Quin Snyder, along with the team he now coaches, the Atlanta Hawks, arrived in Salt Lake City on Thursday, and the former Utah Jazz head coach immediately embarked on a trip down memory lane.
Less than two years ago, Snyder resigned as coach of the Jazz in June 2022, a position he held for eight years. Two years doesn’t seem like a long time, but leaving behind his life in Utah, where he and his family created so many memories, makes that era feel much more distant in time.
“I drove to our old house in Twickenham,” Snyder said. “I wanted to take a look at (the house) we lived in when I got here. I sent some photos to my children. Just a lot of fun memories.
Between his walks on familiar streets and meals in familiar places, Snyder has tried to stick to his normal routine (as normal as a routine can be for an NBA coach on the road). But he found himself drawn to nostalgia.
Snyder and Hawks assistant coach Igor Kokoskov went to Publik for coffee, as they did when Kokoskov was an assistant under Snyder in Utah from 2015-18.
“It’s great to be back,” Snyder said. “I just remembered so many people who touched your life.”
On Friday, Snyder returned to the Delta Center for the first time since his resignation and it reminded us how many lives he touched but also how different things are now.
A video tribute to Snyder was released before tipoff and although Snyder is still the same lean, serious man dressed in black, he is older and has a different demeanor than when he was coach who managed Donovan Mitchell and Rudy. Gobert Jazz through its early years.
He now wears red-rimmed glasses that are visibly reminiscent of the team he now coaches, and he entered the Delta Center as a visitor to play against a team unrecognizable to him, except for Jordan Clarkson.
The Jazz have suffered complete destruction and are in a rebuilding phase and there isn’t much that resembles what the team was when Snyder was leading the charge. He’s different, the team is different and he faces a whole different set of obstacles as a coach with the Hawks.
There are no regrets or doubts for Snyder. He left Utah thinking it was time for a change – both for himself and the team – and he was one of the first to contact his successor, Will Hardy, when the rookie head coach been hired.
“I have great respect for him as a coach,” Hardy said. “He’s someone I’ve communicated with over the years. He was always very generous with me, very kind to me. And when the transition happened and I came, he contacted me and just sent me a very positive message about his experience in Utah and told me he was very happy for me to come here.
The two were briefly on the San Antonio Spurs staff in 2010, but that was enough to create a mutual respect between Snyder and Hardy that has lasted 14 years and counting.
“He was always brilliant and he was always a great human being,” Snyder said. “I’m happy for him and what he’s doing here. I think he’s a great coach and he’s not afraid to be who he is, whether tactically or schematically. I wish him good luck and I’m glad you have such a good coach here. I have a lot of respect for him.
Snyder will certainly return to Utah several times in the years to come. It’s hard to imagine he’ll ever step away from basketball for very long — his self-imposed hiatus from basketball lasted less than a year before taking the Hawks job in February 2023. He there won’t be a tribute video every time and there won’t always be the same fanfare. But each time, Snyder will remember the life he built, the wins and the losses, and Jazz fans will remember an era of Jazz basketball that won’t be easily forgotten.
