Utah Jazz’s Adelaide superstar Joe Ingles on fame, fatherhood and how Salt Lake City has become home
IT is a long way from Happy Valley. But despite finding superstardom in the NBA with the Utah Jazz, Adelaide’s Joe Ingles is as grounded as ever. He talks to Reece Homfray about fame, fatherhood and how Salt Lake City has become home.
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IN the roughly 0.51secs it takes Joe Ingles to catch and shoot the ball from outside the three-point line, 18,000 people inside the spectacular arena in Salt Lake City rise in perfect unison.
As Ingles takes aim and the ball leaves his left hand which seems to extend forever towards the roof, the fans stay on their feet.
If it goes in, which is more often than not, they throw their arms in the air as the words “Ingllllles threeee” from the booming voice of the court announcer reverberate throughout the stadium.
But if he misses, like he uncharacteristically did with his first three attempts during a pre-season game against Toronto on Tuesday, there is a collective sigh from the fans as they sit back down.
Ingles hears the whole thing and almost feels it too, like sensing a wave creeping up on him from the stands.
“What I realise now is when I’ve got an opportunity to shoot and they (crowd) can tell I’ve got an opportunity to shoot I can hear the noise of them getting excited,” Ingles explains.
“I can hear the roar kind of start, and the sigh when I miss.
“I don’t see them standing up because I’m focused on the rim but I can definitely hear that background noise.
“It’s had to grow over time because originally I wasn’t playing too much and making shots but the last couple of years it’s evolved.”
IT IS Wednesday in Salt Lake City and Ingles, who turned 31 the day before, is at work inside the Zions Bank Basketball Center which is the Utah Jazz’s multi-million dollar training facility about 3km from where they play at Vivint Smart Home Arena in downtown.
The signage out the front is enormous, there are multiple practice courts, a gym, recovery facilities, players cafe and lounge, and a team worth hundreds of millions of dollars is practising its shooting before Saturday’s game against the Adelaide 36ers.
This environment is now normal for Ingles but there are moments when he still thinks to himself this is a long way from Happy Valley where he grew up playing for the Southern Tigers in Adelaide.
But Salt Lake City has become home. It is a pretty city with parklands, well-kept houses and clean streets, and is the worldwide headquarters for the Mormons.
“I just kind of feel comfortable, I feel like Salt Lake is a home for me now and it’s become a home for my family,” says Ingles who is married to netballer Renae and dad to two-year-old twins Jacob and Milla.
“This is our fifth year now and it’s the longest I’ve spent with any individual team,” he said.
“We’re just happy here, I love the city and the team, the organisation, it feels like home and it’s normal for me to walk in here each day and go to work.”
Ingles admits he knew nothing about the city when he first got the call to say he was coming to Utah after a journey through the NBL and Europe to finally crack the big-time at 27.
“I didn’t know where or what it was but now being here five years and getting out a bit, different times with the weather, we really like it so hopefully it will be the only city I have to play in.”
But the man who one US website this week dubbed ‘the most under-rated player in the NBA’ and who signed a four-year A$70m deal in 2017, remains closely connected to his Adelaide home, friends and family who he happily hosts when they visit.
“They’re still some of my closest friends, especially the ABA guys that I played with, a few of them took me under their wing as a 15-year-old and were driving me to practice, having me at their houses, taking me out to eat, and back then none of us could have guessed that this would be happening,” Ingles said.
“We’ve always been friends and nothing is going to change that - not being here, being in Adelaide or being retired, they’ve all made trips and come over as often as possible and it’s great to have their support.”
With no major league baseball or NFL team in Salt Lake City, the place is basketball-mad and inside the arena John Stockton and Karl Malone’s numbers hang from the rafters.
When the Sixers turned up for training on Thursday they found the new court had been momentarily replaced by the old court. A VIP at the Jazz had just been there to decide which part of the floor he wanted to lay down in his home and the 36ers would be the last team to ever bounce a ball on the same court as Stockton and Malone.
Everyone knows Ingles is a star in Utah but you have to visit the city yourself to understand how much this place loves him.
The guy folding jerseys behind the counter in sports store Fanzz said it best.
“Man, everyone loves Joe,” he said.
“I think people underestimate him because he just looks like a dad, but he’s one of the best three-point shooters in the league.
“And he gets in their heads I mean look at what he did to Paul George in the play-offs last season.
“We get a lot of people coming in asking about Joe Ingles jerseys, not as much as Donovan Mitchell and Ruby Gobert but he’d be next.”
A team official at the Jazz arena described him as “the class clown”.
“He’s always coming in joking around, making people laugh,” he said.
“But he’s kind of our leader too, he sets the tone, he sticks up for his teammates and fans love that about him.”
