These two players brought a lot of excitement to Salt Lake City and almost brought their city an NBA championship.
The Utah Jazz are a popular team in the NBA; this was especially true back in the 1990s when the squad was led by two superstar players in John Stockton and Karl Malone. These two players brought a lot of excitement to Salt Lake City and almost brought their city an NBA championship.
Karl Malone and John Stockton led their franchise to back-to-back NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998, falling both times to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls
Even though the Jazz never won a title, they have remained competitive for most of the seasons after Stockton and Malone left the franchise. The one knock against the Utah Jazz as a franchise is their name…
The music genre of Jazz originated in African American communities during the late 19th century. It also started in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Now, Utah is a predominantly white-populated state today, and it was certainly that way when Jazz was founded, as well. In fact, Utah is not known for Jazz music at all. So, why does the team from Utah go by the name the Jazz?
The reason is that the franchise originated in New Orleans in 1974 and played in New Orleans until June 8, 1979, when they relocated to Utah. This leads to the main topic of our article… Why did the New Orleans Jazz move their franchise to Utah?