Ace Bailey’s Summer League debut with the Utah Jazz came and went without much incident, as the No. 5 overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft put up eight points and seven rebounds in a win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
It wasn’t a stellar scoring night from the Rutgers product and Sixers fans were thrilled to see VJ Edgecombe, whom they selected over Bailey, show out with 28 points and 10 boards. Still, given all the drama surrounding Bailey’s selection on Draft night and the questions about whether the Jazz were one of the teams Bailey’s manager, Omar Cooper, told not to take him under threat of him not reporting, it was nice for the Jazz and Bailey to move forward to being able to talk about actual basketball.
However, the saga won’t come to a close without one more eyebrow raising bit of news, courtesy of ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, who reported the Jazz planned on having Cooper’s son, Omar Cooper Jr., serve as a guest coach on the Jazz’s Summer League staff until the NBA stepped in and had Utah scrap those plans.
The Jazz intended to help ease Bailey’s transition to the NBA by having Omar Cooper Jr. — the son of Bailey’s advisor who just finished his career at McNeese State and plans to enter coaching — serve as an unpaid guest coach during summer league. That plan was called off after the league office contacted the Jazz to raise concerns, sources told ESPN.
It should be noted that Summer League coaching staffs quite often feature various back of the bench assistants, video coordinators and members of the G League staff getting a chance to take on elevated positions. Even so, the league apparently draws the line at having a first time coach who is the son of a top draft pick’s manager stepping into a coaching role.
If there’s a positive spin out of this for Jazz fans, it’s that there is clearly not a strain on the relationship between the organization and Bailey’s representation if they were willing to try having Cooper Jr. on staff for Summer League. Unfortunately for Cooper Jr., there was apparently too much noise about his father over the last month for the NBA to feel comfortable letting that happen, and we can put one final, bizarre bow on this year’s messiest Draft drama.
