Historical Moments:
1974/75: The NBA came to the city of New Orleans for the first time. However, it was not the
first professional basketball entry into the Crescent City as they had a team
called the Buccaneers in the ABA from 1967-1970. Their NBA team known as the
Jazz hoped to hit a sweet note with fans by acquiring Pistol Pete Maravich from
the Atlanta Hawks. Maravich a star in college at Louisiana State was a showman.
He wore a signature pair of floppy good-luck sweat socks that always appeared
to need washing. He shot the ball from anywhere and everywhere. He never made
a simple pass when he could make an entertaining one, so his assists regularly
came from behind the back or through the legs. However, the Jazz got off to a rocky
start as they scored just 74 points while losing their first game on the road
to the New York Knicks on October 17th. A week later after 4 road losses the
Jazz lost their first home game to Philadelphia 76ers. In fact the Jazz would
not get their first win until November 11th when they beat the Portland Trailblazers
by 1 point at home. The Jazz would continue to struggle throughout the season
as they went through 3 coaches while winning just 6 of their first 5 games.
However, in their final 32 games the Jazz started to come together and finished
strong posting a 17-15 record. However, they would still finish in last place
with a NBA worse 23-59 record.
1975/76: In their second season the Jazz would move into the spacious Superdome. At first
the Jazz played sweet music at the dome as they won their first dome game 114-106
over the Detroit Pistons on October 24th on the way to a 6-1 start. However,
the Jazz would struggle in November and December as Pistol Pete Maravich missed
20 games due to injury. Maravich would return and the Jazz would play competitive
basketball escaping last place by finishing 4th with a record of 38-44 as
Pistol Pete finished 3rd in scoring with 25.9 ppg.
1976/77: The Jazz played inconstant basketball as they took a step backward finishing in 5th
place with a record of 35-47. However, Pistol Pete Maravich would be thrilling
all season as he led the NBA in scoring with 31.1 ppg, highlighted by an unbelievable
68-point night at the Superdome against the New York Knicks on February
25th.
1977/78: The Jazz fall 4 games short of a trip to the playoffs as they finish in 5th place
again with a 39-43 record in an up and down season which included a rough December
where they won just 3 of 13 games. Pistol Pete Maravich again had a solid
season with 27.0 ppg. However, injuries would him to 50 games, which was not enough
games to qualify for the scoring title. The Jazz would still have a league
leader however, as Truck Robinson led the NBA with 15.7 rebounds per game.
1978/79: Pistol Pete Maravich would struggle all season as he tried to return from off season
knee surgery. Without Maravich the Jazz would struggle in the stands and on
the court the struggles were made even worse as they dealt Truck Robinson to the
Phoenix Suns for Ron Lee, Marty Byrnes, 2 draft picks, and cash. Without Maravich
and Robinson as the Jazz plummeted back into last place with a league worse
26-56 record. Following the season the Jazz would stun their fans in New
Orleans by announcing plans to move the team to Utah, as their April 6th loss
against the Milwaukee Bucks ended up being their swan song on Bourbon Street.
1979-2002: After the Jazz left New Orleans the city would play occasional host to Atlanta Hawks
games. However, their best connection to basketball came when the Superdome
hosted the Final Four in 1982 when a Freshman named Michael Jordan hit the game
winning shot as North Carolina won the Championship. New Orleans would also host
the Final Four in 1987 and 1993, both of which had classic endings as well.
So the desire to bring the NBA back to the Crescent City remained strong. In 2000
the city decided to build a new arena with hopes of luring a team back, and
in 2002 they hit pay dirt as the Hornets moved in from Charlotte.
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