{"id":754325,"date":"2026-06-06T21:21:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T21:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/754325\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T21:21:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T21:21:38","slug":"nba-finals-cant-go-home-again-jordan-clarkson-begs-to-differ-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/754325\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Finals: Can\u2019t go home again? Jordan Clarkson begs to differ \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jordan Clarkson feels right at home in the NBA Finals. It\u2019s because he literally gets to be at home.<\/p>\n

The New York Knicks guard and former Utah Jazzman grew up in San Antonio, not far from where the Knicks and Spurs are battling it out for an NBA title<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And Clarkson isn\u2019t the only one on the Knicks roster that is familiar with the surroundings in San Antonio. Teammate and two-way player, Kevin McCullar Jr. went to the same high school as Clarkson \u2014 Wagner High \u2014 though many years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely feels amazing, kind of unreal, honestly, just growing up in this city, having a teammate that went to the same high school as me,\u201d Clarkson told the San Antonio News Express<\/a>. \u201cPlaying the state championship games, just a lot of growth here as a kid. So this definitely feels great and seeing my family members, them being able to come to a finals game. It\u2019s just amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJordan\u2019s an amazing player. When you talk about sixth men, you have to bring his name in to the conversation. He\u2019s been a spark on whatever team he\u2019s been on. It\u2019s a testament to all the work he puts in. He\u2019s honed his craft. He\u2019s an exciting player to watch. I just tip my cap to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Spurs forward Keldon Johnson<\/p>\n

Clarkson\u2019s brother, Bear, and other family members have been posting regularly on social media about the excitement in San Antonio with the return of the NBA Finals, but make no mistake, the Clarkson family are all wearing blue and orange and are full-fledged Knicks fans (for now) hoping that they\u2019ll be able to see Clarkson and the rest of the New York squad raise the Larry O\u2019Brien trophy.<\/p>\n

Though Clarkson has played across the country, for the Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Utah Jazz and now New York Knicks, he has always kept a strong base where his roots are. His parents still live in San Antonio and when Clarkson\u2019s daughter is not with him, she also lives in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

He spends a lot of his offseason down in Texas and has always maintained a good relationship with the community and his alma mater.<\/p>\n

Across the court, on the Spurs roster, there\u2019s a lot of respect for the San Antonio native as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cJordan\u2019s an amazing player,\u201d Spurs forward Keldon Johnson, the 2026 NBA Sixth Man of the Year, told the San Antonio News Express. \u201cWhen you talk about sixth men, you have to bring his name in to the conversation. He\u2019s been a spark on whatever team he\u2019s been on. It\u2019s a testament to all the work he puts in. He\u2019s honed his craft. He\u2019s an exciting player to watch. I just tip my cap to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, Clarkson won the Sixth Man of the Year<\/a> award while with the Jazz back in 2021. Since then, he helped guide young players through the Jazz rebuild before joining the Knicks roster last summer. His role has diminished, compared to what it once was, but at times he\u2019s helped the Knicks in big games off the bench.<\/p>\n

When Clarkson was a kid, he used to hang around at the hotel where his mom worked and he has mentioned watching the Spurs championship parades from there and enjoying the excitement of the city celebrating the hometown team. <\/p>\n

Although Clarkson enjoys being able to play in San Antonio and have his family all there supporting him, he\u2019s hoping that he can take that excitement back to New York and end up in parade with the Knicks rather than watching another one roll through San Antonio.<\/p>\n

The Knicks started out things the right way, winning Game 1 of the Finals in San Antonio on Wednesday night. Game 2 is set to tip off at 6:30 MDT on Friday on ESPN.<\/p>\n

\"\"Utah Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson (00) drives the ball during an NBA game against the Sacramento Kings held at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jordan Clarkson feels right at home in the NBA Finals. It\u2019s because he literally gets to be at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[7,423,6,1111,422,427,3972],"class_list":["post-754325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-utah-jazz","tag-basketball","tag-jazz","tag-nba","tag-news-feed-local","tag-utah","tag-utah-jazz","tag-utahjazz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116705262795851155","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754325","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=754325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}