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Jazz head coach Will Hardy is clearly fed up with his team’s effort levels amid a brutal start to the 2025-26 NBA season.
Hardy was captured on video laying into his players during a timeout, and he didn’t mince any words when addressing the team’s effort during a game against the reigning-champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
“I’m tired of f—ing doing this every game,” Hardy was heard saying in a now-viral video on X. “F—ing play harder!”
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The Thunder silenced the Jazz, 131-101, despite playing without the league’s reigning MVP winner, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, on Sunday night.
But Gilgeous-Alexander’s absence didn’t slow down the Thunder from burying their three-point attempts, as they hit 21 on the night and it started immediately in the first quarter. They outscored the Jazz, 45-20, immediately creating a lead that would only get bigger as the game went on.
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It’s been a rough start for the Jazz this season, as they are now 8-15. However, they are not the worst team in the Western Conference, sitting 12th out of 15 teams in the standings entering Monday.
But Utah is coming off back-to-back blowouts, having been crushed by the New York Knicks, 146-112, this past Friday. Hardy, having never put together a winning season with the Jazz since taking over as their head coach during the 2022-23 season, is clearly sending a message that he needs to see more out of his guys.
Hardy owns a 93-176 career record as head coach of the Jazz, and he’s coming off his worst campaign with a 17-65 record.
Utah has been trying to rebuild itself since they moved on from Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell in the 2022 offseason, but they’ve yet to put together the right pieces to become a playoff threat.
However, there’s promise on paper, with guard Keynote George doing well now in his third season. He’s averaging 22.2 points per game, while the Jazz just took exciting rookie guard Ace Bailey out of Rutgers in this year’s NBA Draft.
Lauri Markkanen also remains the team’s focal point, as the Finnish forward is currently on pace for a career high in points (27.6 per game), while averaging 6.5 rebounds and two assists as well.
Hardy is hoping he can notch his first career playoff appearance as a head coach, but it won’t happen if he doesn’t see better effort moving forward.
The Jazz will be back on the court against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday.
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