The ledger
Arrival in Utah (1979–1984)1979–80 Utah Jazz
The sixth season in franchise history and the first in Utah. The Jazz relocated from New Orleans to Salt Lake City on June 8, 1979, and kept the name — there was not enough time before the season began to get league approval for a change, so a team named for the music of New Orleans went to a state with no jazz scene to speak of.
32 in, 7 out. Every move the record shows for this season, with the reason where a source gives one. Where no reason is documented, the entry says nothing rather than guess.
In
32 ARRIVEDtrade with Bulls
Wilbur Holland never played a minute for the club
- the club gave up: rights to Rickey Williams
1979 NBA draft first round pick (#20 overall)
Larry Knight never played a minute for the club
1979 NBA draft second round pick (#23 overall)
Tico Brown
1979 NBA draft third round pick (#45 overall)
Arvid Kramer never played a minute for the club
1979 NBA draft fourth round pick (#67 overall)
- The newly arrived Utah Jazz drafted the local product 67th overall in 1979 and signed him to a multi-year deal. He was waived on November 6.
- Played college basketball at the University of Utah, then joined the Jazz in their first Utah season.
1979 NBA draft fifth round pick (#89 overall)
Wolfe Perry never played a minute for the club
1979 NBA draft sixth round pick (#110 overall)
Ernie Cobb never played a minute for the club
1979 NBA draft seventh round pick (#130 overall)
Paul Poe never played a minute for the club
1979 NBA draft eighth round pick (#149 overall)
Keith McDonald never played a minute for the club
1979 NBA draft ninth round pick (#168 overall)
Milt Huggins never played a minute for the club
1979 NBA draft tenth round pick (#186 overall)
- Utah took him in the tenth round of 1979, 185th overall, and waived him a year later — then signed him again as a free agent in May 1981.
- Played his entire NBA career — 57 games — for this franchise.
signed veteran free agent
- He signed with New Orleans as a veteran free agent on June 28, 1979, with Paul Griffin going to San Antonio as compensation. In August 1981 he and Wayne Cooper were traded to Dallas for Bill Robinzine.
- Later coached the Charlotte Hornets for five seasons in the 1990s.
- Background: In Utah: two seasons, 10.6 points per game in 1979-80 and 8.7 in 1980-81. source
- ARRIVAL: signs with the New Orleans Jazz as a veteran free agent in 1979, right as the franchise is preparing to move to Salt Lake City. He comes from San Antonio, where he had played four seasons (the last ABA season, 1975-76, plus the first NBA years after the merger). source
signed veteran free agent (from Pistons)
- Detroit's second-round pick in 1977 came to Utah in 1979, the franchise's first season in Salt Lake City, and stayed four years.
- Was on the roster for the franchise's first season in Salt Lake City.
- Background: Four seasons in Utah (1979-80 through 1982-83), 9.0 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Franchise records for blocks: 517 for a career in 321 games and 174 in a season in 1980-81. That same 1980-81 season he leads the entire NBA in fouls — 342. source
- Draft: Detroit Pistons, 2nd round, 14th pick in the round, 36th overall, 1977 draft, out of Central Michigan. Debut 22 October 1977. Two seasons in Detroit. source
signed free agent
signed first round pick to a multi-year contract
Larry Knight never played a minute for the club
signed third round pick to a multi-year contract
Arvid Kramer never played a minute for the club
signed fourth round pick to a multi-year contract
trade with Lakers
- Los Angeles had no room for two starting small forwards after taking Jamaal Wilkes, so on September 13, 1979 it shipped him to Utah for Spencer Haywood — a deal the LA Times later called lopsided. Seven seasons and a feud with Frank Layden later, the Jazz traded him to Detroit.
- Scored 73 points against Houston on 4 January 1984 — still the highest single-game total in franchise history.
- the club gave up: Spencer Haywood
trade with Nets
- New Jersey traded him to Utah in 1979 after his off-court troubles. The single season that followed, the franchise's first in Salt Lake City, was the low point of his life, and the Jazz traded him to Golden State that summer.
- Elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2013.
- New Jersey sent him to Utah with Bernard King and Jim Boylan on October 2, 1979 for Rich Kelley and cash, and the Jazz waived him less than two months later.
