UTAH JAZZ HISTORY 

Utah Jazz, professional basketball team and one of seven teams in the Midwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Originally based in New Orleans, Louisiana, and named for that city’s musical heritage, the Jazz play in the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, and wear jerseys of purple, white, and yellow.

In their early years the Jazz were led by guard Pete Maravich. While in Utah, the team was anchored by forwards Adrian Dantley and Karl Malone and guard John Stockton. The Jazz were among the league’s strongest teams in the 1980s and 1990s. During the 1996-97 regular season, the Jazz posted a win-loss record of 64-18, the best in the Western Conference, and reached the NBA Finals for the first time.

The New Orleans Jazz joined the NBA in 1974 as an expansion team and traded two players and four draft picks to the Atlanta Hawks for Pete Maravich. The Jazz did not register a winning record in the team’s first nine seasons, but Maravich’s behind-the-back passing, fancy dribbling, and frequent shooting made the Jazz one of the most popular clubs in the league. In 1976 former Los Angeles Lakers player Elgin Baylor was hired as the team’s third head coach, but the Jazz still remained near the bottom of the league. After the team posted the NBA’s worst record during the 1978-79 season, the Jazz ownership decided to move the team to Salt Lake City.

Despite a new home in Utah, the Jazz did not fare much better. In 1981-82 Utah’s general manager, Frank Layden, assumed the head coaching duties. As general manager, Layden had begun to acquire star players, trading for Adrian Dantley in 1979 and drafting guard Darrell Griffith in 1980 and center Mark Eaton in 1982. As coach, Layden slowly guided the Jazz to the top of the Midwest Division. In 1984 the team recorded its first winning season, with a 45-37 win-loss mark, and made its first playoff appearance. That team became the first in NBA history to have four of its players lead the league in a major statistical category: Dantley won the scoring title (averaging 30.6 points per game), Griffith had the league’s best three-point field-goal percentage (36 percent), guard Rickey Green topped the league in steals (2.65 per game), and Eaton led in blocked shots (4.28 per game).

The Jazz drafted John Stockton in 1984 from Gonzaga University and Karl Malone in 1985 from Louisiana Tech University. Both were relatively unknown players from schools not associated with major college basketball. But they formed one of the most effective guard-forward combinations in NBA history and served as the foundation of a winning Jazz team for more than a dozen seasons. Both Stockton and Malone were perennial members of the All-Star team, and both were part of the United States national basketball team at the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games. The pair also shared most valuable player (MVP) honors at the 1993 NBA All-Star Game.

After the 1987-88 season, Jerry Sloan took over the head coaching duties and Layden became the club’s president. Two years later Sloan guided the team to a 55-27 record and a second-place finish in the Midwest Division. The Jazz won more than 50 games in eight of nine seasons from 1988-89 through 1996-97. The team reached the Western Conference Finals three times, but losses to the Portland Trail Blazers in 1992, the Houston Rockets in 1994, and the Seattle SuperSonics in 1996 kept the team from advancing to the NBA Finals.

During the 1996-97 season, Malone and Stockton led the Jazz in scoring. Malone, who averaged 27.4 points and 9.9 rebounds per game, was named the league’s MVP. Guard Jeff Hornacek and forward Byron Russell also provided excellent shooting. After posting a win-loss record of 64-18, the team swept the Los Angeles Clippers and bested the Los Angeles Lakers and Rockets in the playoffs. Utah advanced to the NBA Finals but was defeated, 4 games to 2, by the Chicago Bulls. Utah again advanced to the NBA Finals in 1998 after posting a 62-20 regular-season record and defeating the Rockets, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Lakers in the Western Conference playoffs. In the finals the Jazz fell to the Bulls, 4 games to 2.

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