A Look Back: Jason Terry
by Tucson Citizen on Nov. 11, 2006, under SportsThe ultimate in unselfishness
Jason Terry acknowledges Arizona basketball fans celebrating the championship at McKale Center.
He was the ultimate role player. His move to the bench in the 1996-97 season made him one of the best team players.
When guard Jason Terry went to Lute Olson to say he’d move to the bench so Miles Simon could get his starting position back, it made him an example UA coaches still use today.
“It was easy for me to do that, because I know what I could do,” Terry said. “I was putting up 16 points a game in the first part of the season and I knew I could play. What we needed was scoring off the bench. Miles was the best player on the team that year. When he came back (from academic problems) I figured I’d take a back seat.”
Said Simon: “That’s how you win championships because of unselfish people like that.”
Terry turned the job into a niche, providing UA with a spark off the bench in the season’s second half. He later made news when – because of restlessness – he decided to wear his game jersey to bed the night before the Kansas game. He did it the rest of the NCAA Tournament.
“I wanted to do something special to help get us through it,” Terry said. “It was nerve-racking. I couldn’t sleep.” So he put on the jersey and went to bed.
Four games later, Arizona was a national champion.
> What he’s doing now:
Terry is in his third year with the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks after five years in Atlanta. He entered this season with a career scoring average of 15.3 points per game.
