The Jazz are about to embark on their 50th season — five in New Orleans, 45 in Utah — and are marking the occasion with a throwback uniform and accompanying court design.
The uniform, which is shown above, is based on the franchise’s inaugural 1974-75 road uni, when the team was still in New Orleans. That was the only season that the road jersey featured the plain “J-note” as part of the chest lettering; the next season, the now-familiar basketball pattern was added to it and the spacing between the “A” and the first “Z” was tightened up:
The throwback will make its on-court debut for the team’s season opener on Oct. 25. It’s not clear when or how many times it will be worn after that.
The uniform will be paired with this court design:
The court design is explained in the press release like so:
[T]he 2023-24 Classic Edition court incorporates design elements from courts at the Salt Palace and Delta Center in the 1980s and 1990s. It prominently features the team’s trademark purple, with the 1974 Jazz wordmark on each baseline and gold and green trim around the perimeter. The official 50th Season logo is displayed at center court.
The uni and court are part of a larger 50th-season promotional campaign that also includes “decade nights,” a documentary film and podcast series devoted to the franchise’s history, and more. You can learn more about all of that here and here. (The latter link also includes a pretty good Jazz uni timeline.)
Utah is the fourth NBA team so far to unveil a new throwback for the coming season. The other three are the Magic, Timberwolves, and Hornets.
(Big thanks to Phil for his assistance with this post.)
This needs to be the permanent look for the Jazz.
Solid. The only thing bugging me is the period missing after ESTD.
Should there also be an apostrophe in there? EST’D.?
Yes, if we’re taking out the red pen, might as well correct everything.
The apostrophe is optional-both estd. and est’d. are acceptable-but the period is not.
Beg to differ. The apostrophe is there to fill in for the missing letters. If you’re abbreviating “established”, you can use “Est.”, where the period represents the entire rest of the letter. But in “Est’d.”, the addition of the final letter requires the apostrophe to account for the missing letters between the t and d. But that’s how I was taught.
Didn’t it used to be “est.”? When did this convention change?
I think it is a matter of style, like “Cont.” versus “Cont’d.”
“The 2023-24 Classic Edition court… prominently features the team’s trademark purple”
– Their franchise is so synonymous with the color purple that they wear godawful highlighter yellow and black uniforms? Why do teams like the Jazz, who have iconic color palettes, so often run away from them?
Because you know…..
Nike?
Not only the highlighter yellow and black; when they made their fauxbacks (Adrian Dantley/Mark Eaton Era, not Stockton/Malone with the sublimated mountains) a couple years ago, they conspicuously chose navy as a base over purple.
Also, the trim on the original shorts didn’t criss-cross at the notch, the hem band went across the notch and over the vertical soutache. Again, because Nike gotta Nike, the offset hip notch leads to an obvious and preventable mistake.
Can we get a commemorative patch for the “45th Anniversary of when we were too cheap/lazy to change the name and colors of the franchise to something that made more sense for Utah” lol.
Seriously though these unis and colors look great. And I know it’s far too late to do anything about the branding now. But it irks me to know end when teams lay claim to history (even if brief and non-eventful) that was made in a community they abandoned.
“…too cheap/lazy to change the name and colors of the franchise to something that made more sense for Utah”.
I’ll concede the name, which I think is fine to retain when a team moves if that’s what ownership chooses to do(re-branding, even back then, was costly(?), the team was struggling financially hence the move, plus the hasty relocation meant there was no time to receive league approval for a name change), but there’s nothing wrong with the colors.
What the Jazz did here is a-OK looking and appropriate…and they own their history.
New Orleans was made basketball-whole about 20 years ago; the Jazz have been gone for over 40.
I get irked when ‘replacement’ teams attach themselves to the history of departed franchises (i.e.: The Wild pretending they were the Northstars, the Mariners dressing as the Pilots…though their CC’s are really nice…, and on and on).
Well, here we go, I love to beat this dead horse…..
When the Hornets (Pelicans) first moved to NO, they should have bought (begged) for the name to return to NO….and Utah could rebrand as the Blizzardzz or Ice Piratezz or Pioneerzz (already a minor league team) or Bigfootzz or sumthin….
Still hoping a new St. Louis franchise comes to town….and buys the Cardinals from Arizona….
Then Arizona could become the Tumbleweeds or Mosaics or the Firestorms or sumthin…
Just adding my voice to the chorus saying that the Jazz should go back to purple and green full time.
I’ll be excited to see this in person.
The Jazz website has a different number font on the preorder site. I’m not sure which is right.
Still makes me mad that Utah has this color scheme and the Jazz team name but not New Orleans.
Bezactly …….
New Orleans coulda been The Krewe……Gold Green Violet (no, never purple, violet WAY different)…..
White homes, green roads….Mardi Gras parties for Err’ home game…
.but, no, Pelicans are more exciting…….
This was probably one of the best sports nicknames ever–for New Orleans and one of the worst for Salt Lake City. The purple, green and yellow are Mardi Gras colors and are fantastic representations of the Big Easy, and have really nothing to do with anything in Utah.
So the whole throwback says, “this uniform, colors and nickname never should have left New Orleans. “