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1981

LogGrad98 said:
By the way, Malone seemed a lot bigger in person, and Stockton seemed a lot smaller, shorter than I was at least. Ricky Green was tiny, I would be surprised if he were actually 5'10". Mark Eaton was, and still is, the biggest human being I have ever seen. He made Malone look small. I have a picture somewhere with me and another ball-boy and Eaton between us resting his arm on our heads. It felt like it weighed 100 lbs. Stockton really does have huge hands (pads). I remember throwing a ball back to him and missing his spot and he reached out one-handed and just grabbed it out of the air. I have pretty big hands but I can't palm the ball like that. It was pretty cool.
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I went to the Eaton basketball camp oh 15 or so years ago. It was surreal when he entered the gym. Having to physically bend over just to get through the doorway. At that moment it seemed he was otherworldly
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
I think I probably could. There's always been a player I've liked on the Jazz. That's overall what keeps me in. I'f they lost that, I could switch up.
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I’d hate watch still… like the spouse that stays in the marriage to complain about the other spouse and make sure the whole family is miserable.
 
Since we're talking about player basketball camps, I went to none of them. But Thurl Bailey came to a Jr. Jazz thing, as did John Crotty (first stint) and Tyrone Corbin (the player). I got an autograph from Mike Brown at Cottonwood Mall food court. I waited in line forever after school to get Bryon Russell's autograph during the first finals outside the Smiths on 9400, then he stopped right as we got to the front. I saw Greg Foster in the locker room of the Treehouse in Draper. I again saw Tyrone Corbin when 1320 was broadcasting live from a restaurant.... somewhere. I did go to a game and before the game bought a pack of cards that had John Crotty card in it. I had him sign it after shootaround but I had a Bic pen and it wasn't signing on the glossy card, so it was just an imprint.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Does anyone remember when someone here followed Deron into the KFC in Sugarhouse and took pictures of him eating food?

ETA: oh, and my wife and I did get seated next to Jerry at Tiburon back in the DWill days. My wife was star struck.
 
You guys are all so young. I am 62 and still follow this madness. It is like the being in love with the wrong girl. Everyone is telling you to leave her but you just keep taking her crap because you "love"her. hahaha I went to the very first Jazz game in the Salt Palace, there were a reported 6400 fans but they might have been fudging the numbers. I was so excited just to have an NBA team nearby. I was a college student but I would drive to the game hoping to score some cheap tickets. Now i realize they were all cheap comparing today's prices. One game i sat about 20 rows up mid court and it cost me $12.50 for the ticket.

I saw Magic Bird, Jabbar, Iceman Dr. J etc along with AD and Griffith and Stockton and Malone. I had my heart broken several times. I had to endure living in LA during Showtime. People making fun of the name. Still haven't recovered from Michael Cooper chucking in a 3 pt in Game five of the Laker/Jazz series that went 7 games. Still not over 1997 when Scotty Pippen grabbed the net knocking out Shannon Anderson basket at a crucial part of game six which the Jazz lost. In the rematch, one I consider one of the biggest rip offs in sports. Howard Eisley 3pt not counting and Ron Harper's 2 pt counting and the push off. I remember thinking that was the JAZZ BEST chance of winning a championship. Gone forever.

Regardless of all the sad ending, I still smile when I see Johnny Stockton sending the Utah Jazz to the NBA finals video. It gets me though the tough times. I think being a fan is just a part of me. I will die a Jazz fan and still hope some day that they will get the ring but if not I have enjoyed the journey. I must still be committed. because I watched the whole draft last night Or perhaps I just don't have a life haahahah.
 
I will always be a jazz fan. That 80s series you mentioned when the jazz took the lakers to 7 games, (I died on that Iavaroni pass) cemented my fandom and I have never looked back. I had to stop watching games because I would get excited or depressed based on the games and for the sake of my marriage, I just followed them online and watched the highlights. With the death of my son and wife, I will probably never be able to watch a game again even though my new wife supports my fandom 100%. Also, I live in California now in the shadow of the lakers. (I hate them so much)

I have come to understand that my teams will always be that way.

