Jazz discontinue shirt for bringing up bad Michael Jordan memories with fans
Michael Jordan has become as universal a brand as a human can become in sports, but there are still a few fan bases where his image revives bad memories.
First and foremost, the Utah Jazz.
In case you need a recap, Jordan's Chicago Bulls twice beat the Jazz in the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals, with Jordan's 32.4 points per game helping relegate Karl Malone and John Stockton into the highest levels of the NBA's no-ring club. Those remain the only two NBA Finals that Utah has ever reached.
Most Jazz fans will still grumble that Jordan pushed off Bryon Russell before his iconic series-winning shot in 1998's Game 6.
Despite all of that history, someone at Nike decided it was a good idea to design a T-shirt that showed Jordan's Jumpman logo dunking on top of the Jazz's name, as one fan discovered in Utah's official team store.
Fire whoever allowed this design. pic.twitter.com/do05OVagtd
— Laird (@lairddoman) October 15, 2023
It's really never great when the Jazz's own store is selling a shirt depicting a quick recap of the two Finals they lost.
It should be noted that shirt wasn't designed for only the Jazz. Similar shirts, with the Jumpman logo over the team's name, are available for other teams, including another Jordan nemesis. Utah is simply where the complaints were immediately heard once the shirt hit the store, though there have been past complaints elsewhere about Jordan's logo hitting the team's uniforms.
Days after pictures of the shirt started circulating, the Jazz made the obvious move of discontinuing sales of the shirt, per Andy Larsen of the Salt Lake Tribune. They probably weren't quick enough for this to not count as another loss to Jordan.