Joe Ingles doesn’t know the first thing about modern video gaming.
While his teammates spend their free time streaming Call of Duty on Twitch, Ingles apparently still considers Mario Kart on Nintendo 64 to be gaming’s gold standard. So Ingles isn’t exactly sure what he’ll do with the PlayStation 5 he got for Christmas.
“I might have a $2,000 DVD player,” he says.
But Ingles knows this for sure: the person who gave him the console knows how to keep spirits high in an NBA locker room.
“I’m not a video game guy,” Ingles said. “But Mike Conley is a very, very good teammate.”
Looks like @MCONLEY10 hooked the squad up #PS5
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Epics via @JordanClarksons & @elijahhughes4_ IG story #JazzNation #UtahJazz #TakeNote pic.twitter.com/HQalwwPmqs
— JazzNation (@JazzNationNews) December 29, 2020
Conley, the Utah Jazz’s veteran point guard, gifted one of the highly coveted PS5 consoles to each of his teammates this week
“That was love,” guard Jordan Clarkson said. “A great Christmas gift. Everybody’s been kind of thirsting over those.”
From vets to rookies, player after player took to Instagram and Twitter to than Conley this week — as if his hot play to start the season, hadn’t made him popular enough.
On Monday, Conley finished one assist shy of a triple-double in the Jazz’s win over Oklahoma City.
“My mindset was simple,” he said after the game. “Just to win tonight. After the way we played against Minnesota, the effort we showed, I just wanted to come out and put my stamp on the game and play my role to the best of my ability.”
The point guard is averaging 19.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5 assists per game to start his second season in Utah.
“He’s playing really well,” Ingles said. “I’ve seen that kind of consistency and that level that he’s played at for a long time. I don’t think it’s just recently. … Mike is Mike. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s playing that way. It’s what I expected. That’s just Mike.”
Ingles added, “He’s the same every day. He comes in and gets he’s work in and obviously he’s playing at a very high level which is great for our group.”
Kindness and giving is Conley’s M.O., too. The 33-year-old has been active in community service in both Memphis and Salt Lake City over the course of his 14 years in the league.
That generosity extends to his teammates as well.
“Most of the teams I’ve been on, we’ve had a secret Santa, stuff like that,” Clarkson said. “But Mike’s probably the biggest gift giver I’ve had.”
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