Trey Lyles is now a member of the Denver Nuggets, but the University of Kentucky product started his career with the Utah Jazz, and although he played significant minutes it wasn’t the best start to a career.
Lyles was moved on draft night in 2017 for Donovan Mitchell, who is now a Rookie of the Year candidate for the Jazz. Lyles, meanwhile, has been a better player for Denver during the 2017-18 season.
Still, that doesn’t mean the bad taste from his experience in Utah has left Lyles’ mouth. During a recent edition of Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye’s “Road Trippin’” podcast, Lyles voiced his general displeasure with Utah, Salt Lake City, and coach Quin Snyder.
Via Deseret News:
Jefferson: “I liked playing in Utah. I really did.”
Lyles: “Who was your coach then?”
Jefferson: “I had Tyrone Corbin.”
Lyles, grumbling: “So y’all didn’t practice? Y’all didn’t do nothing, yeah. See, we had practice every day (under Quin Snyder). I thought I was in Kentucky again.”
Jefferson, sarcastically: “You had practice every day? Oh, sorry for making you work hard. Sorry. What’s wrong with working hard, Trey?”
Lyles: “I didn’t say nothing about working hard. Three-hour practices? C’mon now.”
Lyles went on to say he “just didn’t like” playing for the Jazz, adding that he felt players who buy into Salt Lake City are usually people with families. Translation: young NBA dudes in SLC don’t have their choice of clubs for post-game relaxation and that didn’t rub Lyles the right way.
Here’s my favorite part of the whole exchange, again from the Deseret News:
“It’s sunny all the time in Utah,” Jefferson said.
Lyles: “Hmmmm.”
“The fans are really, really good.”
“Hmmmm.”
Lyles didn’t want to practice all that much and he’d rather his city has more nightlife. To each his own, although I doubt many NBA franchises listening to that are going to be impressed. Lyles’ current contract runs out in 2018-19.