The Utah Jazz have their hard-earned man.

And, man, was he hard to earn.

They have the player who they believe not only will help them slam the door on one of the most wretched stretches in franchise history, but that that player, in his own words, will be “delighted” to boost them in that direction. It is, of course, the last leg of so much wretchedness that enabled the Jazz to carom to their reward, their reparation.

The Jazz acted — no, reacted — by way of the No. 2 overall pick in Tuesday night’s NBA draft to select the guy the Washington Wizards didn’t. They took Kansas guard Darryn Peterson.

And were happy to do it. They want you — especially all you BYU and AJ Dybantsa fans — to understand that Peterson is nobody’s booby prize. More than a few objective observers considered and still consider the new Jazzman the best prospect in the deepest of drafts. Better even than … well, You-Know-Who.

One league personnel aficionado who does not work for the Jazz told me he would take Peterson over anyone else in this draft “a hundred out of a hundred times.” He said Peterson’s cramping issues in college were a “non-factor,” adding that the NBA is driven by one primary swing thought, something Peterson has by the bucketful — talent.

As for determination to play, play hard, play to win, he said Peterson has that, too.

Peterson agreed.

Asked about the cramping and injury issues that kept him out of 11 games and portions of others at Kansas, he said: “I’m back. I’m myself again. I’m feeling great. Never felt better. I’m super excited.”

Moreover, he said he’d spent some time in Salt Lake City, calling it “smooth.” He added: “It was nice, I liked it.”

If Peterson is smart, he’ll do more than like it, he’ll show up in Utah with an abundance of hunger, an outward and inward appetite for work and competition that everyone, especially his new teammates, can see and feel. He said he wants to demonstrate leadership to one and all.

In embryonic form, the 19-year-old scorer is the long-sought-after generational player the Jazz have been seeking — and lurching and losing without — for the past four years. Peterson can move, can hit from deep, can stop-and-pop, can make guarded catch-and-shoots, can get out in transition, can soar to the rim, can score any which way, and … what’s this? … yeah, he can defend. With him added to a starting backcourt that needed a strong addition, at last now the Jazz can rediscover, revive and resurrect their collective competitive soul by commencing in on something they’ve attempted to duck away from over that entire roundball death march — winning.

His diligence in getting to this precipice, Peterson said after he donned the Jazz hat: “All of it paid off.”

If you’re buying what the Jazz and Peterson are suddenly selling — and I am — the new force is the recompense for so much suffering. (For Jazz partisans who have tried not to keep score at home, that would be 125 losses over the past two regular seasons alone. For true Jazz masochists, for your team’s win total, you can divide that number by a wicked 3.205128205.)

The pressure that lands on a teenaged reward like that, regardless of sure-fired efforts by Jazz management and coaches to ease it, commenced on Tuesday at around 6:15 p.m. Mountain time, when NBA commissioner Adam Silver stood at the podium and announced Utah’s pick. In reality, it started before that, when the Wizards selected Dybantsa first. There had been no absolute indication beforehand which way Washington would lean, although most observers guessed the order at the top would go just as it did: Dybantsa, Peterson, Cameron Boozer, Caleb Wilson. It was said that in an ordinary year, any of those players were worthy of the No. 1 pick. This was not an ordinary year.

When Peterson heard his name called second, he took in some hugs and back slaps from loved ones, slipped on a black hat with the Jazz note on it, a hat that perfectly matched his black suit, white shirt and black tie, walked up to Silver, shook his hand, smiled, and seemed stoked to be exactly where he was, primed to play for the team that drafted him.

Peterson had made it all plain that he hoped and expected to be the top selection, not indulging the Jazz with even a visit here. Hold it, that wasn’t the whole truth. Peterson did visit with the Jazz in his home state of Ohio, where the Jazz laid out their plans for him, were they to take him. And in return, the player made it clear that he would be righteously eager to play for them, if they did take him.

If Austin Ainge privately held any concerns or reservations over Peterson’s physical condition or his attitude, over his general mindset, stacked on top of the guard’s herky-jerky college career in which he missed that time on the court, it deterred the Jazz boss not at all from placing a heavy share of the Jazz’s future on the kid.

“We’re so excited to add Darryn,” Ainge said after the pick. “He’s a really talented player. He’s a really hard worker.”

The exact degree to which and the precise rate at which Peterson can help in erasing and eliminating so much of the Jazz’s elongated defeatism remains to be seen. But with a newfound emphasis from the rest of what is shaping up as a promising crew, an outfit featuring Jaren Jackson, Lauri Markkanen, Walker Kessler, Keyonte George and Ace Bailey, and now with the young star in the fold, Ainge and the rest of the Jazz execs appear convinced — or, at least, are hoping like hell — that Peterson’s addition will be a major factor — quite possibly the major factor — in the team’s move onward, forward and upward.

Jazz coach Will Hardy finally has the green light from top to bottom in the Jazz organization to hit the throttle in a quest to accelerate through, to climb the standings in the Western Conference. He will be required to go on teaching his still youngish team. But with the earlier acquisition and advancement of other exceptional players, along with their new ultra-skilled guard, the Jazz now can add three more descriptive words to themselves and their business at hand: eager, emergent and ascendant.

Of his new prize, Ainge said: “He’s got culture fit, talent fit, game fit with our organization, and we think he’ll be a huge part of us in the short term and the long term.”

He might as well have shouted to Jazz players and Jazz fans, “Your stretch of misery is over. With the second pick in the 2026 NBA draft, the Utah Jazz select victory over defeat, at long last, on account of a youngster with the talent to lead the way.”