Utah Jazz - Well enough said there
Los Angeles Chargers - Born in San Diego and have been a fan longer than the Jazz. All the close calls and disappointing losses. The future seems bright right now.
Los Angeles Angels - At least they won a couple of championships but have hated watching them waste the best player in baseball's career.
Lastly BYU and have to accept they will never be a top team.
 
I love these stories of jazz teams of old. It feels like the pro athletes were more accessible. Like my sister said the jazz as a team used to work out at the gym down the street and one day Mark Eaton greeted her with "hey son!". Remember when Hot Rod ran a pub? Now players have their own team gyms or private workouts. Yeah social media is a thing but it kind of ruins the intrigue of random player interations. Although my brother said he once bought Joe Ingles a beer and he drank it.
 
prodigy said:
I love these stories of jazz teams of old. It feels like the pro athletes were more accessible. Like my sister said the jazz as a team used to work out at the gym down the street and one day Mark Eaton greeted her with "hey son!". Remember when Hot Rod ran a pub? Now players have their own team gyms or private workouts. Yeah social media is a thing but it kind of ruins the intrigue of random player interations. Although my brother said he once bought Joe Ingles a beer and he drank it.
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I was trying to remember where Hot Rod’s was. Was it off Highland Drive? I remember the logo.
 
That1UtahFan said:
I went to the Eaton basketball camp oh 15 or so years ago. It was surreal when he entered the gym. Having to physically bend over just to get through the doorway. At that moment it seemed he was otherworldly
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The back story is what really added to the Eaton mystique. Frank Layden said he found him working as a mechanic in a southern California auto shop. And then the famous tag line, "you can't teach height". The real story was that he was drafted in the fourth round (1982) by the Jazz as a "project" after playing sparingly for two seasons at UCLA. His second season under Larry Farmer he played a total of 41 minutes and averaged 1.2 points and 2 rebounds in eleven games played. The auto mechanic stuff was true as it was a Cypress Community College Assistant that discovered him and encouraged him to come play for him which he did. He averaged 14.3 ppg for them and led Cypress to the California State Junior College championship his Sophomore year.

I always liked the Mountain Man mystique and wondered if there was actually a horse big enough to carry him without his feet touching the ground. Watching him play, I always felt like if we could have gotten a few more years out of him maybe we could have gotten over the hump and gotten a ring. Probably not though as absolutely nobody in the league had as many phantom fouls called on him as Mark Eaton did. Still, all things considered, one of the best Cinderella stories in sports IMO.
 
Release the Kraken said:
The back story is what really added to the Eaton mystique. Frank Layden said he found him working as a mechanic in a southern California auto shop. And then the famous tag line, "you can't teach height". The real story was that he was drafted in the fourth round (1982) by the Jazz as a "project" after playing sparingly for two seasons at UCLA. His second season under Larry Farmer he played a total of 41 minutes and averaged 1.2 points and 2 rebounds in eleven games played. The auto mechanic stuff was true as it was a Cypress Community College Assistant that discovered him and encouraged him to come play for him which he did. He averaged 14.3 ppg for them and led Cypress to the California State Junior College championship his Sophomore year.

I always liked the Mountain Man mystique and wondered if there was actually a horse big enough to carry him without his feet touching the ground. Watching him play, I always felt like if we could have gotten a few more years out of him maybe we could have gotten over the hump and gotten a ring. Probably not though as absolutely nobody in the league had as many phantom fouls called on him as Mark Eaton did. Still, all things considered, one of the best Cinderella stories in sports IMO.
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I could picture him riding a bear, like in Zelda BOTW. Or the giant horse.
 
