Utah
There are plenty of reasons for the Utah Jazz to be thankful despite latest loss
Oscar Tsiebwe was at Salt Lake City Stars practice on Wednesday when he was pulled to the side and told that he’d been called up. The two-way player would be making his Utah Jazz debut in a few hours.
That would be great news on its own, but Wednesday was also Tshiebwe’s 25th birthday, so it served as an excellent birthday present.
Micah Potter, meanwhile, knew he’d be in the Jazz rotation on Wednesday considering the number of injuries and players who would be missing from the Jazz roster for their game against the Denver Nuggets.
But Potter, another two-way player, learned that not only would he be in the rotation, but also that he would be starting for the Jazz — the first start of his career.
Tshiebwe and Potter combined for 25 rebounds Wednesday, both setting career-highs in that category (16 for Potter, nine for Tshiebwe). Despite not having played with the Jazz this season, not having chemistry with the other fully rostered players and not knowing all the nuances of the Jazz’s offensive or defensive schemes, the two were bright spots in the the Jazz’s 122-103 loss to the Nuggets.
Potter, who is in his third year with the Jazz as a two-way player, added nine points, three assists and a block to his game-high 16 rebounds and is someone Jazz head coach Will Hardy said he can always rely on to make a good decision and play hard.
“Micah is super solid,” Hardy said. “Micah is a really good player. His physicality when rebounding is good, he makes quick decisions with the ball, he is pretty good at assembling his feet and getting his shot off, but when he doesn’t, he usually just gets to the next action quickly…Micah is somebody who knows his strengths at this point in his career, and he doesn’t go outside of them very much. He keeps the game pretty simple.”
Then there’s Tshiebwe, who is a favorite of everyone on the team. Though soft spoken, Tshiebwe makes sure to say something to every teammate and coach in an attempt to brighten their day, and he accomplishes that mission time and time again.
If you ask anyone who has met Tshiebwe what they think of him, they immediately smile and say how much they love him and talk about how kind he is and how he makes everyone feel good.
“I love everything about Oscar, man. He just makes you feel good. I wish I was more like Oscar,” Hardy said. “He’s one of the sweetest human beings of all time even though he’s one of the more physical people you’ve ever been around. Yeah, I don’t know. He just smiles and gives you a hug and makes you feel good. He’s hard not to like.”
But don’t let Tshiebwe’s smile, soft voice or cheerful disposition make you think that he’s an easy target on the basketball court. Tshiebwe has made life hard for every Jazz and Stars player during practices. He hunts rebounds like his life depends on it and is always willing to do all the grunt work during a game that won’t show up on a stat sheet.
“It’s miserable playing against him,” Potter said. “There’s not one person in the NBA or in the world, at least that I’ve played against, that plays like him.
“He’s relentless. He’s a relentless rebounder. It’s one of those things where you have to just go hit him, but he’s so strong that he’ll hit you back, and still, he’s got like a 7-5 wingspan, so he’s got the length and everything, and it’s unbelievable.”
That dogged play is why Tshiebwe is averaging 16.9 rebounds and 16.1 points with the Stars this year and why he was able to grab nine rebounds in just 15 minutes after a whirlwind of a day on a team he hasn’t played with.
The Jazz were playing without Lauri Markaknen, John Collins (left knee contusion), Jordan Clarkson (plantar fasciitis), Kyle Filipowski (left lower leg inflammation) and lost Drew Eubanks midway through the night with a left knee contusion.
It was going to be an uphill battle against the Nikola Jokic-led Nuggets and there were certainly moments when the Jazz looked completely outmatched.
But there were also moments of great competition and fight, and Potter and Tshiebwe were bright spots.
“This job is crazy, like, this is not real life,” Hardy said. “I get to coach basketball every day, I get to be with these guys every day. I love them to death, and they drive me crazy.
“We’re just as dysfunctional as any family. I’m just thankful for this whole thing. It’s like surreal every day. I haven’t gotten used to it and I hope I never do.”
And speaking of something to be thankful for, Markkanen missed Wednesday’s game not because of the knee contusion he suffered on Tuesday night, but because his wife Verna gave birth to their third child.
So as the Jazz head into two days off, despite the loss to the Nuggets and a 4-14 record, there are reasons to smile and plenty to be thankful for.
Utah
Utah Jazz Reacts: Who should the Jazz draft?
The NBA Draft is less than a week away, and the Utah Jazz have a big decision to make. What’s difficult for the Jazz is that there isn’t an obvious choice between some incredible prospects at the top of the draft: AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, and Cam Boozer. Obviously, everything depends on what the Washington Wizards decide to do with their pick. But with all the smoke screens we’ve seen, it’s not clear who will be available to the Jazz.
That’s where you come in. If you were the Utah Jazz and you had the chance to choose between AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, and Cam Boozer, who would you choose?
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Jazz fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
Utah
Utah first lady Abby Cox optimistic about legislative moves to strengthen child literacy
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is no stranger to discourse surrounding early child literacy.
While the Beehive State generally performs higher than other states in terms of proficiency measures, its leaders still recognize — especially post-COVID — that it’s a real issue that demands serious solutions.
A legislative audit released Tuesday said Utah school teachers and administrators should focus enhanced attention not only on third-graders, the traditional benchmark for early literacy, but also on first-graders, where data starts spotting early literacy challenges in young students.
