Before the Utah Jazz, the Utah Stars and college basketball took center stage. Salt Lake City hosted the 1979 NCAA Final between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. But what established the franchise and kept it in Utah was the 1984 Jazz - the Team with Heart.
"We had really good players. We just needed to figure out who we were," Thurl Bailey said of that time. "And I think we developed an identity of toughness, an identity of putting ourselves in a position to win every night against better opponents on paper. So if you do that enough - if you have the right people at the helm then you’re gonna put yourself in the position to win games that people would never thought you would. So that year really is - I think - a pivotal year of what started the winning foundation of this franchise."
JP Chunga examined the early years in Utah in this edition of The Note: The History of the Utah Jazz.