The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball franchise based in Salt Lake City, Utah. They are a part of the Northwest Division in the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The franchise began in 1974 as the New Orleans Jazz in New Orleans, Louisiana; the team moved to Salt Lake City in 1979.
The Jazz were one of the least successful teams in the league in their early years. Although it took the Jazz 10 years before they made a playoff appearance (in 1984), they would 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 point guard–power forward duos in NBA history. Led by coach Jerry Sloan, who took over for Frank Layden in 1988, th...