to respect the game, and that’s what that looks like — playing hard, competing hard, talking, that’s respecting the game. So we’ve just got to respect the game.”
That’s something he learned watching and talking to Sexton.
In the summer following his rookie season, George came to the Jazz practice facility one night to get ready for summer league. He didn’t expect to have any company; Sexton, though, was there.
“I saw the type of level of commitment that has to happen in order to be really good in this league,” George said.
George emulated that type of work ethic this summer and is off to the best start of his young NBA career. He had 25 points and seven assists on Sunday in the loss, but he knows now there’s more to give — more sacrifice and more energy. Heck, maybe he’ll be the one bumping an opponent into the tunnel next.
“I gave him a huge hug during his interview,” George said. “I just miss him. I love Collin. He’s done so much for me off the court that people don’t really know about.”
And Sunday showed just how important he was to the Jazz.
“There are a lot of good guys in the NBA,” Hardy said. “He’s one of the best.”
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.