Lauri Markkanen and Jordan Clarkson are Ready to take the Utah Jazz to New Heights
Jordan Clarkson is ready to take over. The aux, that is. We’re inside a conference room at the Jazz’s practice facility, the Zion Basketball Campus, in Salt Lake City, and Cam’ron’s “Dip-Set Forever” and Lil Uzi’s “POP” were just blasting from the speakers before Clarkson walked over to the laptop and switched it to Destroy Lonley’s “NOSTYLIST.” The futuristic-synth of the intro causes a literal vibe shift in the Jazz guard, who is now swaying his body to the beat and flashing a smile that shows off the diamonds in his front teeth.
The song choice is almost too good for this moment. Clarkson, who, per our sources, actually styles himself, is a rock star in his own way, from popping out at New York Fashion Week in the fall to arriving this season ready to really turn things up and average new career-highs. As he poses for his first-ever SLAM cover wearing his Utah Jazz City Edition jersey and rockin’ a black gel manicure, his All-Star teammate, Lauri Markkanen, asks for his thoughts on how he should style his jersey.
“Gotta have it untucked,” Clarkson says.
SLAM 243 featuring Lauri Markkanen and Jordan Clarkson is out now. Shop here.
While Clarkson and Markkanen might seem different—Markkanen was born and raised in Finland and turns 26 in May, while Clarkson is from down South, raised in Texas, and a few years older (he turns 31 in June)—they actually have a lot in common. They’re both fathers and both born under the Gemini sign, which is Latin for “twins,” for the two stars that make up its constellation. This season, the Jazz’s two leading scorers are shining brighter than ever: Markkanen is averaging a career-high 25.7 ppg and was just named an All-Star for the first time, while Clarkson has significantly improved as a playmaker and is putting up a career-high 20.8 points and 4.4 assists per contest. They’ve gone from being parts of trades—Clarkson was sent to the Jazz in 2019 after stints in L.A. and Cleveland, while Markkanen was a part of a blockbuster trade this past summer after four years in Chicago and a year in The Land—to becoming two key pieces of a franchise on the rebuild.
“Confidence is everything in this League,” Markkanen says. “In life, in general. It makes everything so much easier when you believe in yourself—what you’re doing—but it goes to your teammates as well. On the court, for example, going [into] every shot, knowing that my teammates believe that I’m going to knock it down. I think it’s just everything in this building. We all believe in each other, and I think that’s really helping us build something bigger than ourselves.”
While JC and Markkanen describe themselves as chill—as Clarkson takes photos, Markkanen chats about taking his family bowling for the first time and wanting to make time for them in between traveling—they’re equally as perceptive when it comes to the future of the organization. They know it’s not just on them, or about them. They’ve got an entire squad behind them, too.
“Everybody is hungry,” Clarkson later adds. “We’ve got a bunch of young guys who are willing to prove themselves, coming in here to work. That’s like a foundation point of anything.”
Just a few days after our shoot, the Jazz went out and showed how promising their future can be with a big win against Boston, in which Markkanen scored 28. Even as he and JC sat out against Sacramento, the rest of the team held it down, with Kelly Olynyk notching his second straight double-double and rookies Walker Kessler and Ochai Agbaji, who impressed with a 27-piece, shining.
“We’ve got big goals for ourselves. Obviously it is a process, but we’re not trying to fast forward a little bit as well [in] trying to build a winning culture,” he says. “…For everybody, the end goal is to win a championship. While we’re having a good time as a team, I don’t think that’s why we’re here. I don’t think we’re here just to have a good time. We’re trying to win games and play meaningful games. That’s what we’re working toward.”
There are guys who have been exactly where the Jazz are working to get to. Even Juan Toscano-Anderson, who just joined the team after a trade sent him to Utah in February, won a championship with the Warriors just last year. JC has been to the playoffs four times throughout his career. What he’s learned from playing with LeBron and Kobe is that in those moments, good or bad, you have to just keep it pushing.
“It goes with the territory,” Clarkson later adds. “The biggest thing is that you wake up and the sun comes out the next day. You put your shoes back on, tie ’em up and figure it out. All of this is a part of the trials and tribulations, the ups and downs. The roller coaster ain’t no fun unless it makes loops.”
