Q&A with Collin Sexton from the Utah Jazz

At a recent all-company meeting at our LVT headquarters, we were joined by Utah Jazz point guard Collin Sexton for a Q&A. LVT is a Utah Jazz partner and patch sponsor. Here’s a snippet of our conversation with him and what he had to say about team values, hard work, and leadership.

Collin Sexton: Thank y'all for having me. I'm super excited to be here. I'll just say for my team, to you guys, thank you for being a sponsor and just continuing to root for us each and every night. We really appreciate it.

Derek Boggs: On behalf of the group, I can say we're honored to be a patch on the jersey, a part of the team as much as possible. We've been told we're a part of the Jazz family, and then we consider you guys and yourself, Collin, a part of the LVT family. So let's give them a warm welcome again. So a couple questions for Collin and then we'll open up to some Q&A. So if you have any questions, start thinking about them. It's not every day you get Collin in front of you here, so a good opportunity. I already asked if he would let me play some tramp ball with him later so ... we'll talk about that later.

We all know we have our value of "chew the strap." Right? It means we do what needs to be done in the moment. We make sure we overcome obstacles. And Collin, I want the group to hear from you. When have you hit an obstacle in your career and how did you approach that? What was your mindset?

CS: I would say two seasons ago. I had an injury, tore my meniscus, and I felt like it was an obstacle just because I love the game so much and I didn't realize how much I cared about basketball and how much I loved it until it was taken away from me. So I feel like sometimes with obstacles, they pretty much shape you into becoming that much stronger. I felt like it was a little obstacle that I was faced with, but it wasn't going to be the end of me. I felt like it was something that allowed me to understand myself and understand what else I liked, and understand that I'm not just a basketball player.

When I was asked "What do you do?"—I play basketball. That was always the first answer, and I realized that basketball is not what I do. It's just a part of me, so I'm bigger than that. I'm a person for the community. I'm a person for my family. I'm a God-fearing person. I felt like all those things make me who I am and then basketball comes in as well, so I had to understand that. And I feel like obstacles are sometimes put in your way just to allow you to see how strong you really are and how you can bounce back.

DB: I love that answer. Love that answer. Another company value we have is "do right." It's do right by each other, do right by the company, but also do right by your family, right? It's a job.

CS: Absolutely. 

And I feel like what you're saying about doing right is also just showing love. That's our motto at the gym is “show love.” At the end of the day, just find one person that you can just say, "You're doing good today. I appreciate you. Thank you." Those things go a long way. And as a company, I know there may be rough days, just like we have rough days, tough days when we're tired, our feet hurt, and legs. But it's like sometimes when your teammates are there to pick you up, that's what you need to continue to move forward.

DB: Yeah, 100%. Love it. All right, last question I have for you. Coach Hardy. You quoted what you asked of Coach Hardy this year. It's a pretty famous quote. You said, "Coach, coach me hard." Why'd you ask that of him?

CS: I feel like sometimes you need someone to coach you as hard and push you to be the best you can. I told him, "Don't take anything short. Let me make sure. If I'm messing up, let me know. If I need to do better, let me know. Even last night, I missed the first couple of shots and he was like, "You really suck right now." He was like, "You got to pick it up." So little things like that allow me to know he's still with me. He's going to just continue to push me. And I feel like it's just like your parents. Your parents want the best for you and sometimes they're really hard on you and it helps you become who you are. I know that's something that I've always needed.

I need someone to push me. I need someone to coach me up. I don't want to feel like I'm just getting over it and I'm getting through it. I want someone to let me know. It's just like friends. Sometimes you got to have people in your life that's going to tell you, "No." And sometimes you got to have people in your life that's going to tell you, "Yes." So sometimes, friends are the ones that sometimes you don't want to hear the nos, but it helps you become stronger.

As a group, sometimes you got to be the one to just to be the leader.

DB: Yeah, 100%. 

CS: All in love. Yeah. 

DB: That's the only way we get better. I think we all know and can watch the way Collin plays, and you look at the Utah Jazz, you look at the league, and I don't see anybody that plays the game harder than this guy. You see it in every aspect. You see it in his face. I love watching you play. The animation on your face, you're always in it. So I think if there's anything we can learn, it's just about that hard work, being challenged, and looking to overcome.

CS: I would say something that I pride myself is being better than yesterday. Just try to be better. 1% each and every day. Just try to just show them, "Okay. When I'm out here, I'm giving 110%." At the end of the day, I try to tell myself, "I may not make shots today, I may not make shots tomorrow, but I can give 110%." It may not feel the best, but you can try to keep going and keep going. I feel like I had to realize that you don't understand how far you can push yourself until you get to that point where you're like, "I don't know how much more I have," and you have that much more. So that's how I look at it.

DB: I love it. All right, we'll open it up for Q&A.

Speaker 1: Collin, last night, we were at the game. You say that Coach said you stunk in the game, but he used five expletives before "stink." He was hard on you last night, right? 

CS: Yes.

S1: Up and down the court. I mean, he went the distance of the court several times. I heard you say to him, in one of the huddles towards the end of the third quarter, "I love you." How do you find that? I was so wildly impressed with the team. And you'd come back, you'd take the input, but you were right back in it. How do you find the mindset to rise above it? I mean, a lot of us, we're challenged with that, right? Someone comes down hard on us, we get defensive. We watched you last night and you didn't. And it was all about, "Hey, I've got a job to do. I've got to learn," and I love it. How do you do it? Teach us.

CS: I would say just picking out the message. Through the screaming, through the motivation, through everything, just picking out the message. At the end of the day, if I'm screaming at you, try to find the good in what he's saying. Try to find the little pieces. "Okay, I can take away. I don't hear you screaming at me. I can hear you just motivating me," and that's something that I grew up with. My parents, they'll let me and my brother know, "Okay, y'all are messing up. Y'all need to do this, do that," and we had to understand the messages. It's not to put you down. The message is to build you up.

And sometimes, we scream at each other on the floor like, "Yo, I need your help. You got to come help me," and it's more on the fact that I need you. Just like we're here, everyone here has a job to do and they need the next person next to them to sometimes pick you up and continue to move forward. That's how I look at it. And it's a team. We're all a team. We have a saying that, "If one person eats, we all eat," and I feel like that's the big thing about it.

Speaker 2: Collin, I feel like I can speak for a lot of us when I say we're huge Jazz fans and we've seen how much you've been able to grow this year and improve. In a year of such extreme growth for you personally, what do you feel is the most important lesson you've learned that you would share with maybe your teammates or even just all of us?

CS: I would say your time is coming. That's how I look at it. Your time is coming. Don't stop what you're doing now just because of your position. At the beginning of the season, I wasn't starting. But every day, I was coming in 7:00 AM, 6:30, shooting because I knew my time was coming. And I have to tell people all the time is when your time is here, don't prepare before. Be prepared because it's coming. So I felt like that's one thing that I've always told myself is whenever the opportunity comes and shows itself, I'm going to be ready.

And it's just like the game. If you're ready for the game, you prepare. So you don't get nervous, you don't worry because already you've done the things that lead up to it. It's just like if you feel like you cut corners each and every day, then you're only going to fool yourself. So if you come in each and every day and put your best foot forward and work hard for the next person, but also work hard for yourself, then you're going to get the best out of it.

S2: Thank you.

CS: Absolutely. 

DB: Love it. All right, let's give him a round of applause everybody. Collin, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you.

CS: Thank y’all for having me.

We’re glad we got some time with Collin Sexton and grateful for the lessons he shared with us from the court. To learn more about LVT and who we are, head to our Who is LVT page.

Also, click here for a chance to win a Utah Jazz jersey.