The Utah Jazz have stopped selling a jersey featuring a silhouette of Michael Jordan’s famous “Jumpman” flying over it the names of the teams he defeated twice in the NBA Finals.
But before that happens, this photo brings back bad memories for some old fans.
Jazz fan Laird Dorman was browsing the team store ahead of the team’s first preseason home game over the weekend when he spotted a shirt with the Jordan Brand “Jumpman” logo above the Utah Jazz wordmark.
The NBA has a partnership with Jordan Brand, and the iconic “Jumpman” logo appears on some jerseys, including the Jazz’s black Statement jersey. The Utah Jazz T-shirt in question is derived from a league-wide design; other teams in the NBA have essentially identical jerseys.
But that didn’t stop Jazz fans from outcry.
During the Jazz’s heyday in the 1990s, driven by John Stockton and Karl Malone, Jordan and his Chicago Bulls were the team’s biggest rivals. Ultimately, Jordan’s Bulls won the NBA Finals twice over the Jazz — victories often considered the former’s greatest achievements and commemorated in the award-winning documentary series “The Last Dance.”
For some Jazz fans, those days are also seen as the toughest times, when they came so close to championship glory but didn’t win it all. So seeing this jersey in the Jazz’s own franchise story — even 25 years later — created some strong reactions.
However, the jersey only made a brief appearance in the Jazz store. A Jazz spokesman confirmed the team had taken the jersey off the shelves after facing backlash.