Utah Jazz Retired Numbers
The Utah Jazz have retired 8 numbers. Each one below records who wore it, the seasons they wore it, and what earned it a place in the rafters.
Back to Utah JazzFrank Layden
Coach 1981-1988
Frank Layden was a basketball coach from Brooklyn who became the most important figure in the early history of Utah Jazz basketball. He was not a tactician in the mold of the great X-and-O architects but a builder of culture and morale, and the Jazz retired his #1 for what he meant to the organization in its formative years rather than for any single achievement. Layden joined the Jazz in 1979 when the franchise relocated from New Orleans, serving first as scout and general manager, then taking over as head coach from 1981 to 1988.
Why #1 was retiredPete Maravich
1974-1980
Pete Maravich averaged 44.2 points per game in college without a three-point line — a record that, decades later, no one has approached; Oscar Robertson is second, far behind at 33.8. The Jazz retired his #7 because "Pistol Pete" was, for six seasons, the entire identity of the franchise. Maravich joined the New Orleans Jazz in 1974 as the team's centerpiece and defining attraction, a showman whose passing and scoring imagination ran generations ahead of his era.
Why #7 was retiredJohn Stockton
1984-2003
On the night of May 29, 1997, the Delta Center in Salt Lake City held its breath. The Utah Jazz and the Houston Rockets were tied in the final seconds of Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, a franchise that had never reached the NBA Finals standing one possession from the edge of history. Karl Malone inbounded the ball to John Stockton, who dribbled once near the top of the key, rose with Charles Barkley closing fast, and released a three-pointer at the buzzer. It dropped clean.
Why #12 was retiredJeff Hornacek
1994-2000
The Utah Jazz retired Jeff Hornacek's #14 to honor a kind of excellence that does not demand attention but produces results. Hornacek went undrafted in 1986 — the fact that explains everything after it, because what followed was extraordinary: three All-Star selections and a 43.5% career mark from three-point range when most shooting guards barely respected the line. After seven seasons developing into a reliable two-way guard in Phoenix, he was traded to Utah in 1994 for Jeff Malone and others.
Why #14 was retiredKarl Malone
1985-2003
On a March night in 2006, the lights at the Delta Center dimmed and a banner bearing the number 32 rose slowly into the rafters, settling beside John Stockton's 12. Karl Malone stood at center court in a dark suit, a man built like a granite outcrop, and for once the most relentless competitor Utah had ever known had nowhere left to run. He had played 19 NBA seasons, scored more points than all but one human being who ever laced up sneakers, and never once held the championship trophy he chased from October to June for two decades.
Why #32 was retiredDarrell Griffith
1980-1991
The Utah Jazz retired Darrell Griffith's #35 because he was the first true star of the franchise's Utah era. Selected second overall in the 1980 NBA Draft — the year after the Jazz relocated from New Orleans — Griffith arrived as the reigning NCAA champion and Final Four Most Outstanding Player from Louisville, where his 48-inch vertical leap earned him the nickname "Dr. Dunkenstein." He won the 1981 NBA Rookie of the Year award and, in 1984, became the first Jazz player in Utah history to be named an All-Star.
Why #35 was retiredMark Eaton
1982-1993
Mark Eaton was 21 years old and working as an auto mechanic in Bellflower, California when a UCLA assistant coach spotted him in a pickup game and suggested he try out. He had not played organized basketball since high school. He was 7 feet 4 inches tall. He went undrafted and joined the Jazz in 1982 on a developmental basis. Within two years he was the most intimidating defensive presence in the Western Conference.
Why #53 was retiredJerry Sloan
Coach 1988-2011
Jerry Sloan coached the Utah Jazz for 23 seasons, and his 1,127 regular-season wins with the franchise are the most any head coach has accumulated with a single organization in NBA history. His number in the rafters is #1223 — representing December 23, 2011, when the organization honored him — and it hangs there not for championships, because he won none, but for the standard he set over more than two decades.
Why #1223 was retired