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FILE: The Salt Lake City Stars' Naz Mitrou-Long (#3) plays in an NBA G league basketball game against the Rio Grande Valley Vipers at the Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City on Monday, Nov. 27, 2017.
SALT LAKE CITY — Friday night was supposed to be a homecoming of sorts for Naz Mitrou-Long.
The two-way player for the Utah Jazz and Salt Lake City Stars played collegiately at Iowa State, and the Stars were set to open their season on the road against the Iowa Wolves in Des Moines, with Mitrou-Long primed to be a major contributor for the G League team this season.
But with Donovan Mitchell and Alec Burks set to miss the Jazz’s contest Friday night against the Memphis Grizzlies at Vivint Arena, the NBA club needed an extra body and called Mitrou-Long up.
Right in the middle of Stars shootaround, head coach Martin Schiller pulled him to the side and told him he was headed back to Utah. Just after 2:30 p.m. Mountain Time, Mitrou-Long tweeted an apology note to “loyal fans” who had purchased tickets to see him play for the Stars.
The afternoon wound up being hectic for Mitrou-Long, as he boarded a flight in Des Moines with a stopover in Denver. He landed in Salt Lake City after 5 p.m. and came bounding into the Jazz locker room just before 6 p.m., with tipoff just over an hour away.
The few Jazzmen who were in the locker room gave him a warm reception, as Mitchell exclaimed, “Welcome back, baby!” and he and Derrick Favors spent a minute trading jokes before Mitrou-Long went to get ready for the game.
“It wasn’t mixed feelings as far as anything on the negative side,” he said about missing the chance to reunite with people in Iowa even though he didn’t play at all for the Jazz on Friday. “This is my duty, this is my obligation. Even if I don’t play a minute, a second, this is what I signed up for, this is my job. It wasn’t anything negative or anything to be sad about. I’ll be back in Iowa soon.”
The Stars won their game 138-103.
Mitrou-Long said he doesn’t know how long he’ll be with Utah, but he is making the trip to Denver for Saturday’s game against the Nuggets.
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MAJOR MILESTONE: Just over halfway through Friday’s first quarter, Jazz forward Joe Ingles reached a significant milestone as he made his 500th career 3-pointer and finished the night by going 3 of 8 from beyond the arc. He is the seventh Jazzman in history to reach that mark.
Deron Williams, Mehmet Okur, Darrell Griffith, and Bryon Russell also reached the 500 club. Gordon Hayward is second in franchise history with 689 treys, and John Stockton is first with 845.
NEXT UP: After the Jazz play the Nuggets on the road Saturday night, they’ll have a three-game homestand next week as the Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics will visit Salt Lake City.
