Utah Jazz Basketball Club, commonly referred to as Utah Jazz or simply Jazz, is one of the most recognized and accomplished basketball clubs in the world. Founded in 1974 as New Orleans Jazz, it changed its name to Utah Jazz in 1979. The club is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, and plays its home matches at the famous Vivint Smart Home Arena, which has a seating capacity of over 18,300.
Utah Jazz has a rich history, boasting numerous playoff appearances, two Conference titles and division titles. The club enjoyed its most successful era under legendary coach Jerry Sloan, who led Jazz to multiple playoff runs and two NBA Finals appearances between 1988 and 2011.
Known for its disciplined style of play, the club has nurtured some of basketball’s greatest talents, including Karl Malone, John Stockton, Pete Maravich, and Donovan Mitchell. Despite recent challenges and inconsistent performances post-Sloan, Utah Jazz remains one of the world’s most valuable basketball clubs, with a global fan base and a rich tradition that continues to influence American and world basketball.
Utah Jazz is one of the most popular basketball teams in the NBA, with one of the highest average home attendances in the United States. The team states that its worldwide fan base includes more than 200 officially recognised branches of the Utah Jazz Fan Club (UJFC), in at least 24 countries. The team takes advantage of this support through its worldwide summer tours. Accountancy firm and sports industry consultants Deloitte estimate that Utah Jazz has 75 million fans worldwide. The team has the third highest social media following in the world among sports teams (after Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors), with over 82 million Facebook followers as of July 2023. A 2014 study showed that Utah Jazz had the loudest fans in the NBA.
Utah Jazz was formed in 1974 as New Orleans Jazz by Sam Battistone and Larry Hatfield. The team initially played games against other NBA teams, but on 20 November 1974, they competed in their first recorded match; wearing the colors of Mardi Gras—purple, green, and gold—they were defeated 104–89 by New York Knicks.
In 1988, the Utah Jazz hired Jerry Sloan as their head coach, who demanded an unprecedented level of control over team selection, player transfers, and training sessions. Sloan led the team to NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998 with stars like John Stockton and Karl Malone. In 1997, the team won the Western Conference, its first conference title ever.
On 10 February 2011, Sloan announced that he was to retire as head coach, but would remain with the team as an advisor. He retired as the third longest-tenured head coach in NBA history. The team announced the next day that assistant coach Tyrone Corbin would replace him, having signed a multi-year contract. Quin Snyder took over as head coach 3 years later, on 6 June 2014, when Corbin was let go after a poor season in which the team failed to make the playoffs for the second year in a row.
Originally funded by the Utah Stars of the American Basketball Association (ABA), the team became a part of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1974 after the merger of NBA and ABA. The team moved to Utah in 1979 and was renamed as the Utah Jazz. Initially, the team was owned by Sam Battistone and New Orleans-based investors. In 1985, Larry H. Miller, a local car dealer, bought a 50% stake in the team to prevent it from moving out of the state. He bought the remaining 50% stake two years later, hence becoming the sole owner of the team.
After the death of Larry H. Miller in 2009, ownership of the team passed on to his widow, Gail Miller. The Miller family has since been the custodians of the team, with Gail Miller at the helm. In 2017, Gail Miller and her family decided to transfer the ownership of the Utah Jazz and the Vivint Smart Home Arena into a legacy trust to ensure the team remains in Utah. The trust is managed by a six-member board, with Gail and her family having the majority.
In October 2020, it was announced that the Millers have agreed to sell the majority interest in the Utah Jazz to Ryan Smith, co-founder of Qualtrics, for over $1.6 billion. The sale was finalized in December 2020, making Ryan Smith the majority owner of the team. However, the Millers will retain a minority stake in the team. This marks the end of an era in which the team was owned and operated by the Miller family, who have contributed immensely to the growth and success of the Utah Jazz.
Utah Jazz is a prominent team in the National Basketball Association (NBA). While the team hasn't yet won an NBA Championship, it has been consistently successful, especially in the late 1980s and 1990s. The team's first significant success came in 1984 when they won their first Midwest Division title. This was followed by a series of successful seasons, with the team winning a total of 9 division titles. The Utah Jazz have also had two NBA Finals appearances, in 1997 and 1998, led by the legendary duo of Karl Malone and John Stockton.
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Utah Jazz Official Website: Detailed history and information about Utah Jazz https://www.nba.com/jazz/
NBA Historical Archives: Comprehensive stats and records of the Utah Jazz https://www.nba.com/history/team-records
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