The mother of teenage twins in the crowd against Toronto said she loved “Jingles” because he’s got twins too, and the basketball writer at the Salt Lake Tribune, Andy Larsen, said people liked Ingles because they can relate to him.
“Because he’s a normal dude, right,” Larsen says while waiting for Jazz training to finish.
“He’s the underdog because he hasn’t got the athleticism or the speed of normal NBA players and he’s hilarious off the court too.
“When it comes to dealing with the media it depends on his mood. Post-game he just wants to get out of there but at practice and with fans he’s really good.
“I mean he’s not like Donovan Mitchell who went to some fans’ barbecues and swam in their pool over summer, Joe doesn’t do that, but he’s still good with his time.”
Ingles has learnt to cope with fame and still goes to the grocery store like any other normal person.
“I go most days after practice so Renae doesn’t have to, it’s just become normal being here,” he said.
“We are in the news every day, on the TV, playing every few nights, people come and say hi, they ask Renae if she’s my wife and I get asked if I’m Renae’s husband.
“Again at 15 years old playing for the (Southern) Tigers I never would have thought but now it’s become something you just embrace and here the people and fans are so good, I just love it here.”
So how does he feel about being described as “just like a dad”, the “class clown” and “the old guy”?
“That’s probably about right,” he said with a smile.
“When I first came over it was like ‘who is this guy and whatever’ but I guess I’ve worked my way into getting respect on the court from players from other teams and my own teammates, and off the court I just have fun and at the end of the day I go home to my family and those three come before anyone else.
“I’ll go home after this and spend the afternoon with the kids and Renae and everything else is after that.”
Ingles earnt respect for what he went through to make it to the NBA but now he’s respected because he’s a flat out superstar.
At the end of the day I go home to my family and those three come before anyone else.
Last season as the Jazz made the second-round of the play-offs he broke the franchise record for most three-pointers in a season with 204 which was the 10th most in the league.
All this while juggling professional basketball with fatherhood which has changed his game-day routine. It’s not all about him anymore and now the last thing he wants to know before tip-off is that the kids are asleep.
“Sometimes they sleep great the night before a game, sometimes they sleep an hour,” Ingles said.
“Renae is great, really good at letting me get a bit more rest and the same during the day if they have a good nap I can get an hour in and again Renae is great she’ll take them out some afternoons so I can have a rest.
“Then my routine starts once I get to the arena and I know Renae has got the kids and they’re safe and once they’re asleep I know Renae can relax and we start the focus on the game.”
Nicknamed ‘Slow-Mo Joe’, almost everything Ingles does looks like he’s barely getting out of third gear.
On the day he spoke to The Advertiser he walked slowly across two practice courts wearing a baggy white training shirt, was barefoot with ice strapped to his calf and sipping a berry ice drink.
At times in his career, Ingles admits he was too relaxed and easygoing but now knows when to “lock-in”.
We saw that against Toronto when after missing his first three shots, getting called for a travel and getting no love from the refs despite heavy contact from defenders, it was as if he flicked a switch and went into beast-mode.
He scored a game-high 24 points in 23 minutes and turned the game.
“I don’t even know if it’s a switch, I guess I’ve always played because I love it and to have fun,” Ingles said.
“But there are times over my career and Brett Brown was the first one to pull me up on it - knowing when to pick and choose when to have fun and when to lock in and be focused.
“There was a point in the game last night we weren’t playing well, Jae (Crowder) was getting into it with Kyle Lowry and that was where it sparked, we huddled up as the five on the court and said ‘it’s time for us to turn on, we need to play’ and I was on the end of a couple of the shots but it was Jae who started it.”
24 PTS | 5 3PM@Joeingles7 was feeling it last night! 👌 pic.twitter.com/dLq6YqnY1E
— NBA TV (@NBATV) October 3, 2018
As Ingles heads into the fifth NBA season of his career, he’s coming off an Australian winter which he spent in Melbourne where Renae returned to elite level netball with the Melbourne Vixens - a deal that will continue next year as well.
“It was a big change in roles, I went from being here (Jazz HQ) every day to waking up and being with the kids all day so it was great to use that time to get to know them even more because we’re away so much,” Ingles said.
“And it was great for Renae to get away as well and have a bit of her time, play and do what she needed to do for her season.
“She was away some weekends and I really enjoyed it, it made things a bit difficult with practice but we made it work and she’s signed up again so we’ll do it again next year.”
That’s Ingles for you. An NBA superstar earning millions of dollars but quite frankly just as happy if not happier playing dad, preparing lunch for the kids and packing the nappy bag to try to repay some of the support his family has given him on this incredible journey.
reece.homfray@news.com.au
Originally published as Utah Jazz’s Adelaide superstar Joe Ingles on fame, fatherhood and how Salt Lake City has become home