- Won the 1973 NBA championship with the New York Knicks.
- the club gave up: Rich Kelley
trade with Nuggets
- Denver traded him to Utah in October 1979 and by November he had signed with New Jersey, making his stint one of the briefest on the franchise's all-time roster.
- Played at UNLV on the Runnin' Rebels team that reached the 1977 Final Four.
- the club gave up: 1980 third round pick (#48-Eddie Lee), 1981 second round pick (#34-Kenneth Green / Ken Green)
trade with Lakers
- The Lakers traded him to Utah for a 1981 third-round pick on October 25, 1979, returning him to the city where he had been a champion. The Jazz waived him in January 1981 — and he has been on their broadcasts ever since.
- Played 1,041 consecutive professional games without missing one, an ABA/NBA iron-man record.
- Background: 25 October 1979: the Los Angeles Lakers traded him to Utah for a 1981 third-round pick — a return to the city where he had been a champion with the ABA's Utah Stars. source
- the club gave up: 1981 third round pick (#51-Zam Fredrick), future considerations (?)
signed free agent
- A fifth-round pick of Phoenix in 1978, he reached the Jazz for 1979-80 — the last of his two NBA seasons.
- Played for the franchise in both New Orleans and Utah.
signed free agent
- Atlanta's tenth pick in 1973 finished his career with the Jazz in the club's first Salt Lake City season.
- Was the tenth overall pick in 1973 and a Missouri Tigers standout before his New Orleans years.
trade with Nuggets
- Denver traded him to Utah for a second-round pick on November 20, 1979 and the Jazz waived him in October 1980. He won an Italian title with Cantu, played a CBA season, then came back to Utah for 1983-84, his last NBA year.
- Won the 1976 NBA championship with the Boston Celtics.
- Background: The Denver Nuggets signed him as a veteran free agent in 1979 and sent a 1979 third-round pick to Boston as compensation. source
- the club gave up: 1980 second round pick (#41-Jawann Oldham)
trade with Hawks
- He arrived midway through 1979-80, his third trade in under four years, and Utah was where his game finally opened up — before a car crash killed him that May.
- Led the Big Ten in scoring at Michigan State and was an early mentor to Magic Johnson.
- the club gave up: 1981 second round pick (#29-Eddie Johnson (Arnet)), 1982 second round pick (#26-Ricky Frazier), future considerations (?)
signed free agent
- The old ABA All-Star reached Utah in 1979, in the franchise's first Salt Lake City season, near the end of his career.
- A five-time ABA All-Star who led the league in assists in 1975.
re-signed
re-signed
signed free agent
- He signed with Utah as a free agent on January 18, 1980 and was lost to Dallas in the 1980 expansion draft that May.
- Won the 1977 NCAA championship with Marquette under Al McGuire.
re-signed to a 5-year contract extension
signed free agent to a 10-day contract
re-signed to a second 10-day contract
Out
7 LEFTretired (date approximate)
- THE REASON FOR COMING: a salary dispute with the Lakers. In the fall of 1975 Goodrich stages a holdout and misses the first four games, in order to play out his option year and become a free agent the following summer. source
- THE END: he recovers and averages 16.1 points in 1977-78, then drops to 12.7 in 1978-79 in 74 games. The three-year contract expires and he retires at 36 with 19,181 career points — the same summer the franchise moves to Utah. source
sent to Spurs as compensation for veteran free agent Allan Bristow
lost veteran free agent (to Pistons)
- HOW HE LEFT: July 1979, he signs a multi-year contract with the Detroit Pistons as a veteran free agent. source
- THE REASON — he is going home. McElroy grew up in Detroit (Murray-Wright High School). At the press conference: "I TOLD my agent I think I want to go home. This is the place for me." A few months earlier he had been set on going to Atlanta, but Will Robinson, the Pistons' director of community relations, brought him back. The source is the student daily The Michigan Daily from July 1979 (the page is behind Cloudflare — retrieved through a search engine, not directly). source
trade with Hawks
waived (team bought out remainder of contract)
- THE END — the key reason: in 1979-80 his knees were worse than ever. Wikipedia: "He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who did not practice were not allowed to play in games." He sat out 24 straight games. source
deceased
lost in 1980 NBA expansion draft (to Mavericks)