LogGrad98 said:
I was 11 years old, and I went to my first Jazz game, first professional game at all. It was in the Salt Palace, and it was in the early part of the season. I think we were playing the Nuggets, in November. It was a high-scoring game. I don't remember a ton other than we were in the 5th row or so, near the Jazz bench. Got good tickets from a friend of my dad. We got to talk to some of the players after the game, and I got some autographs I still have somewhere, on the program I think. Met Eaton, Green, Griffith and Dantley, a few others, got their sigs. I was in complete awe. I had started playing myself just a couple of years before that, at about 9, with a jr rec league kind of thing. No Jr Jazz at that time. I was taller than all my friends, and the next summer I would shoot up to 6'1" and end up playing varsity ball as a freshman, and get a short stint as an honorary ball-boy for the Jazz the year Malone was drafted, an honor for jr high basketball achievement and academics or some such. 10 games throwing the ball back in warm-ups and a couple of practices. It was an amazing time to grow up like that, deep in the bball culture, with time on the floor with some of the greats, like Stockton and Malone.

I had all the hope in the world. We were an up and coming team. Not long after we would make an impact by pushing the eventual champion Lakers to 7 games. The 90's was a magical, and frustrating, time as a Jazz fan. Get to the WCF one year, first round out the next. Hard-nosed defense was the name of the game, and a no-nonsense approach to the game instilled by Sloan. We thought we had what it takes. Then we get The Shot. Unbelievable moment in my Jazz fan-dom. We thought maybe we had a chance, to be the one team that could unseat the Bulls. But bad officiating combined with untimely melt-downs (remember losing by 40? ugh) conspired to keep the elusive ring just out of reach. But we still had hope. We could re-tool, rebuild, come back with a vengeance.

We drafted Williams over Paul. Controversial to say the least. Would we have been a better team with Paul? Who is to say? That team had a shine to it, but it also had a lot of holes, and we just couldn't get anywhere near form.

Losing Sloan we really lost our identity which we haven't been able to find since. Are we a defensive stalwart? An offensive juggernaut? Something in between? But no matter what that fluid identity may be, we are definitely inconsistent. And frustrating. What is the next iteration of the Jazz? What are we going to be? The bumblebees?

So here I sit, soon to be 41 years into my life as a Jazz fan. Having seen the tough road, the failures, the very pinnacle of achievement for the Jazz over the years. Laughed, cried, cheered, loved the team, hated the team, all the ups and downs of fan-dom. Yet we are still no closer than we were when Sloan opted out (RIP Jerry, we love and miss you). And the question arises, will we ever be? Are we destined to be the one team that never gets any closer to the title than we were in 97 or 98, the Cubs of the NBA? But of course the Cubs won the series twice, just had a long time in between. The big question for me, getting on in years, is will we ever win one in my lifetime. I have no answer to that obviously, and I am afraid my hope is dwindling fast. The team now seems in disarray. We are likely looking at the next rebuild coming soon. A half decade or more of mediocrity to come, followed by a high-lottery pick, god willing, and maybe we get back into contention for a few years. It is the cycle of the NBA. The stars will still conglomerate in the coasts, and the also-rans will try to cobble together a contending team from what is left and what they can acquire in the draft. And we hope our rise coincides with a lull for the juggernauts, like the Raptors and the Bucks championship seasons. In real estate, location is everything, and in the NBA, timing of the rise is crucial.

And now we have new leadership, a new owner, with a new direction. It is different, uncomfortable, foreign even. Seems to be on a whim, and not taken as seriously as we have taken the team over the years. The new billionaires new toy. Feels cheapened and disrespectful of the legacy, and it throws everything into question. Who are we? What is our new identity? Does anyone know, is there a plan even?

So where I sit now as a fan later in years, I am thinking it is just more and more likely we never get the ring during my lifetime, And I also wonder, as a fan, is it worth it? I have been a pretty passionate fan for 40 years, and frankly, in lots of ways it is exhausting. Lots of emotion goes into it, and the defeats are crushing. Often worse for the fans than the players. The players move on. In lots of ways it is just their job, and I think most of them know their odds of winning it all are slim. But for fans, we put so much on the success of our team, we put so much time and commitment into it, it becomes part of our identity, we even introduce ourselves often that way - Hi I am LogGrad and I am a Jazz fan - and for us it doesn't end, we don't move on, we stick around through the bad times and the good. Hoping against hope for the one time our timing is right and we win it all!

