The Instagram picture was innocuous: eight Golden State Warriors posing together in a dark room.
The caption, written by Stephen Curry, had a little more bite: “#nightlife.”
That spoke to some comments in last season’s playoffs when several Warriors players told ESPN they would’ve preferred to play the Clippers instead of the Jazz in the second round, because Utah didn’t have much “nightlife.” It sparked a line of shirts that Jazz fans wore to one of the playoff games.
So when Curry posted a photo after he and seven of teammates went to The Escape Key in downtown Salt Lake City, he gave a little shoutout to that brief episode in Warriors-Jazz history.
“Thought you’d like that one,” Curry said. “We had a good time. Good team bonding.”
The Escape Key is a business cresting on a growing trend of “escape” rooms around the country (and in Utah) that require guests to find clues and solve their way out of themed mystery rooms. Omri Casspi joined Curry, Draymond Green, JaVale McGee, Nick Young, Zaza Pachulia, Jordan Bell and Andre Iguodala in the adventure blocks away from the team hotel.
“We have a night off in Utah, the guys came together and the guys said, ‘Let’s do it,’” Casspi said. “Everybody did their part. It was fun. We got to see eight NBA players in one little room. It was kind of hot in there, everybody did their part to get out.”
Casspi wasn’t with the team when the comments were made, but demurred from making any more judgments about Salt Lake City’s nightlife, or lack thereof.
“When I’m in New York, I do the same thing as Utah: I go to sleep,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to me, even though Utah has always been nice every time I’ve been. When you go out to dinner here, the team is part of the culture here and the fans seem super engaged. So it’s fun.”
Hood misses fifth straight game
The Jazz were again without the services of Rodney Hood, who missed his fifth straight game with what the team has called a lower left leg contusion.
Hood, who is averaging a career-high 16.7 points this season, has played in 36 games this season and is shooting 38.6 percent from 3-point range.
Several media outlets reported earlier on Tuesday that Hood — who has been on the trading block this last month — was being pursued by the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls, among other teams.