Then, Utah first lady Abby Cox on Wednesday added to that discussion, speaking with Utah education and policy leaders about the need to meet the literacy crisis head-on and ways Utah has worked to do just that.
“We’re not in the best place that we can be, and we’re a little ahead of the national average; we always have been, but that still isn’t great. We’re in a moment where everybody’s starting to realize this … business community, educators, all of us coming together to realize there’s an issue here,” Cox said.
She mentioned the passage of SB241 during the 2026 legislative session, which committed $25.6 million to literacy coaching, increased the statewide goal to have 80% of third-graders reading at grade-level by 2030 and includes an intervention measure requiring struggling third-graders to repeat the grade — “except in cases of certain good cause exemption.”
“I know we can get 97-plus percent of our kiddos reading on grade level by third grade. We can do this,” Cox said.
She also emphasized the need to get “attention-sucking machines,” AKA cellphones, out of classrooms — something top lawmakers in the state have made strides to emphasize.
July 1 will mark the start of a new Utah law ushered in with the passage of SB69 that essentially places a bell-to-bell ban on cellphones at Utah’s K-12 public schools, unless a school or district opts for a looser policy.
The latest piece of legislation was built upon a similar bill passed during the 2025 session that set a default policy barring students from using their phones during class time.
Despite those restrictions, many lawmakers and educators argued they didn’t go far enough, which led to SB69.
“I don’t think we all know enough about how wonderful this is going to be,” Cox said, adding that data has shown library book checkouts have skyrocketed in schools that have instituted daylong cellphone ban policies.
“I talked to a principal who, after the first day of going bell-to-bell, walked into his high school lunch room, thinking there was a fight, because there was all this chaos and noise … and it was just (students) communicating with each other, playing cards, bringing little games,” Cox said. “It was just beautiful to see, and I think we’re going to see an incredible resurgence as we implement this statewide.”
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.
Utah
Here’s why Bosnia-Herzegovina fans in Utah are living a ‘dream’ during the World Cup
The nation’s soccer team practiced in front of fans this week at Real Salt Lake’s stadium in Sandy.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Fans cheer as Bosnia-Herzegovina players practice for the World Cup during an open training session at America First Field in Sandy on Monday.
The majority of the Bosnians living in Utah did not leave for the Wasatch Front under favorable circumstances.
The Bosnian War in the mid-1990s brought more than 100,000 refugees to the United States, with thousands settling in Salt Lake City.
Thirty years later, however, a moment of celebration brought thousands of Bosnian-Americans together with the arrival of their country’s soccer team in Utah.
Blue and white jerseys flooded the plaza and stands of Real Salt Lake’s Sandy stadium on Monday to watch Bosnia-Herzegovina’s soccer team, which has made Utah its home base in between World Cup games.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Bosnia-Herzegovina players practice for the World Cup during an open training session at America First Field in Sandy on Monday.
“It was like a dream,” Anel Alagic, who was born in Bosnia but raised in Salt Lake, said. “That we qualified for the World Cup was crazy, but then they told us that the home base would never be here in Salt Lake. It’s surreal.”
The festivities extended beyond the field, as well, with several vendors and volunteers serving Bosnian food and drinks, including its signature coffee from the world’s largest coffee pot, which was made in Bosnia.
The pot is traveling with the national team, heading to Los Angeles on Thursday for a match against Switzerland and then to Seattle for Bosnia’s June 24 match against Qatar.
A dream just to qualify
Bosnia has qualified for the World Cup just twice since declaring its independence in 1992, with the first time coming in Brazil in 2014. This year’s team qualified in dramatic fashion, defeating four-time World Cup champion Italy on penalty kicks.
The Bosnian fans are not taking their team’s presence in the World Cup for granted, with a viral video showing thousands marching in Toronto before the first game and 40,000 to 50,000 expected to be in attendance in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Two Bosnian restaurants in Salt Lake, Cafe on Main and Old Bridge Cafe, will both be closing their doors on Thursday to make the trek to California in support of their country.
And it’s not just people born in Bosnia jumping on the bandwagon, with Cafe on Main saying several Americans showed up in Bosnia jerseys to watch the opening game at the restaurant last week in a packed house.
“I’ve invited a lot of my co-workers and friends that typically don’t even watch soccer,” Alagic said of Bosnia World Cup fever catching on, thanks to events like the open training session. “I was like, ‘We’re having this event. Show out.’ I’ve seen a lot of people here, so it’s cool.”
Bringing people together
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Fans cheer as Bosnia-Herzegovina players practice for the World Cup during an open training session at America First Field in Sandy on Monday.
“Because of the war, our community is all over the world,” said RSL goalkeeper coach Mirza Harambasic, who is Bosnian. “It’s especially strong in the United States, and it’s strong here in Salt Lake City. So obviously everyone is so excited, so happy to be here, so happy to support.”
Harambasic was born in Bosnia and, like many others, came to the U.S. in the ‘90s. He helped coordinate Monday’s event and was confident in Salt Lake’s ability to accommodate the soccer needs of a World Cup team.
“When you talk about an environment to be successful, I don’t think there are many better places in the United States,” Harambasic said. “As far as city, lifestyle, training at elevation, and then obviously the facilities that RSL provides.”
With the first two games in Bosnia’s Group B ending in 1-1 draws, the top two spots are still very much up for the taking, giving fans just enough hope that the country can advance beyond the World Cup group stage for the first time in its history.
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