A Letter to Salt Lake Media
I wrote an open letter to the major media companies that dominate Salt Lake City.
Dear Salt Lake City Media outlets,
Sam Merrill is the type of kid we can all be proud of, not just Bountiful High alumni and Utah State fans, but all of us. Born and raised right here in Utah, Sam Merrill has represented his home state, and all of us in it, very well throughout his life and impressive basketball career. He brought national attention and a state championship to Bountiful High School, then, after his mission, led his Utah State team to back-to-back conference championships. Now, he is the only NBA player born and raised in Utah.
After bringing three championships at two levels to his home state, Merrill, as a pro, had the chance to play against that state. On January 8th Merrill faced his childhood favorite team, The Utah Jazz. For the first time in his life, he suited up to play against a team from Utah while representing a team from outside his home state. With this milestone, Merrill was met with an underwhelming amount of coverage from his hometown media. During the broadcast itself, local commentators Craig Bolerjack and Matt Harpring had nothing but good things to say about Sam Merrill. Of course, anyone who has been following the young guard has nothing bad to say about him either.
Sam Merrill doesn’t play for Utah’s own NBA team nor is he an NBA superstar so he doesn’t need or necessarily deserve wall-to-wall 24 hour coverage, but he is one of our own and many people in this state, kids and adults alike, look up to him and are impressed and inspired by his story. So, in case you forget to cover the incredible story of a hometown kid coming back to Utah to play his hometown team, or if it’s not worth your resources to cover such a story, I have prepared a basic template for you. Feel free to use it to help cover one of the greatest and most entertaining state of Utah basketball products ever. Thank you.
Currently standing alone at the highest level for any Utah born and raised player, Sam “Money” Merrill, guard for the Milwaukee Bucks, is representing the Beehive State in Wisconsin. He didn’t start there though. He started right here in Utah. Sam Merrill has spent nearly his entire basketball career less than half a tank of gas away from the John Stockton and Karl Malone statues outside of the Vivint Smarthome Arena. A Bountiful native, Merrill is no stranger to those statues just 10 miles from his house in the Salt Lake suburbs. Like many in those suburbs, Merrill grew up a fan of the Utah Jazz, but unlike many in those same suburbs, Sam Merrill now has a chance to play professional basketball just like the men those two statues portray. As a student of the game, he, of course, grew up a huge Jazz fan. He has even said that one of his favorite players growing up was Matt Harpring, a local fan-favorite who’s name has become synonymous with Utah basketball. Harpring is now a color analyst for the Jazz, alongside Jazz television veteran, play-by-play announcer, Craig Bolerjack. He, too, had his time in the and league played under the legendary coach Jerry Sloan alongside Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. For all seven of his seasons with Utah, Matt Harpring wore the number 15, coincidentally, the same number that now adorns a certain Milwaukee Bucks jersey, right underneath the word “Merrill.”Sam worked hard to get from Utah to Milwaukee. During a wildly successful career at Bountiful High School, Merrill led his team to a state championship his senior year. The year prior, Bountiful’s hopes of reaching the final game were dashed by a thrilling buzzer-beater from Skyview High’s star, Jalen Moore, in the state semi-finals. The leaders of the two teams would not stay rivals for long however, as Jalen Moore and Sam Merrill would later become teammates at Utah State. Interestingly, Moore would even go on to sign an NBA contract with none other than the Milwaukee Bucks in 2017.
After serving a two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints in Nicaragua, Merrill returned to his home state and had a decorated career at Utah State University. Merrill rejected national opportunities such as Stanford and Princeton to remain in the Beehive State. In his four years as an Aggie, Sam “Money” Merrill averaged 9.5, 16.3, 20.9, and 19.7 points per game. Merrill racked up the accolades while competing for Utah State. He was named to both the First and Third Team All-Mountain West, he earned the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year, and Mountain West Tournament MVP twice, as well as being made an AP Honorable Mention All-American. As an Aggie, Merrill also saw success off the court as he married Cache Valley native, Mountain Crest High graduate and USU soccer star, Kanyan Ward, during his sophomore year.
After winning the Mountain West championship in his junior year, Merrill entered the NBA draft but ultimately came back to Utah State and led another successful campaign. During his senior season, Merrill would break the 2,000 career-point threshold and pass Aggie legend, Wayne Estes, on Utah State’s all-time scoring list on the same night against Colorado State in Fort Collins. Later, he would also pass Greg Grant, landing him in second place only behind Jaycee Carroll, where he would stay for the remainder of his career. His final shot while representing his home state came in the final seconds of the Mountain West championship game against 5th ranked San Diego State. A deep dagger that put his Aggies up by three. 2.6 seconds later, the buzzer sealed his fate as a back-to-back Mountain West Champion. The ticket he punched that night, however, would never be redeemed at the big dance as the coronavirus pandemic would cancel the tournament.
Not counting his religious service, Merrill is now, for the first time in his life, living more than an hour away from Salt Lake City, Utah. It was employment that moved him out of his home state and across the country. His job, of course, is with the Milwaukee Bucks. With the Bucks, Sam is on pace to become the first Utah-born player to make the NBA playoffs since 2010 when Devin Brown (Salt Lake City) made the playoffs with Chicago and first Utah-born player that graduated high school in Utah to do so since 2000 when Travis Knight (Salt Lake City, Alta High school) won the championship with the Lakers. Very few Utah-born players that played high school and college ball in the state have made it to the NBA, let alone the play-offs, and only one such player has ever won the NBA finals. It hasn’t happened since the inaugural season of the NBA when the Minneapolis Lakers won the first ever NBA championship with Arnie Ferrin (Kaysville, Davis High, University of Utah) on their roster.
On February 12th a business trip will bring Sam Merrill back home to Utah. A state that he has proudly represented for nearly his whole life. A state that he has given awards, national attention, championships, entertainment. Sam Merrill will return to that arena where he often sat to watch NBA players. Players like Matt Harpring. This time though, he won’t just be watching. He won’t be in the stands. This time he will on the floor. And this time he will be the one inspiring the next generation.
Sincerely,
Parker Ballantyne
