Utah Jazz’s Dante Exum on injury recovery, Ben Simmons and Call of Duty

Dante Exum hasn’t had the best luck with injuries through his first few seasons of the league, but the Utah Jazz point guard has some big goals for his career upon his return to action from his shoulder injury.

A part of the talented 2014 NBA Draft class that includes some of the league’s best young talent at the moment, Exum is currently waiting on his opportunity to get back into action after an injury, just two years after a torn ACL ended his rookie year. He is out after undergoing surgery to repair his injured shoulder, but took time out to talk about all sorts of topics in both NBA and gaming.

Between his thoughts on Gordon Hayward’s injury, his friend Ben Simmons getting started in the NBA and even some questions about their connection through Call of Duty, Exum went through it all in his time speaking with us, just after finishing up a stream of him and Simmons battling in the Call of Duty world.

You can read the full transcript of our conversation below:

You’re obviously working to get back from your shoulder injury now, how’s the recovery going so far?

It’s been good so far, two weeks out of surgery and everything’s going fine. Just at the moment it’s about getting the range of motion back and letting the grafts heal in.

At the same time as you’ve been out, your former Jazz teammate Gordon Hayward went down for the year with his injury. What was your reaction to that whole situation, and I don’t know if you’ve gotten to talk to him, but what would tell him if you could talk to him about his recovery?

Yeah, obviously it’s tough seeing a former teammate going down and I think he’s in the right state of mind. It’s just about getting back and focusing on getting better.

Another friend of yours that’s now back from a season-ending injury is Ben Simmons. What’s it like having him playing in the NBA with you, and have you given him any advice for transitioning to the NBA?

Well, he went through the injury last year and I went through my ACL, so I just gave him advice on how to kind of go through that, and he’s always been focused and he’s been doing great so far. I’m looking forward to seeing him play against us.

You’re obviously a part of, for a lack of a better term, a loaded 2014 draft class. You’ve got guys like Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, Aaron Gordon just filling that draft class you were in. Have you had the chance to talk to any of those guys since you came into the league around the same time, or what are your thoughts on that draft class as a whole?

Obviously a lot of them are doing great in the league and I’ve gotten to talk to them on the road, I’ve played with or against a few of them, so you know I kind of have a relationship with them.

And just to go to a long-term career question, obviously you’ve been in the league for a few years now but what are some of your personal career goals that you hope to achieve to help establish a legacy?

I think the main thing to me is to keep working hard and to get back on the court and have an impact. I want to be a really good defensive player and on offense, and basically a two-way player and be known for that. It’s something I’m going to be working on in rehab now and I’m going to get better and stronger through this.

And I know Ben Simmons has expressed an interest in the whole Olympic side of the game for Australia, is that a goal of yours as well to roll with that, and what kind of goals do you have outside of the NBA?

The Olympics is obviously a goal for me, I’ve always wanted to represent my country at the highest level. I’m focused on getting healthy and making sure it’s the right thing for me at the time and go from there. It’s definitely something I want to do, though.

With the release of the new Call of Duty: WWII game last week, it seems fitting to bring up that that Ben Simmons posted a picture a while back of the two of you playing Call of Duty against each other when you were a lot younger. Do you get to play with him at any points now, or is there anyone on your team that has become a go-to guy to play games with when you have free time?

Obviously growing up, it was great. We had that connection where we played Call of Duty together. We actually haven’t played too much, I think he’s on a different console to me. It just kind of reminds us how fun it was to kind of play games together again. There’s a lot of good guys that play Xbox games and Playstation, but I don’t play with any of them at the moment. I’m just trying to get a little bit better so I can make sure I dominate them.

Are there any other players in the league you play against, and who would you say is the best Call of Duty player in the league?

I haven’t played with any of the guys in the league, but I’ve heard from the Call of Duty guys that Karl-Anthony Towns is pretty good, so hopefully in the near future we can set up something.

What is it about Call of Duty that you love so much, and what about the new game excites you in comparison to older ones?

In terms of video games, I’m into fast-paced, shooter types of games, and that’s just what Call of Duty is. Just kind of getting into the gritty, up in the face, shooter type of game. Just kind of going back to World War II and kind of the realism that’s come with it and how to implement it into the game.

If you could play a game Call of Duty against any NBA player in the league, could be someone from the past or current player that you haven’t come across yet that you’d love to talk with for the entirety of a game, who would it be and why?

Oh, that’s a tough one, you put me on the spot. I’m not too sure, but it’d probably be Ben. Just what we did, I think it was so much fun. Kind of reminiscing on the past memories that we’ve had playing Call of Duty.

Is there a lot of trash talk whenever you’re playing? I talked to Christian McCaffrey last week and he was quick to mention that trash talk is a big part of when he plays, whether it’s when he plays Call of Duty or whatever. Whether it’s with Ben or anyone else, is trash talk a big element when you guys are playing?

Yeah, I don’t know if you watched the stream, but always little comments just about how it’s going or anything. It’s kind of the competitive nature that we both have, we just want to be the best and just kind of challenge each other.

Does it get more competitive in the video game world or on the court? You may have a friendly relationship when you’re battling on the court, but what’s more competitive between the two of those?

Oh, I’d definitely have to say probably on the basketball court. It’s kind of our job, and we just want to win. With video games, it’s just a friendly kind of release and something we do for fun. I obviously won’t get to play him this week, but when I do in the near future, obviously it’ll be super competitive and we’ll both be trying to win. At the end of the day, we’re still friends, but once we’re in there, we’re trying to win.

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And just for one final one just to wrap up, if you could give a quick pitch if someone was on the fence about the new Call of Duty and doesn’t know if they should buy it. What would you say to them that you really enjoy about the game that would convince them to buy it?

I’d tell them that it’s a fun game that you can play with friends. It’s fast-paced, shoot ‘em up, you’ll get better and get going. If you don’t enjoy one thing, there’s so much more stuff you can do. There’s the zombie game mode which is fun, it’s something that you can just enjoy with friends.