{"id":517048,"date":"2026-01-05T00:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T00:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/517048\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T00:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T00:06:13","slug":"walker-kessler-joins-the-jazz-on-the-road-heres-why-thats-so-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/517048\/","title":{"rendered":"Walker Kessler joins the Jazz on the road. Here\u2019s why that\u2019s so important"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was first published as the Jazz Insiders<\/a> newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Friday.<\/p>\n

Walker Kessler played just five games before his 2025-26 season was cut short<\/a>. On Nov. 6 he underwent surgery<\/a> on his left shoulder and since then he\u2019s been working toward getting to a point where he could travel with the Utah Jazz once again.<\/p>\n

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That point came this week. Kessler joined the Jazz on their four-game road trip that started in Los Angeles and was overjoyed to be able to travel with the team again.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s taken up some new hobbies while being physically restricted during rehab, like playing online chess (he said he\u2019s not very good), and he\u2019s been working through Stephen King\u2019s \u201cThe Stand\u201d as well as \u201cMeditations\u201d by Marcus Aurelius. But being with the team has completely changed his disposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told Walker today that I missed yelling at him,\u201d Jazz coach Will Hardy<\/a> said with a laugh. \u201cHe\u2019s a big part of our program. He has relationships, obviously, with all of his teammates, a lot of the coaches. It\u2019s nice to have him back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kessler had been able to have loved ones and friends in Utah at times over the last couple of months, and he\u2019d been at the Jazz practice facility most days and the Delta Center on game nights, but that doesn\u2019t mean that the rehab process hasn\u2019t been difficult.<\/p>\n

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\u201cRehab is very isolating,\u201d Hardy said. \u201cHe\u2019s been in the team film sessions, but you\u2019re not on the court with the guys. You\u2019re not really in the weight room with the guys in the same way. The treatment is different, the workouts are different. It can be really isolating.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso you\u2019re not playing in the game, and so you don\u2019t feel it the same way that your teammates do. Similar to Taylor (Hendricks) last year, getting Walker on the road with us is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kessler said that he\u2019s thankful that his injury was an upper-body injury so it hasn\u2019t limited his ability to get around and that it was to his non-dominant arm, meaning that he\u2019s got by with daily activities without struggling too much. But the physical part of rehabbing is often not the hardest part.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s tried to focus on small victories. Last week he was able to take the sling off his arm, which was a sign of progress in his recovery. Getting back on the road with the team is another victory in the recovery process.<\/p>\n

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New with the JazzFrom the archivesExtra points<\/p>\n

\u2018Guys are just tired of losing\u2019: Walter Clayton Jr. steps up in Jazz win (Deseret News<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Lauri Markkanen among West\u2019s top 20 after first All-Star voting returns (Deseret News<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Jusuf Nurki\u0107 raves about support and opportunity with Utah Jazz (Deseret News<\/a>)<\/p>\n

In loss to Clippers, Jazz\u2019s Kyle Anderson shows why experience matters (Deseret News<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Around the leagueUp next<\/p>\n

Jan. 5 | 8 p.m. MST | Utah Jazz @ Portland Trail Blazers | KJZZ<\/p>\n

Jan. 7 | 6 p.m. MST | Utah Jazz @ Oklahoma City Thunder | KJZZ<\/p>\n

Jan. 8 | 7 p.m. MST | Utah Jazz vs. Dallas Mavericks | KJZZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was first published as the Jazz Insiders newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[7,75,559,149,9924,1957,423,5088,2870,976,251,6,253,302,179,471,4315,5592,422,427,3972,1405,2130],"class_list":{"0":"post-517048","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-utah-jazz","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston-celtics","10":"tag-clippers","11":"tag-dallas-mavericks","12":"tag-delta-center","13":"tag-deseret-news","14":"tag-jazz","15":"tag-jusuf-nurkic","16":"tag-kyle-anderson","17":"tag-lauri-markkanen","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-nikola-jokic","21":"tag-nuggets","22":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","23":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","24":"tag-salt-lake-city","25":"tag-the-jazz","26":"tag-utah","27":"tag-utah-jazz","28":"tag-utahjazz","29":"tag-walker-kessler","30":"tag-walter-clayton-jr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115839577848268774","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}