Derrick Favors was introduced to the Jazz as a nervous 19-year-old, caught up in a trade that separated a superstar — Deron Williams — from an organization that had been for so long looking for the definitive star power to follow up the brilliance of John Stockton and Karl Malone.



He remembers that initial media interview as if it were an hour ago. He may have been 6-foot-10, a new-age power forward with rippling muscles and a striking vertical. But, he was a rookie, a country boy out of Atlanta by way of one year at Georgia Tech. Favors was shy. He wasn’t confident. His year with the New Jersey Nets — until he was swapped in a blockbuster trade for Williams — had been frustrating. And, as a teenager, he had just been introduced to the cold and harsh business side of the NBA.



For the first time in his life, someone told Favors he wasn’t wanted on their basketball team.



“I remember being overwhelmed,” Favors told...