rpbooks Chapter 406 The Jazz of Salt Lake City
Chapter 406 The Jazz of Salt Lake City
Chapter 406 The Jazz of Salt Lake City
There are 13 teams in the NBA that have never won a championship (the Cavaliers won the championship in 16 years and became 12, but here are the first), namely the Raptors, Pacers, Nets, Magic, Hornets, Pelicans, Suns , Clippers, Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Nuggets, Cavaliers and Jazz.Without exception, these 13 teams are all small market teams.
The Utah Jazz became an army in 1974, initially set up their home court in New Orleans, and the team name was the New Orleans Jazz.
The New Orleans Jazz did not play a commendable performance. After a few seasons, the team owner decided to relocate the team to Utah, a place of bitter cold, and settled in Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City is the capital and largest city of Utah, USA. It is named after its proximity to the Great Salt Lake and has a population of 19.Compared with big cities, the scale is relatively small.
Not only that, Salt Lake City also belongs to the plateau area, and the hypoxic environment makes many athletes unable to adapt, so it is called the home of the plateau devil.
The Jazz's record in the first few years has always been poor, and they have not been too competitive.
In the draft in the summer of 1984, the Jazz selected John Stockton with the No.16 pick in the first round. Of course, there were big dreams of Olajuwon, Jordan and Barkley in this draft, which caused Stockton to have no choice at all. Can't get involved in the strongest of the 84th.
John Stockton was not a starter at the beginning of his career and served as Ricky Green's substitute, which led to his poor rookie season.A year later in the summer, they drafted Karl Malone with the No.13 pick in the first round.
Karl Malone in college was not dazzling. He played for Louisiana Tech University for three years and averaged 18.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per game.He was discovered by the Utah Jazz scouts and was selected with the [-]th overall pick.
Karl Malone averaged 14.9 points and 8.9 rebounds per game in his rookie season, and was selected to the All-Rookie First Team.The Jazz entered the playoffs for the second consecutive year. They faced the Dallas Mavericks in the first round and were eliminated in four games. However, in this round of the series, Karl Malone's scoring average increased from 14.9 points to 21.7 points, making the team I saw hope for the future.
In the 1986-87 season, before the start of Karl Malone's second season, the Jazz traded the former core of the team, Adrian Dantley, to strengthen Karl Malone.He lived up to the team's expectations of him, averaging 21.7 points per game, and his shooting percentage increased from 48.1% to 59.8%.
John Stockton also started this season, but because he had to share playing time with Ricky Green, his performance did not improve much. He averaged 22.7 points and 7.9 assists in 8.2 minutes per game.But it was from this year that Utah Shuangsha's pick-and-roll took shape.
In the 1988-89 season, after 17 games, coach Layden became the team chairman, and assistant coach Jerry Sloan took over as the head coach of the Jazz.It was not until 2011 that Sloan stepped down as head coach of the Jazz, setting a record for the longest coaching time of the same team in the four major American leagues.
John Stockton and Karl Malone gradually reached the peak under Jerry Sloan, relying on pick-and-roll tactics, they have been in the West for many years.But at the wrong time, they happened to meet Jordan's Bull Dynasty, and they lost all the direct matches in the two finals.
In 2003, Stockton officially announced his retirement, ending his long career.He has played for the Jazz throughout his entire career. Although he has not won a championship, he occupies the top of the history's total assists list and steals list, and is generally believed to be difficult to break.
Karl Malone won the regular season MVP twice in 1997 and 1999, but he still couldn't be content with not having a championship in his career. In the summer after Stockton retired, Karl Malone decided to join the Lakers and formed a huge "F4" .
This trip to the Lakers not only prevented Karl Malone from retaining his reputation of loyalty, but also failed to get the coveted championship ring in the end.In addition, his unrestrained off-court performance has also greatly damaged his reputation.That brief cooperation ended in a lose-lose situation.
After the Jazz's Utah Shuangsha period ended, Jerry Sloan led the team to hit the playoffs again, but eventually lost to the Nuggets by one game difference, resulting in the failure to make the playoffs in the 2003-04 season. 21 consecutive seasons reached the playoffs record.
In the 2004-05 season, Carlos Boozer broke the agreement with the Cavaliers and joined the Jazz as a free agent.
The whole story of this matter is that Boozer played well in the 03-04 season. In order to renew his contract as soon as possible, the Cavaliers reached a consensus after communication. dollar contract.Boozer verbally agreed to sign with the Cavaliers, but after the Cavaliers gave up the team option, he quickly signed a six-year, $6100 million contract with the Jazz.This incident gave Boozer the title of anti-bone boy.
Even more dramatic is that after Boozer's contract with the Jazz ended, he verbally agreed to sign with the Nets, but soon signed with the Chicago Bulls.Of course, this matter is not too important.
In the 2004-05 season, Andrei Kirilenko, the outside core of the Jazz, was injured, which led to a precipitous decline in the team's record, only achieving a record of 26 wins and 56 losses.
In the summer of 2005, the Jazz selected Deron Williams with the third overall pick in the first round. This not-so-top star briefly supported the Jazz after Shuangsha retired.
Deron Williams didn't like Jerry Sloan's coaching style, but he still had a difficult first season and still didn't make the playoffs.
In the 2006-07 season, the Jazz re-emerged. In the playoffs, they eliminated Yao Mai's Rockets and Warriors consecutively, and directly reached the Western Conference Finals. However, they lost to the Spurs in the finals and stopped in the Western Conference Finals.
Most of the Rockets fans were impressed by the Jazz, mainly because they eliminated the Rockets led by Yao Mai in the playoffs twice, which left a shadow on the Rockets fans at that time.
The 2007 Western Conference Finals was the best result led by Deron Williams, and they never went to that stage in the next few years.The conflict between Deron Williams and Jerry Sloan finally broke out in 2011.
The Jazz once wanted to choose Chris Paul from Wake Forest University in the 2005 draft, but Jerry Sloan admired Deron Williams more, so the team traded up to the No. [-] pick and brought Deron Williams. williams.However, Deron Williams and Jerry Sloan clashed several times over the years, mostly because Deron Williams was unwilling to implement the tactics arranged by Jerry Sloan.
In the 2010-11 season, in the game against the Bulls in February, Deron Williams did not implement Jerry Sloan's tactics in one round. This is unacceptable for the old iron-blooded coach, and he cannot help criticizing Deron Williams.A heated argument ensued between the two.
The next day, 69-year-old Jerry Sloan announced his resignation, ending his 23-year career as head coach of the Jazz.At the press conference, he burst into tears, but repeatedly said it had nothing to do with Deron Williams.
Less than two weeks later, the Jazz traded Deron Williams to the Nets, and the cooperation between the two parties officially ended.
(End of this chapter)