The Utah Jazz are appropriating our culture

Several beers and a few Popeyes chicken tenders deep into Mardi Gras Day 2021, a thought occurred to me. 

On Monday night, I was reminded of this thought as I watched the New Orleans Pelicans’ 129-124 win against the Utah Jazz, who currently own the best record in the NBA.

In fact, I’m reminded of this thought every time I see the Jazz on TV.

That thought is this:  why the fuck are the Jazz still called “the Jazz?”

Why is an NBA team located in the barren tundra of Salt Lake City using a festive nickname that has nothing to do with the region’s culture?

Why are they using our nickname?

At this point, is an explanation even necessary as to why this is wrong?

The literal answer is that the New Orleans Jazz moved to Utah in 1979 and kept the nickname because team management wasn’t given enough time to change it.  In an an interesting bit of trivia that sums up what life is probably like in Utah, the story goes that the locals were polled about new team names but no one could think of anything interesting.    

That was 42 years ago.  So, what gives?

The world is changing. In America, confederate monuments are finally coming down. Pro sports teams with nicknames appropriating indigenous American culture are being rebranded, one by one.

Obviously, the stubbornness of the Utah Jazz ownership isn’t nearly as damaging, but it is stupid. Had the Jazz moved to Chicago or New York in 1979, it would make more sense. But the island country of Japan has more claim to the Jazz nickname than Utah does.

“The New Orleans Pelicans” is fine and it does have cultural significance, but the moniker just doesn’t sing like “The New Orleans Jazz.”  The “Murder Bird” and King Cake Baby are fun, but are also not quite as perfect as that J-Note basketball logo.  

Utah is simply too cold, too white and too boring. They don’t deserve the name.

The Jazz is one of the great nicknames in American sports history and it’s currently held hostage in the least-fun NBA city, tied to a chair by a fan base known for its racist and unforgivably disgraceful behavior.

Every time I see “Utah Jazz” in purple, green and gold (or some off-brand bastardization of the original design) flash across my screen, I am flushed with outrage knowing that a piece of New Orleans history is enjoyed by fans who once mocked Derek Fisher’s cancer-stricken daughter.

New Orleanians would never do something like that.  If someone wearing a Pelicans jersey hurled a racial slur at an opposing player – as Jazz fans are known to do – that individual would not leave the Smoothie King Center in one piece.

I’ll ask again.  Why won’t they give us our name back?  Such a gesture would not be unprecedented, as Tom Benson returned the Hornets nickname to Charlotte prior to the Pelicans’ rebrand in 2013.

Anecdotally, I could have sworn I had read somewhere that Benson approached the Jazz to reclaim the name when he purchased the then-Hornets from the NBA, but was rebuked. 

I could have sworn the reason given as to why the Jazz wouldn’t relinquish our name was that they had established themselves as legitimate NBA contenders in the John Stockton-Karl Malone era and that basketball fans everywhere knew that “Jazz” was synonymous with “Utah.”

While I couldn’t find any evidence of this event, I did find this tweet from Utah owner Gail Miller:

There is one thing I know for certain, though – hiding behind the success of the Stockton-Malone era is a load of bullshit.  If I were a betting man, I’d wager that most NBA fans outside of Utah don’t care about Stockton and Malone and young fans probably don’t even know who they are.  As someone who, once upon a time, actually had a New Orleans Hornets media pass, I can tell you there are two things I think of when those Jazz teams are brought up: Stockton wore short-shorts and Malone is from Louisiana. Their Finals appearances losses are an afterthought.

One could counter by saying the former New Orleans Hornets and the current Pelicans haven’t done much either, and I’d agree.  If some other team wanted the Pelicans nickname, they can have it.  We did give away the Hornets nickname, after all, despite being a perennial playoff team from the moment the franchise arrived in 2002.

But alas, New Orleans has had the last laugh.  For Mardi Gras 2021, we stole a bit of culture from Utah.  For most people in the Crescent City, Fat Tuesday ’21 was bitterly cold and boring.