Utah Jazz fans, you all lost to the Chicago Bulls 25 years ago. Friends conversed about Michael Jordan’s game-winning shot in the 1998 Finals on AIM, and Karl Malone teamed up with Diamond Dallas Page to take on Dennis Rodman and Hollywood Hogan at WCW’s Bash at the Beach a month later. Let the past live in the past and get some cool stuff in your team store.
Jordan Brand does make NBA apparel. The jumpman logo appears on the All-Star game jerseys, and on select nights the jerseys of the actual teams. There is a line of T-shirts in the NBA this year with a large jumpman logo on it and the team name underneath.
Jazz fans are apparently so haunted by all things Jordan that forget not purchasing the shirts, they want them catapulted out of the state. The team capitulated to the local fan base and removed the shirts from the team store.
A quick browse through the Jazz’s online store shows shirts that are far more objectionable than the logo of the man who sunk both of the franchise’s Finals appearances with historic performance. The first item that pops up after opening up the store’s home page is a Malone jersey in the style of those Finals years.
Malone is arguably the greatest player in franchise history, and also spent much of his career dealing with paternity lawsuits. One of which involves a son who was conceived when Malone was a 20-year-old student at Louisiana Tech. The mother was 13 at the time.
If the image of that jersey makes your stomach turn then feel free to jump into the T-shirt section for it to turn again. There you will find one of him and John Stockton together at the 1993 NBA All-Star Game when they were named co-MVPs. The online store also features several other Stockon T-shirts, including one with an illustration of his face on the front.
Stockton has spent the last couple of years at war with his alma mater for refusing to wear a mask when Gonzaga was still enforcing COVID-19 protocols. He actually broadcasted his COVID lunacy when he falsely claimed he knew of hundreds of athletes who died after receiving the vaccine. For the people who doubted his claims when he first made them to the Spokane Spokesman-Review, months later he went on Michele Tafoya’s podcast and said that he had names on pieces of paper and photographs to prove his point. That’s right, Stockton assembled a scrapbook of his delusion
So the Jazz feature clothing items from a person who impregnated a middle schooler while in college, and someone who approached the most devastating pandemic in a century with tinfoil hat logic and lies. These two are largely the featured attractions in the world of Jazz merchandise, and yet the fans were upset at a giant jumpman logo.
This is why Vernon Maxwell accuses Utah of not having any internet. Sure it’s a joke, but it’s only funny because of the way that the Jazz fans act. They should be happy Jordan would allow his brand to even be associated with the franchise that he tortured for two seasons.
At least he’s cool and largely only caused harm to peoples’ feelings — except for that Steve Kerr punching incident. It’s not like a full picture Jordan’s head and face were on the T-shirt anyway. A logo had the people of Salt Lake City mad enough to pen a letter to the editor — using real pens since, you know, they don’t have any internet.
The shirt is not a screen print of Jordan’s indelible moment. It’s just a shirt with a company logo that is far bigger than the team name. Utah, if you all didn’t like the shirt, the easiest solution was to keep your $35 in your bank account.
Instead, the fanbase chose lameness.
