Jazz Players And Dancers Celebrate International Women’s Day
Mar 8, 2020, 5:35 PM | Updated: Mar 9, 2020, 7:09 pm

Donovan Mitchell #45 of the Utah Jazz (C) accepts the trophy for the 2018 Verizon Slam Dunk Contest at Staples Center on February 17, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Utah Jazz players took to social media to celebrate International Women’s Day recognized on March 8 every year. The Jazz will celebrate the event as a team at Vivint Smart Home Arena on Monday against the Toronto Raptors.
The Jazz will don International Women’s Day shooting shirts, Donovan Mitchell will host fourteen women during pregame activities, each of whom will receive signed D.O.N. Issue #1 International Women’s Day shoes to commemorate the day. Rudy Gobert will donate $1,000 to the Girls on the Run foundation for every blocked shot he records against Toronto.
While the team was off on International Women’s day, Jazz players recognized the important women in their life on Instagram and Twitter.
Mitchell celebrated both his mother Nicole and sister Jordan with the caption “Love to my Queens ❤️👸🏾” with photos of himself hugging his sister and a photo with both his mom and sister while representing Team USA at last year’s NBA All-Star Weekend.
Mitchell’s relationship with his mother and sister has been well documented during his time in Utah. During last year’s International Women’s Day celebration the Jazz guard wore purple Adidas inspired by his sister whom he gifted the shoes after the game.
Jazz wing Joe Ingles also took to Instagram to recognize the women in his life. Ingles posted a picture of his wife Renae Ingles, a professional netballer in their native Australia, holding the couple’s daughter.
Jazz center Rudy Gobert posted a photo of his mother and him along with a message saying “to all the great mums out there, and to all the ladies that keep showing the world that anything is possible.”
But it wasn’t just the Jazz plyers that celebrated International Women’s Day online.
The Utah Jazz Dancer shared a post recognizing both their role and the role of women around them on the holiday.
The dance team posted the caption “Here’s to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.”
Additionally, dancers from the team assembled an Instagram story where they shared memories and feelings of women in their lives.
The team’s twitter account posted a selection from “Phenomenal Woman” a poem from civil rights activist and poet Maya Angelou to recognize the day. The caption read, “I am a woman | Phenomenally | Phenomenal woman | That’s me.”
International Women’s Day was first recognized after the turn of the 20th century in New York City to recognize working women and was first recognized by the United Nations in 1975.