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Forward · 1978–82

James Hardy

Eleventh overall in the 1978 draft, Hardy went from the University of San Francisco to the New Orleans Jazz and never wore another NBA uniform — four seasons with the franchise, moving with it to Salt Lake City in 1979 and averaging 5.7 points and 5.3 rebounds a game as a 6-foot-9 power forward.

Born in Oakland in 1956, he died of a heart attack in Long Beach, California on December 29, 2020, four weeks past his 64th birthday.

HOW HE CAME & WENTNew Orleans took him 11th overall in 1978 with the pick Golden State had sent as compensation for EC Coleman. Utah waived him in December 1980 and signed him back the following August.

Full name: James Percivell Hardy
Jazz tenure — New Orleans & Utah: 1978–82
Position: Forward
Born: 1956, Oakland, California
Died: 2020
Height: 6′8″ (203 cm)
Weight: 220 lb (100 kg)
College: San Francisco
Drafted: 1978, 1st round (No. 12), New Orleans

Signature in the archive C. 1979 Press Photo Utah Jazz dec'd 2020 SDFP BXOS0

Also on the shelf — unsigned 1980-81 TCMA CBA

No photograph of this signature is online yet.

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With the Jazz

JAMES HARDY · 1978–82 · PER GAME

SEASON	TEAM	G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
1978–79	NOJ	68	21.4	6.7	4.6	1.0	0.8	0.9	.460	—	.693
1979–80	UTA	76	21.1	5.5	5.3	1.4	0.6	1.1	.507	.500	.773
1980–81	UTA	23	22.1	5.0	5.8	1.6	0.9	0.9	.468	—	.550
1981–82	UTA	82	22.1	5.1	5.7	1.3	0.7	0.8	.485	.000	.688
JAZZ TOTAL	4 SEASONS	249	21.6	5.7	5.3	1.3	0.7	0.9	.481	.333	.700

Season by season, regular season, with this franchise only. More info: Basketball-Reference ↗ · Wikipedia ↗

Did you know

JAMES HARDY · 8 NOTES

Was the Jazz's first-round pick in 1978, taken twelfth overall.
He arrived at San Francisco in 1975 with Winford Boynes and Bill Cartwright, a recruiting haul that remade the program.
As sophomores that trio won the first 29 games of 1976-77 and carried the Dons to a number one national ranking.
Bill Cartwright called him one of the best athletes he had ever seen and remembered dunks that stopped games cold.
The University of San Francisco inducted him into its Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017.
The two roster spots Utah cleared on December 1, 1980 went straight to Rickey Green and Jeff Wilkins, signed out of the CBA the next day.
Cut in mid-season, he played in the CBA for the Anchorage Northern Knights and in the Philippines for the Crispa Redmanizers, then returned to play all 82 games in 1981-82.
Basketball-Reference records neither the release nor the re-signing, so the books make it look as though he never left.