After surviving five losing seasons in Atlanta, Jason Terry uses Don Nelson’s lessons on joy and mentorship to guide Utah’s young roster through a grueling franchise rebuild.
Utah Jazz assistant Jason Terry knows exactly what five straight losing seasons can take from an NBA player.
Because by the end of his time with the Atlanta Hawks, losing had taken something from him that no box score could measure.
Terry says he was beginning to lose his love for basketball.
The Hawks posted losing records in each of Terry's five seasons after selecting him No. 10 overall in 1999, never winning more than 35 games during that stretch. He was then traded to Dallas in 2004, where playing for Hall of Fame coach Don Nelson changed considerably more than his place in the standings.
Nelson, Terry told Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson following the legendary coach's death Sunday, "brought the love and the joy back" to basketball for him.
"Not only was it how Don coached and ran the team, but it was more of the person he was and our interaction off the court which really gave me that love," Terry said, via Scoop B.
More than two decades later, Terry is sitting on the other side of that relationship.
And his current workplace makes the lesson particularly relevant.
Terry has been an assistant on Will Hardy's staff since 2022, following coaching stops at Arizona and as head coach of the G League's Grand Rapids Gold.
Utah's rebuild has produced four consecutive losing seasons during that span, including a franchise-worst 17-65 record in 2024-25.
That doesn't mean Ace Bailey, Terrell Brown Jr. or any other Jazz player is losing his enjoyment of basketball.
There's no evidence of that.
In Bailey's case, Terry is saying essentially the opposite.
The Jazz assistant described the 2025 No. 5 overall pick as a "quick learner" and "hard worker" whose approach to basketball and time in the gym is "infectious."
"He's a hoop-a-holic, a gym rat," Terry told Robinson.
Terry's influence on developing players isn't limited to Utah's former top-five pick.
The Jazz recently signed Brown, Terry's godson and someone he has known since long before either arrived in Utah. Brown has previously discussed drawing inspiration from Terry's evolution from a full-time starter into one of the NBA's premier reserves while attempting to carve out his own lasting NBA role.
There's no reporting suggesting Terry played any role in bringing Brown to Utah.
But the reunion does provide another example of the type of perspective Terry can offer players navigating considerably different stages of their careers.
That's where Nelson's influence becomes particularly interesting.
Terry experienced five losing seasons as a young player. He experienced what changed when he entered a winning organization and developed a meaningful relationship with his head coach. Then he spent 19 seasons adjusting to different teams and roles before eventually moving into coaching himself.
The Jazz can't eliminate the difficult parts of rebuilding simply by having accomplished former players on the coaching staff ... but Terry understands them.
Nelson once helped Terry rediscover something losing had started taking away.
Utah's young players don't necessarily need that same intervention.
But while the Jazz continue asking Bailey and company to develop through the difficult parts of a rebuild, having someone who understands how much the environment around that development can matter certainly isn't a bad resource to have.
