Utah Jazz

Utah Jazz
2024–25 Utah Jazz season
Conference	Western
Division	Northwest
Founded	1974
History	New Orleans Jazz 1974–1979 Utah Jazz 1979–present[1][2]
Arena	Delta Center
Location	Salt Lake City, Utah
Team colors	Spotlight yellow, key black, gray, white[3][4][5]
Main sponsor	LiveView Technologies (LVT)[6]
CEO	Danny Ainge
President	Jim Olson[7]
General manager	Justin Zanik[8][9]
Head coach	Will Hardy
Ownership	Ryan Smith
Affiliation(s)	Salt Lake City Stars
Championships	0
Conference titles	2 (1997, 1998)
Division titles	11 (1984, 1989, 1992, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2017, 2021, 2022)
Retired numbers	9 (1, 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 32, 35, 53, 1223)
Website	www.nba.com/jazz
Association Icon Statement

The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. Since the 1991–92 season, the team has played its home games at the Delta Center, an arena they share with the Utah Hockey Club of the National Hockey League (NHL).^[10] The franchise began as an expansion team in the 1974–75 season as the New Orleans Jazz (as a tribute to New Orleans' history of originating jazz music). The Jazz relocated from New Orleans to Salt Lake City on June 8, 1979.^[11]

The Jazz were one of the least successful teams in the league in their early years. Although 10 seasons elapsed before the Jazz qualified for their first playoff appearance in 1984, they did not miss the playoffs again until 2004. During the late 1980s, John Stockton and Karl Malone arose as the franchise players for the team and formed one of the most famed pick and roll duos in NBA history. Led by coach Jerry Sloan, who took over from Frank Layden in 1988, they became one of the powerhouse teams of the 1990s, culminating in two NBA Finals appearances in 1997 and 1998, where they lost both times to the Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan.

Both Stockton and Malone moved on in 2003. After missing the playoffs for three consecutive seasons the Jazz returned to prominence under the on-court leadership of point guard Deron Williams. However, partway through the 2010–11 season, the Jazz began restructuring after Sloan's retirement and Williams' trade to the New Jersey Nets. Quin Snyder was hired as head coach in June 2014. With the development of Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell into All-Stars, the Jazz launched themselves back into title contention, eventually earning the league's best regular season record in the 2020–21 season. However, following disappointing early playoff exits in both 2021 and 2022, the Jazz traded Mitchell and Gobert to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves, respectively, in the 2022 offseason and entered a new era of rebuilding centered around Lauri Markkanen, who became an All-Star in his first season with the Jazz after being acquired in the Mitchell trade.