CHICAGO - Born in Tampa, Florida 27 summers ago, he was raised in San Antonio, Texas where he starred at Karen Wagner High before heading off to Oklahoma and Missouri for college.
After turning pro in 2014, he was drafted by Washington, traded to Los Angeles, and then shipped to Cleveland. All in the space of six NBA seasons.
Life and basketball had taken Jordan Clarkson to many pretty places. Right now, though, Utah feels like home.
In the four games since joining the Jazz in a mildly surprising December 23 trade, Clarkson's new team has gone unbeaten, adding the Chicago Bulls to their growing list of recent victims following a tight 102-98 road kill today at the United Center,
Clarkson had a 23-minute call of duty and answered with an efficient 12 points off 3-of-8 made field goals including three 3s. His four-game totals since migrating from East to West conference has risen to 60 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
Jordan Clarkson isn't just giving Utah a shot in the arm. He has provided a defibrillator to an offense that once was punchless and predictable. The Jazz were 29th in the league in bench scoring before JC came on board. Now they're 4-0.
That's not happenstance, more like an expected circumstance from a proven scorer who made a serious run at the Sixth Man of the Year award last season and dropped 33 points on the Memphis Grizzlies during his last game as a Cavalier last December 20.
Like most shooters, Jordan can get cold and missing during stretches, but by the same token, when he gets into a rhythm and catches fire, an entire fire department cannot extinguish his flame.
Resident star Donovon Mitchell is comforted by that thought. He no longer has to carry Utah like a backpack and the team has improved to 22-12, second place in the Northwest Division behind the 24-10 Denver Nuggets and tied for fifth overall in the loaded Western Conference.
While he appears to be doing just fine integrating himself into the Jazz offense, the toil and inconveniences of abruptly being plucked from one city and planted quickly to another is something that he is still trying to get settled into.
"Taking it day by day," and trying to "figure out things." he told a pair of PhilBoxing.com reporters I assigned to cover the Jazz's lone visit to Chicago in this ongoing NBA cycle.
Asked about playing some 3 during his short tenure under rookie Cavs coach Jim Beilein's system, Jordan didn't want to be stuck with labels.
"Just being out there, plays being called. It's the same thing for me. It's becoming position-less basketball now so when I'm out there there's no 1, 2 or 3..."
Per the Salt Lake City Tribune, Jordan will likely be playing heavily as a shooting guard in Utah. His primary role is to spark the offense when Mitchell is taking a blow or is mired in foul trouble.
Jordan's 3-point accuracy has increased significantly from 32.4 percent last season to 36.9 percent this season. The uptick isn't caused by hiring a shooting coach or tweaking his mechanics, which is something Lonzo Ball of the New Orleans Pelicans has reportedly done.
"I'm just taking more shots and they are getting in," said Clarkson, who is hoisting an average of 5.5 three-point attempts this season, a slight increase from the 4.2 per that he has chucked through 414 NBA regular season games so far, according to BasketballReference.com.
A free agent this coming July, Jordan is in the last year of four-year $50 million deal. While so much dollars are at stake as he enters the prime of his athletic life, Clarkson insists that this walk year is something that has been shelved in the back burner and he is not allowing that thought to linger.
"I ain't worried about that. I don't worry about the next day. And that's it," he emphasized.
Interviewing Jordan Clarkson without asking about Gilas Pilipinas is like hosting a big, fat Filipino party without the delectable lechon on the spread. So my guys Andrew Schroeder and Japheth Bandi revisited that frequently discussed topic.
"I played in the Asian Games, missed the World Cup," he said while carefully parsing his words and appearing to be seemingly worn down by FIBA restrictions and NBA regulations that have hindered his Gilas participation.
But as he thanked his fans for the continued support, Jordan assured them that "at some point in the future I'll be back there."
With snow-capped mountains looming over Salt Lake City this time of year, it's colder out there in Utah. And with the altitude so high, the air is thinner, too.
But from an NBA standpoint, the grass is spectacularly a lot greener for Jordan Clarkson.
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