The Utah Jazz pulled the iconic Michael Jordan ‘Jumpman’ shirts over fan backlash; a silly move by all involved.
Sometimes pain dies slowly, and that’s surely the case with the Utah Jazz and its faithful as we found out this week. The NBA made a move to release a Michael Jordan-inspired shirt and place it in all 30 of the NBA team’s shops. The shirt shows the iconic Jordan logo and was placed in every NBA city across the United States and Canada, but Utah Jazz fans were having none of it.
The backlash and uproar were so persistent and ferocious from the Jazz-faithful that the Jazz pulled the shirt from the shelves. The backlash worked, fans got what they wanted, and some of us are left sitting here wondering what the point of this all was.
Firstly, the Jumpman shirt being offered was just tacky for how much it was surely being sold for, so on that hand, the anger is respectable. It was just the Jumpman logo over “Utah Jazz”. So it’s understandable.
Yet, the upheaval that it brought beyond the lame design was the silly part. Yes, the Jazz lost in two back-to-back NBA Finals to the Jordan, preventing Karl Malone and John Stockton from their owed NBA titles, but really, that level of anger is just silly.
The Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers, and Los Angeles Lakers fandoms didn’t mutiny like this. And heck, for as bad as the Jazz fans may feel, imagine how the Cleveland Cavaliers fandom has to feel. They had two of the best players in the league with Brad Daugherty and Mark Price who didn’t even see the NBA Finals, all because Jordan was there to stop them.
And they ended up with jerseys designed after Jordan. The Cavs fans didn’t respond in kind as the Jazz faithful did. Heck, even the Charlotte Hornets fans didn’t react so negatively, and they’re the ones being hurt the most by Jordan over a prolonged period of time. No loss to Jordan and the Bulls can ever match the pain that Jordan has inflicted on Charlotte since buying the franchise.
It’s a silly situation, one that didn’t need to be so overblown. Sometimes it’s ok to let the hurt die, especially after 25 years.