Utah Jazz

The Utah Jazz began life in the NBA far from their current home in Salt Lake City, down in ol’ New Orleans. This decidedly jazzier location gave birth to the team’s name when they joined the league in 1974 and stuck around when they moved to Utah having never yet qualified for the playoffs. Despite being the only top-tier professional sports team in town, the Jazz initially struggled to draw crowds in such a small market, especially as the team continued to struggle on the court. Fans were not pleased either when the Jazz selected the little-known John Stockton as a first round draft pick in 1984. Opinions soon changed when Stockton, joined by imposing forward Karl Malone, led the Jazz to 20 straight playoff appearances (remarkably, both Stockton and Malone stayed with the Jazz all the way to the end of this run in 2003!). The team from Utah was never able to claim a championship, however, though they did appear in five Western Conference Finals as well as two NBA Finals (1997 and 1998), both of which they lost to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls, the second on Jordan’s iconic buzzer-beater in Game 6 in Salt Lake City. Ever since Stockton retired and Malone departed in 2003, the Jazz have struggled to recapture the verve of those two exciting decades, though they did reach the Conference Finals in 2007. Recent years have seen them feature regularly in the playoffs, apart from in 2022-23 when they missed out on the postseason. Utah Jazz fans will be looking to young stars like Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler to help the team change their tune for the 2023-24 season.