Utah Jazz was originally known as New Orleans Jazz. Their name was transformed to its present name when their owner Sam Battistone moved the team to Utah in 1979.

In the 1980's and 1990's, Utah Jazz was one of the most flourishing teams under the guidance of their coach Jerry Sloan. They won two Western Conference Titles in the year 1997 and 1998 which was contributed by the good plays of John Stockton, the team's point guard and Karl Malone, the forward who has played in the playoffs for 20 straight seasons. The combination of these two players is said to be one of the best in NBA's history. Included also in their Hall of Famers are Pistol Maravich and Adrian Dantley.

The team has been distinguished with their shade of blue jerseys. Their jerseys come as either blue having black and white trimming with scripts in darker blue with white highlights or white with blue lining and blue fonts. Two players from their team, Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer are going to participate in the US Olympic basketball team that will be joining in the 2008 Summer Olympics in China. Utah Jazz is the only NBA team who has 2 players joining in the said event.