Back in 2018, JC was a 25-year-old with a low-top cut, learning those lessons firsthand in Cleveland. He made his first playoff appearance, and at the time, everything was “eye-opening.” The play calls. The level of communication. The Cavs went seven games against Indiana, swept Toronto and then went seven more against Boston to get to the Finals. Clarkson was trying to get up to speed as quickly as he could, but admits now that he didn’t feel as prepared as he thought he needed to be.
The Cavs ended up losing to the Warriors in four games in the Finals. Clarkson didn’t hit the floor in either of the last two matchups.
“Trying to get up to speed in a time where I’d never been in that situation was pretty crazy,” Clarkson says. “I kind of take it as a learning experience for me and just kept pushing and pushing, and now we’re in a position [where I’ve] played in the playoffs the last three, four years, have produced and we’ve won games—not where we wanted to be in the end goal but, I think I’ve made progress in that sense and being in a position now where we’re winning games and we’re trying to lead guys as well.”
As someone who prefers to live in the present, Clarkson has been able to dial in and prove the narrative wrong that his game is one-dimensional and he’s limited to just scoring wrong. He’s emerged as a playmaker who can dish no-look passes to Markkanen and orchestrate an offense. “The biggest thing is calm down. Not try to do too much and let plays happen,” he explains. “A lot of times, aggressiveness turns into bad things, so just being able to find yourself in those moments and being able to reel yourself in with a snowball effect…Knowing that I am an older guy now, I’ve been in the League for a while, [so], just trying to knock those moments down and just help the team.
Is that what he’d tell his younger self?
“Oh yeah, for sure. I’m probably talking to myself right now,” Clarkson says.
Both literally and figuratively, JC has really been climbing his way throughout his career, and since he arrived in Utah, he’s also been exploring what the city has to offer. He’s hiked the Living Room Trail, visited the hot springs and traveled even further south to see the canyons. “I just kind of get lost up there,” he says. “I know a few times, we’ve been up there when it was dark—figured out that’s not our cup of tea.”
Utah has been a turning point for Markkanen, too. While he hasn’t had much time to really see Salt Lake City like that—he was playing for Finland in the EuroBasket this summer when the trade went down—he felt a “mental shift” from the minute he touched down in the city for training camp.
“Getting traded, first of all, and then arriving here, I think just kind of flipped the switch in my mindset,” he says. “I thought I did everything I was asked to a year ago, and then to see the business side of basketball and still get traded. I kind of go out there and try to play my best every night. That really motivated me as well.”
When asked how he’s managed to make such a massive leap within just a year, Markkanen admits that he’s always had the individual goal of wanting to become an All-Star. But to actually make that happen, he gives credit to his support system. “Coach [Will] Hardy has been doing a great job in just empowering the whole team and trying to play everybody [to] their strengths,” Markkanen explains. “And so, we’re all working toward a bigger goal, and it’s been a big part of why I’ve been able to do that—just getting the help and watching film, and again, back to that teammate thing, I’m not doing it by myself. A lot of my scoring, for example, is assisted baskets. They’re coming off my teammate’s passes, so they’ve been finding me, giving me good looks, and then I just gotta be able to knock them down. So I always give the biggest credit to my teammates and coaches.”
Clarkson is quick to show him love right back. “This year, as a player, seeing what the defenses are throwing at him and how he’s adjusting has been amazing,” he says, when asked about Markkanen’s growth. “It’s one of those things [where]—I’ve been around stars, major stars. Bron, Kobe. Seeing Don [Donovan Mitchell] last year as a young star. Seeing [Lauri] come into his own as a star, it’s been amazing.”
Regardless of what the outcome of this season is, there’s power in Clarkson, Markkanen and the whole team keeping everything in perspective. To move up in the Western Conference standings, and solidify themselves as playoff contenders, they’ll have to keep that same energy, and keep it pushing.
“I know it sounds crazy, but stick with the process,” Clarkson tells Markkanen. “The biggest thing you can always say: it’s never a failure, it’s just a learning experience. Next time, I know how you are, how you get to work. You ’gon figure it out. Next time that happens, he’s ’gon be prepared for it.”
SLAM 243 is also available in this exclusive Gold Metal Edition and Cover Tee.
Portraits by Marcus Stevens.
