As I walked into the brightly lit, wood-paneled home locker room of the Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, home of the upstart Northern Arizona Suns, I was greeted as an outsider. One can assume G League teams don’t get much media attention. As the players saw me stride toward Tariq Owens, signed to two-way contract on Tuesday, they busted up.
“First you get a two-way contract, now you’re doing interviews?” joked Shawndre Jones as Owens readied himself for my questions.
It wasn’t unlike walking into the Phoenix locker room this year, where camaraderie and positivity have reappeared after nearly a decade in a coma.