But I am starting to see that the light at the end of the tunnel is as elusive as a candle in the wind, and the chase is tiring and mind-numbing, and so, frankly, you have to start thinking, is it worth it?

Is it for you?
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Is it worth it?

@Keefe had an interesting post IMO in this respect, I think we have to consider this first and foremost as entertainment, I mean if it's getting in the way of our responsibilities than no, if it's just a diversion, than why not. I just retired this year and find myself with too much time on my hands, so rooting for this team just took a more prominent role for me. And like you yourself said, we are definitely on the cusp of something - could be good, could be bad. Still, I think that regarding a championship in Utah in my lifetime, I personally find that extremely unlikely - get into that further along.

I'm older than most all of you guys and have some fond memories of rooting for the old Utah Stars with Willie Wise, Zelmo Beaty and Ron Boone as a kid. Then I remember the first iteration of the Utah Jazz after the move from New Orleans. Tom Nisalke was the first coach I remember and I just hated the guy for never, ever playing Pistol Pete Maravich. Bernard King was on that team, well until he engaged in sexual congress with a white woman. Sodomy was the official charge and he was quickly shuttled out of town (later became a really big deal for the Knicks) before he could be tarred and feathered. The Layden years followed with the losing streaks and the one liners. I enjoyed watching Adrian Dantley, "the fastest of them all" Ricky Green and listening to Hot Rod Huntley.

1981 was the title of this thread, but 1985 was when the fireworks began. Sam Battistone had been bleeding money on the Jazz since the move to Utah (NO was no better) and letters were sent out to prominent businessmen to offer a 50% ownership in the Jazz for 8 mil. Larry Miller offered 6.2 but eventually ponied up the balance in order to keep the team in SLC. (The second half of the team apparently came a lot cheaper as Battistone was by that time in debt to Miller 3 mil.) I think that it's fair to say that Miller was a very competitive person competing as a driver in Drag Racing through 1970 and as a fast pitch softball player through 1985 as well as a self-made successful entrepeneur with 43 auto dealerships, two sports franchises, restaurants, theaters, motor sports park and even a television station. But the key word is competitive, he went to most every game, had his own locker room and made frequent unscheduled visits to see the coach. In 1988 he hired a like-minded competitive coach by the name of Jerry Sloan. And even though Miller did his best to project a family friendly franchise, he completely overlooked Sloan's potty mouth as it pertained to lambasting referees and getting into players. The result; the Utah Jazz, at the time of Miller's purchase, the smallest market in the league became the second winningest team in the league under Larry H. Miller.

After the patriarch passed, Gail and her progeny were much more hands off and had a difficult time sustaining the success that her husband had established with this team. Enter Ryan Smith. Now of course the verdict is still out on Ryan, but I must say that I am just a tad concerned. I honestly thought that Snyder deserved to be fired this season after fizzling out of the first round again. Then they put Gobert, the defensive foundation of this team, on the trade block. Then the team made it known that Mitchell the resident gad fly and malcontent (never even found it within himself to thank the departing coach) was untouchable as far as trades and was the cornerstone for any and all further team development. The Rebrand Jerseys. According to recent reports, the team is dead set on hiring a relatively young currently in an assistant capacity with no head coaching experience as it's next head coach. All vexing questions in my mind!

And yet, as of this writing, the core is intact. A team that two seasons ago finished the regular season with the best record in the league. Yeah I agree that we have to do something concerning the diminutive starting guard line, but for me, that means either Conley or Mitchell. Still our problems are relatively miniscule and we have the added bonus of seeing what a different set of eyes can pull out of these guys. Whatever happens, I just hope by some colossal fluke of nature we hire another in your face potty mouth coach like Jerry Sloan! Course, like the Jazz themselves, I'm certainly not betting on it.
 
