Threading the Needle: April, May & Season Wrap

The gold “Statement Edition” jerseys have drawn a lot of discussion from Utah fans, but the Jazz’s success in these bold unis is undeniable. 

By this point, we all know how special this Utah Jazz season was. In securing the clinching win over Sacramento last Sunday, this Jazz team achieved the best record in the league at 52-20, a franchise first. The team also did something that hasn’t been done since the beloved 1998 team by snagging home court advantage throughout the entire playoffs. Big stuff for sure.

But if you’re reading this, you probably know all that, so let’s get right into this last “Threading the Needle” of the season. For those of you unfamiliar with this column, we take a regular look at the all-important aesthetic elements of the Utah Jazz: uniforms, jersey schedules, team performance by jersey color, fan design concepts and more. If there’s something else you’d like us to do with this space, let us know!

Let’s see how they fared over the last month and a half to close out the season, as well as an end-of-season review. 

April + May

Here’s the uniform breakdown for April and May:

This brings us to the regular season breakdown by uniform, how did the team perform in each?

Here it is folks! The finished @utahjazz regular season record by jersey color, complete with win % for each. https://t.co/VGwCwv73ba

— Jazz Uniform Tracker (@JazzUniTracker) May 17, 2021

Statement Made

Looking at the tweet above, the first thing that pops is probably those infamous gold “Statement” jerseys. The team went a perfect 9-0 this year in the oft-discussed Jordan Brand uniforms, a complete turnaround from the last two seasons. But the fact that the Jazz won at least 60% of their games in every jersey color is quite a feat, and in my opinion, it speaks more to the success of the team this year more than anything. 

Playoff Wardrobe

Of course the question I always get once the season is over, “what’s on tap for the playoffs?” is a valid one. Fans want to know how to gear up if they’re attending the games in person. As of this writing, we don’t even know who the Jazz opponent will be, so my guess is that the opponent will be the first domino to fall before we get a full jersey schedule for the first round. 

This much I can tell you without too much uncertainty: the Jazz will most likely roll with only three (or possibly four) jerseys come playoff time. If I had to guess what we might see, I’d say the Association white and City Edition black uniforms are almost a given. As for the third or fourth jersey they might pack for a 7-game series, the navy Icon Edition is a safe choice, but with so much success in this year’s gold Statement Edition, it would be hard to leave those in the locker room during a deep playoff run.

Either way, I’m here for all of it. This season has been beyond memorable and I hope we’re still buzzing about the Utah Jazz in a month. #TakeNote

-JUT