Gordon Monson: You should get to know better the best college basketball player in all of Utah. The NBA knows him.
The fact that he does his business at Weber State — and gave up hundreds of thousands of dollars in NIL money to keep on doing so — shouldn’t dissuade you one bit. There once was another player at Weber who got overshadowed by a fellow in Provo with a more memorable nickname — Jimmer — and that Wildcat — Damian Lillard — ended up being the best basketball player ever produced by a school around here.
Weber State Wildcats forward Dillon Jones shoots as Brigham Young Cougars guard Trevin Knell defends, in basketball action between the Brigham Young Cougars and the Weber State Wildcats at Vivint Arena, on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020. As for his career totals, Jones ranks in the top 10 at Weber State all time in 10 different categories, including first in steals, second in assists, third in rebounds and fifth in points.
The area where he lived was sandwiched on a crooked line between desperation and despair, a neighborhood that is far less than privileged and in some cases, as he puts it, “dangerous.”“I saw things most people never see,” he says. “I saw a lot of good and a lot of bad, people making good decisions and bad decisions. It taught me what I should be doing. … It’s a place where you’re not going to be given anything. So, I worked and worked.