Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
I'm well aware that jazz is synonymous with New Orleans - at least certain kinds of jazz . Which is why it makes complete sense in theory for the team called the Jazz to be in New Orleans. The problem is that it already was in New Orleans, and then it left - largely voluntarily - to Utah. Over 40 years ago.
So when people who are, I don't know, 20 or 30 years old talk about wanting the name back, they're doing so because they feel an attachment to the name - not the team - which is fair, but not really a reason I personally see as compelling, or because they associate the Jazz team from the 70s as belonging to them in some way. Except it doesn't. They've never seen that team, attended that team's games, bought that team's merch, etc; all the nostalgia they feel for the Pistol Pete era does not belong to them. It's not their nostalgia. It's the nostalgia of guys who were around then, watching those games at the time, that they're putting on like an ill-fitting suit.
I'm not trying to judge anyone who does want that name back: like I said, I get that the name, at least on paper, fits New Orleans far far better than Utah. Nor am I judging anyone who is actually old enough to remember that original Jazz team. But I just find it a little odd if you're - say - 20, 25 years old and New Orleans has had a basketball team basically your entire life (Hornets/Pels) and that's the team you grew up with and formed memories with, to decide that actually your true team is a team isn't the one you've actually supported for years but instead a different team that left you before you were even born.