Utah Jazz Notes: New Logo in Effect, The Shot

Your early-week dish of Utah Jazz goodness, including the new logo appearing on NBA TV spots, the anniversary of ‘The Shot’ and an excellent Jazz season review from the fantasy perspective.

When it was first revealed that the Utah Jazz would be getting a new primary logo for the 2016-17 NBA season, many among Jazz Nation welcomed the change with open arms. The team’s “mountain logo,” which was lauded as an aesthetic achievement when it was introduced in the 90s, had long outlived its usefulness.

To put it bluntly, the thing was looking ugly. Even when the team retooled it to match evolving color schemes, it looked like a relic from a bygone era of NBA fashion when busier was better and the combination of purple, copper and turquoise was actually considered a good idea.

Now, it’s no more and the classic, J-Note wordmark reigns supreme. In fact, after appearing on the team’s podium at the draft lottery earlier this month, Utah’s new/old logo has begun to appear in on-screen graphics during NBA telecasts.

Aaron Peck, one of my go-to guys at High-Def Digest, snapped the following pic during Monday night’s Game 7 of the Warriors-Thunder series–

The “refreshed brand identity” is in full effect and I, for one, could not be happier.

The Shot

Of course, the downside of bidding adieu to the mountain logo is that the best moments in Jazz history came while playing under it. Of those moments, perhaps none loom larger than “The Shot.”

John Stockton‘s three-point dagger to sink Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler and the Houston Rockets and send the Utah Jazz to their first NBA Finals happened 19 years ago this past Sunday. For a young Jazz fan–I was in junior high school at the time–I can tell you that it didn’t get any better than that.

Do yourself a favor and watch that entire video. It’s always good to revel in our team’s past glory.

For those of you who are more concerned with the team’s present and future, consider the fact that the best players from the squad that faced the Chicago Bulls for the title were all in their mid-30s when they finally broke through to the Finals. No player in the current Jazz core is older than 26.

We’ve got room to grow and time to do it.

Hang tough, Jazz Nation, and, in the meantime, celebrate the anniversary of one of the greatest moments in franchise history.

Next: Utah Jazz Free Agency: Potential Center Targets

Red Rock Fantasy Basketball Review

Finally, for those of you who love fantasy hoops, Red Rock Fantasy Basketball did a season review of the 2015-16 Jazz campaign, taking a look at the fantasy performance of each player on the team, as well as how things could shake out next season.

The podcast is one of the better basketball joints around, coming to you from our friends at Hardwood Paroxysm, and this episode was no different. Podcast host Josh Lloyd is a guy that knows Jazz basketball–for a daily FanDueler like myself, his stuff is must-see material.

So who was the best fantasy baller on the Utah Jazz last season? Derrick Favors, who Lloyd envisions as a potential top 25 fantasy player next season.

In any event, I’m just hoping to see more of Faves on the floor than we did this past year.