Local snags
As word started to break in local outlets about a possible move out of New Orleans, there was some moderate pushback from some in the community. Most notably, a young high school kid and basketball star came forward with some outlandish claims to his local newspaper.
He alleged that while listening to his favorite Creedence Clearwater Revival record one night, a telephone booth came crashing through his bedroom and out of it emerged a man he described as “a skinny, dorky dude with glasses and a New York accent,” who proceeded to tell him his future. He began to tell him, the young child alleged, that he would one day grow into one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and that he would spend nearly two decades playing for the Jazz. Becoming the best while spending his career in his home state was music to the young man’s ears, but even more so to momma. When he caught wind of the Jazz possibly leaving the Bayou State, he led protests to bring awareness, eventually securing a meeting with Hot Rod and Boone. Behind closed doors, they told him of the sportsman’s paradise Utah was and, in exchange for his support, they promised to make the young man’s birthday a state holiday, celebrated with state-wide firework shows each year in his honor. This young man had a change of heart and began petitioning Jazz ownership for the move.
As the stars aligned, the Jazz announced their move in 1979.
October 25, 1979:
With the Jazz now firmly in Utah, Jerry West obliges Boone’s trade demand and sends him to Utah in exchange for a 1981 third-round draft pick. Ron Boone, upon touching down at Salt Lake International, greets reports with his famous statement “This is the place,” followed up with “I will never leave!”
Tom Benson
Benson, born and raised in New Orleans, is the current owner of the New Orleans Saints and the New Orleans Pelicans. He arose to riches through owning car dealerships, not dissimilar to Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller. He later parlayed his profit from those into other investments. His childhood passion being the round ball, he was overcome with enthusiasm when Sam Battistone and his investment group put an NBA franchise in his home city. As they struggled to provide adequate attendance for games, he sought to grow his empire large enough to purchase his hometown team and prevent it leaving the state. Unfortunately, he lacked the capital at the time but knew one day he’d be able to make a play of restoring the franchise to its roots should it ever fall away.
Benson, himself a distant cousin of President Kimball successor Ezra Taft Benson, was a vehement anti-Mormon. When he discovered Battistone had joined the LDS Church and that there were rumblings of the franchise moving to the cult home of Utah, he turned to what he saw as the antithesis of LDS belief – Bayou Witchcraft. On the day it was announced the Jazz were departing for Utah, he took an oath with his own blood that he would avenge Battistone and restore the franchise, or at least its name, to what he felt was its rightful owner.
Six years after the fateful move, Battistone acquired enough capital to purchase the New Orleans Saints football team in 1985. He believed that he could hold the sports franchise name – the Saints – as leverage in his war on Utah owning the Jazz name, believing that as the LDS Church grew in power, it would seek to possess the Saints’ name as an appropriate use for its basketball franchise.
Benson’s revenge
According to some, Benson’s blood oath against the Utah Jazz may have included a voodoo hex. No confirmation on whether this hex enabled the health and magical powers of many infamous Jazz-killers:
As the Jazz eventually sold to, literally, Benson's Utah counterpart in car sales, he's anger boiled over. When the opportunity finally arose in 2012 to purchase his NBA franchise, Benson jumped at the opportunity, with revenge in his sights. He informed commissioner Stern that he would agree to the purchase from the league under two conditions: 1) that his franchise receives the first pick in the 2012 draft and 2) that the GSW would win the coin toss with the Toronto Raptors, thus screwing Utah out of the 2012 GSW pick by one position and prohibiting them from taking local hero Damian Lillard.
Benson locked in on his ultimate goal of either total revenge and annihilation of the Utah Jazz franchise, or their acquiescence and surrender of the Jazz title back to New Orleans. Things hit a boiling when he had to give his franchise the worst possible name in professional sports – The Pelicans. The fact that the Pelicans was the only other name that tied them to the city stung deeper, but nearly as bad as when he had to name their arena the worst name in professional sports – Smoothie King Center.
Benson identified a three-pronged approach to taking down the Jazz before the 30th anniversary of the Jazz moving to Utah:
1. Undermine support: diminish the Jazz fan base.
Objective: Obtain as many Kentucky players as possible (Anthony, Rondo, Cousins, Liggins, Miller), drawing away PKM (
@Dr. Jones ) and diminishing the interest of the most prolific fan message board poster ever. [this strategy has been fairly successful]
2. Undermine personnel: Draft local hero Frank Jackson, and snatch up Nikola Mirotic in the last hour.
3. Avenge the actions of Ron Boone: This one being more complicated, he has conjured the spirits of Pete Maravich and Hot Rod to be enslaved to do his evil bidding.
But the Jazz must defeat the Pelicans in order for the curse to be broken and to knock NOP from the 2018 playoffs.
But Boone has been preparing for victory of his own, seeking vindication for his responsibility in the relocation. He’s even preparing to enjoy the spoils of success.
But in the midst of evil spirits and warring under lords, there is a source of supernal power that Boone and the Jazz may call upon in their darkest hour.
Don't miss it.
