Michael Jordan is still a disliked man in Utah.
The Jazz have stopped selling a T-shirt featuring Jordan’s “Jumpman” silhouette amid backlash, a team spokesperson confirmed to The Salt Lake Tribune.
A Jazz fan posted to X on Saturday a photo of a gray shirt being sold in the Jazz team store that featured “Utah Jazz” in black letters with the black “Jumpman” silhouette above it.
The user, @lairddoman, tweeted: “Fire whoever allowed this design.”
The Salt Lake Tribune noted that many other teams have similar Jordan-themed shirts – some of those teams lost to Jordan in his prime, too – and the Jazz even have the “Jumpman” logo on their black statement jersey.
But that didn’t stop many Jazz fans from complaining and venting on social media, and the team seemingly decided that it didn’t need the negative publicity.
“Reading the dreaded nba central comments about the shirt and their responses are ridiculous,” the user, @lairddorman, posted. “People acting like it’s anything more than fun salty jazz fans need to check themselves. We don’t want MJ dunking on us any more. We’ve had enough.”
The bad blood between Jazz fans and Jordan goes back to the late 1990s when he denied John Stockton, Karl Malone and Jerry Sloan two titles in back-to-back years.
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Two of Jordan’s most iconic games came against the Jazz.
The “Flu Game” in 1997 featured Jordan scoring 38 points while battling the flu to lead the Bulls to a 90-88 win in Utah that gave Chicago a 3-2 series lead.
The Bulls closed out the Jazz at home in the next game.
One year later, Jordan ended the Finals in dramatic fashion.
With Jazz top defender Bryon Russell covering him, Jordan shook the forward and sunk a game-winning shot with five seconds remaining. Some still insist to this day that Jordan got away with a foul on the play.
The Jazz have not returned to the NBA Finals since that season, and have only made the conference finals one time – the 2006-07 season – since Jordan’s shot.
