Joe Ingles On Family, Returning To Play, And Stealing Matt Harpring’s Job
Apr 24, 2020, 11:18 AM | Updated: 12:36 pm
Utah Jazz forward Joe Ingles talks to members of the media at the Zions Bank Basketball Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 25, 2019. The Utah Jazz season ended with Wednesday's loss to Houston in the playoffs. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
(Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – For the second consecutive week, the Utah Jazz made one of their players available in a Zoom meeting to discuss how they’ve handled the NBA’s hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, Mike Conley spoke about his victory in the NBA HORSE Challenge, while guard Joe Ingles answered questions Friday morning.
Ingles fielded questions regarding his family, returning to play. and stealing Jazz color analyst Matt Harpring’s job.
The father of nearly four-year-old twins, Ingles says the idea of finishing the NBA season locked away from his family, say Las Vegas for several weeks on end, may not be something he’s willing to consider.
Can Las Vegas rescue the @UtahJazz season?
How Sin City may hold the key to reopening the league this summer in the latest episode of the Jazz Notes Podcast. https://t.co/vXfwyTAEaF
— KSL Sports (@kslsports) April 3, 2020
“It would be extremely hard,” Ingles said of the idea, “It would be basically the longest I’ve been away from the kids which I don’t know how much I am willing to do that, as much as I love playing basketball.”
The NBA hosts it’s 30-team summer league in Las Vegas every July, allowing NBA franchises to complete the two-week mini-season without requiring travel. Should the league decide to finish its season, it could use the Vegas Summer League as a model.
“Two or three months without them would be borderline impossible for me,” Ingles said, “We will wait until a decision is made and go from there and see what the best way of working around it is or if there’s a way I could see them. I don’t want to just see them over facetime for three months or something like that.”
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Though Ingles would prefer to finish the season, he admitted that staying engaged with the league with two young children at home has been a challenge.
“It’s really hard motivation wise,” Ingles said, “Obviously if we go back we all want to play and finish the season but it is really hard.”
“The kids are the best from 6:30 to 10 in the morning before they start to get a little crazy, so the motivation to leave them and go and workout is hard, but we have to do it until further notice.”
Both @utahjazz guards Donovan Mitchell and Joe Ingles have weighed in on what must happen for the NBA to return from the coronavirus.
While the #NBA may be able to look to Europe for a blueprint on how to finish the season.https://t.co/Xp3UhVAhiD
— KSL Sports (@kslsports) April 2, 2020
Finding a way to jump back into the rhythm of the season may pose its own challenges beyond the geographical difficulties of leaving his family.
“Usually the only break we get like this is the offseason,” Ingles said, “So it’s going to be hard to come back and I guess like re-engage into what we were doing. We had like 15 games left so it’s a weird situation.”
To further complicate the matter, Ingles son Jacob was diagnosed with autism in early 2019 and faces additional challenges with his immune system as a result.
“I would love to go back and play too,” Ingles admitted, “On the flip side, I don’t know if I am ready to risk catching it and giving it to my family and my kids especially with Mila and especially with Jacob.”
As the pandemic continues, Ingles optimism that the season will return has waivered.
“My personal opinion is every week that it goes, every week that we go along there’s a less and less chance that we’re going to [return].”
Having established himself in Utah, Ingles has the advantage of owning a home with a personal gym inside. However, it wasn’t until recently that the Jazz veteran had access to a basketball hoop.
“I recently just got a hoop at home. I honestly never had my own basketball hoop,” Ingles said, “[When] I was a kid in Adelaide growing up I had one in my backyard. But since growing up a little bit I’ve never had a hoop until like two weeks ago.”
A member of the Lifetime Products family, Ingles said he and some of his teammates that remained in the state were given new hoops to practice on.
Though Ingles has been able to remain isolated from the coronavirus outbreak, his family in Australia hasn’t been immune to the fallout from the pandemic. Ingles father was laid off from his job amid the shutdown while his mother remains working in a retirement home.
“My mom works in a nursing home so she’s still working.” Ingles said, “Thats considered essential at the moment so she’s had to have a couple of tests.”
With extra time spent at home and entering the latter years of his career, Ingles has had the opportunity to examine his long term plan, including retirement.
“ I would never put a timeline on my career,” Ingles warned, “I think after this deal I’ll be 35 or something like that, 35 turning 36 when I did sign that extension for another year I thought it put me in a good spot agewise to make a decision on my career.”
The Jazz guard said that while he’d love to decide on his own, he has to consider his family first and foremost.
“If the kids are ready to go home and be put in school and settle down and not have me leaving all the time then obviously thats my first priority.”
Featuring the first family of the @UtahJazz, @RenaeIngles and @Joeingles7 have a new podcast, "The Ingles Insight" which gives Jazz fans access to the duo as parents, as a married couple, and as professionals with dueling careers.#TakeNote https://t.co/TIK3rqtC7E
— KSL Sports (@kslsports) March 23, 2020
Though the Jazz guard doesn’t know when he plans to retire, he did offer his thoughts on life after basketball, including extending his career in basketball via broadcasting, even if it means competing for his job.
“I actually would enjoy doing something like that,” Ingles stated, “But we will be living in Australia when I am done and I don’t think you can do Zoom color commentating these days very well, so if we wanted to live here and were going to live here, I would definitely steal [Matt] Harpring’s job.”
