Utah Jazz Logo — Utah Jazz is a team from the NBA in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The team is not native to Utah, but was transferred from New Orleans, hence the name of the musical genre. In 1974, the franchise was born under the name New Orleans Jazz. Despite having the spectacular Pete Maravich, the Jazz began as a losing team and after five seasons in New Orleans, the franchise moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1979.

Following the movement of Jazz to Utah, it was decided to continue with the name “Jazz”, despite the culture jazz had its roots in New Orleans, and had nothing to do with Utah. Actually there was little local support, but unlike other franchises, there was no public campaign to attract fans. Before the 1979-80 season, the Jazz got the scorer Adrian Dantley from the Los Angeles Lakers, who later became the leading scorer in the league in seasons 1980-1981 and 1983-1984. During the season, Maravich was cut and later in the 1980 Draft, the team would select the second to Darrell Griffith of the University of Louisville.

During the 1980-81 season, Frank Layden became the coach of the Jazz, in 1982, the franchise selected in the fourth round of the draft to the imposing Mark Eaton. Despite the reinforcements, the team continued with no improvement until the 1982-83 season, beating Dantley’s injury that forced him to miss 60 regular season games, although it still did not make the playoffs. In the 1983 Draft, the Jazz picked Thurl Bailey of the University of North Carolina State.

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