Well, it seems like everyone is going to make a big deal out of our season opener, even our former team.
Too bad we'll be sending the Jazz back to Utah singing the Blues.
Jazz Get Big Easy Opener
Friday, July 19, 2002
BY PHIL MILLER
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Call it the NBA's way of easing the transition for New Orleans basketball fans: The city's basketball future will meet its past when the NBA returns to Louisiana this fall after a 23-year absence.
The Utah Jazz will open the 2002-03 season on Oct. 30 by welcoming the New Orleans Hornets to their new bayou home, the city the Jazz abandoned in 1979. New Orleans, which lured the Hornets away from Charlotte, last played host to a regular-season game on April 6, 1970, when Milwaukee beat the Jazz, 140-131, before a crowd of 4,006.
Basketball fans with long memories will even recognize the visitors' uniforms. "It'll be great. We'll wear the old Jazz uniforms down there, [with] all the different colors and stuff on them," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. "It'll be kind of neat to open down there. We might even wear them the whole year."
Well, probably not. The Jazz, who released their schedule on Thursday, will switch back to their current garb for the other 81 games, starting the next night in Atlanta.