It was 25 years ago when Michael Jordan stole the hearts of every Utah Jazz fan in the 1998 NBA Finals, but that doesn’t mean the franchise is over.
Jazz owner Ryan Smith went on “The Pat McAfee Show” Wednesday afternoon and talked about how he became a die-hard Utah fan and made it very clear Remember the 1998 season, when Jordan and the Bulls came to Salt Lake City and won their own game. Win third consecutive NBA championship.
The moment everyone remembers from that series is of course Game 6, when Jordan hit one of the most iconic shots in NBA history over Bryon Russell. Jazz fans believed Jordan made the game-winning shot with five seconds left.
Smith is firmly in that group, too, as evidenced by the name of the WiFi inside the Jazz Arena today.
“I remember there was a lot of discussion that year between Michael Jordan and Jazz fans,” Smith told McAfee. “Whether it’s pizza, getting sick, going to Vegas, whatever it is. The WiFi in the building was ‘Jordan turned it down.'”
The Jazz’s official X account confirmed that the WiFi name is actually JordanPushedOff.
👀 https://t.co/qhQ3ENbn6c pic.twitter.com/1PwVf20lys
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) November 8, 2023
While some might say the name Jazz WiFi is a bit stingy, you can’t blame anyone in the entire state of Utah who still has a bad taste in mind about the ’98 Finals.
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Jordan and Chicago defeated the Jazz in the Finals the year before, then walked into their arena the next year and won another ring.
The Jazz have reached the NBA Finals twice in franchise history, but both times they lost to the Chicago Bulls led by Jordan.