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Michael Jordan terrorized basically every team he played against during his legendary career—including the Jazz, who lost to His Airness and the Bulls in the NBA Finals on two occasions. As a result, it’s pretty easy to understand why plenty of Utah fans were less than thrilled to see a shirt honoring the NBA icon in their own team’s store.
The Jazz actually held their own against Jordan in the regular season, as the dynamic duo that was Karl Malone and John Stockton helped the team post a 15-11 record against the superstar.
However, Jordan had the upper hand in the playoffs. As you likely know, the Bulls vanquished the Jazz in the Finals in back-to-back years in 1997 and 1998 (with the first series boasting the “Flu Game” that was really just a case of food poisoning) to give himself an 8-4 record against Utah in the postseason.
Those two seasons are still the only time the Jazz have punched their ticket to the NBA Finals, and the franchise is still in search of its first championship. As a result, those losses still sting more than 25 years later, and while Jazz fans obviously have to respect what Jordan was able to achieve, it’s easy to understand why they aren’t scrambling to honor him.
However, it appeared Utah had decided to do exactly that based on a picture that surfaced earlier this week showcasing a shirt with the “Jumpman” logo over the team’s name that was being sold in the Jazz store inside the Delta Center.
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, the shirt in question understandably generated plenty of backlash from fans who were not exactly thrilled to see the Jazz pay tribute to the man who deprived the team of the Larry O’Brien Trophy on multiple occasions.
It appears the shirts in question were part of a leaguewide merch initiative, but a spokesperson for the team confirmed it had made the wise decision to yank them from the store.