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Release the Kraken said:
Is it worth it?

@Keefe had an interesting post IMO in this respect, I think we have to consider this first and foremost as entertainment, I mean if it's getting in the way of our responsibilities than no, if it's just a diversion, than why not. I just retired this year and find myself with too much time on my hands, so rooting for this team just took a more prominent role for me. And like you yourself said, we are definitely on the cusp of something - could be good, could be bad. Still, I think that regarding a championship in Utah in my lifetime, I personally find that extremely unlikely - get into that further along.

I'm older than most all of you guys and have some fond memories of rooting for the old Utah Stars with Willie Wise, Zelmo Beaty and Ron Boone as a kid. Then I remember the first iteration of the Utah Jazz after the move from New Orleans. Tom Nisalke was the first coach I remember and I just hated the guy for never, ever playing Pistol Pete Maravich. Bernard King was on that team, well until he engaged in sexual congress with a white woman. Sodomy was the official charge and he was quickly shuttled out of town (later became a really big deal for the Knicks) before he could be tarred and feathered. The Layden years followed with the losing streaks and the one liners. I enjoyed watching Adrian Dantley, "the fastest of them all" Ricky Green and listening to Hot Rod Huntley.

1981 was the title of this thread, but 1985 was when the fireworks began. Sam Battistone had been bleeding money on the Jazz since the move to Utah (NO was no better) and letters were sent out to prominent businessmen to offer a 50% ownership in the Jazz for 8 mil. Larry Miller offered 6.2 but eventually ponied up the balance in order to keep the team in SLC. (The second half of the team apparently came a lot cheaper as Battistone was by that time in debt to Miller 3 mil.) I think that it's fair to say that Miller was a very competitive person competing as a driver in Drag Racing through 1970 and as a fast pitch softball player through 1985 as well as a self-made successful entrepeneur with 43 auto dealerships, two sports franchises, restaurants, theaters, motor sports park and even a television station. But the key word is competitive, he went to most every game, had his own locker room and made frequent unscheduled visits to see the coach. In 1988 he hired a like-minded competitive coach by the name of Jerry Sloan. And even though Miller did his best to project a family friendly franchise, he completely overlooked Sloan's potty mouth as it pertained to lambasting referees and getting into players. The result; the Utah Jazz, at the time of Miller's purchase, the smallest market in the league became the second winningest team in the league under Larry H. Miller.

After the patriarch passed, Gail and her progeny were much more hands off and had a difficult time sustaining the success that her husband had established with this team. Enter Ryan Smith. Now of course the verdict is still out on Ryan, but I must say that I am just a tad concerned. I honestly thought that Snyder deserved to be fired this season after fizzling out of the first round again. Then they put Gobert, the defensive foundation of this team, on the trade block. Then the team made it known that Mitchell the resident gad fly and malcontent (never even found it within himself to thank the departing coach) was untouchable as far as trades and was the cornerstone for any and all further team development. The Rebrand Jerseys. According to recent reports, the team is dead set on hiring a relatively young currently in an assistant capacity with no head coaching experience as it's next head coach. All vexing questions in my mind!

And yet, as of this writing, the core is intact. A team that two seasons ago finished the regular season with the best record in the league. Yeah I agree that we have to do something concerning the diminutive starting guard line, but for me, that means either Conley or Mitchell. Still our problems are relatively miniscule and we have the added bonus of seeing what a different set of eyes can pull out of these guys. Whatever happens, I just hope by some colossal fluke of nature we hire another in your face potty mouth coach like Jerry Sloan! Course, like the Jazz themselves, I'm certainly not betting on it.
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The problem is this “entertainment” doesn’t entertain. We’re a boring, unlikeable team whose fate is fairly predictable. There are far too many other ways I can entertain myself rather than investing any sort of energy in what is truly an act in futility.
 
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