In 1947, the Minneapolis Lakers were founded, so named because Minnesota is "The Land of 10,000 Lakes." In 1960, they moved to Los Angeles, which has the Pacific Ocean, but not much in the way of lakes.
In 1974, the New Orleans Jazz were founded, so named because New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz. In 1979, they moved to Salt Lake City, becoming the Utah Jazz. Utah's idea of music is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Osmond Family. If you like either one, that's okay. But there's not much in the way of jazz in Utah.
Frank Layden once suggested that the franchises should switch names: Utah Lakers, because of the Great Salt Lake; and Los Angeles Jazz, because L.A. is the leading jazz city in the Western U.S. Neither team, nor NBA management, would go for it.
Francis Patrick Layden was born on January 5, 1932 in Brooklyn, where he went to Fort Hamilton High School. Other alumni include Basketball Hall-of-Famer Bernard King and his All-Star brother Albert King; baseball player Julio Lugo; actress Lana Parrilla; Bruce Johannesson, who became C.C. DeVille, lead guitarist for the band Poison; former U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen; and Letitia James, the Attorney General of the State of New York who convicted Donald Trump of fraud.
Frank went to Niagara University in Buffalo, then became a high school coach on Long Island. He returned to Niagara as head coach in 1968. He remained through 1976, when the Atlanta Hawks hired him as an assistant. In 1979, when the Jazz moved to Utah, he was named their general manager. In 1981, he named himself head coach.
In 1984, he got the Jazz into the Playoffs, and was named the NBA's Coach of the Year and the Executive of the Year. He remains the only man to win both in the same year. And this was before he drafted John Stockton in that year's NBA Draft, and Karl Malone in the next year's. He never got the team beyond the Western Conference Semifinals, and stepped down as head coach in 1988, giving the job to his assistant, Jerry Sloan, and remaining as general manager.
He said, "Sometimes, in the NBA, you feel like a dog. You age seven years in one. The pressure in the NBA is intense." The pressure led him to overeat, and he topped 300 pounds, saying, "I once got on a scale to have my fortune read, and it said, 'Come back again alone.'" In 1986, he managed to lose 86 pounds, but not through exercise: "I don't jog, because I want to be sick when I die."
He remained GM, and oversaw the building of the team that won the 1997 and 1998 Western Conference Championships, but lost the NBA Finals to the Chicago Bulls both times. Although Layden never played a minute in the NBA, Jazz owner Larry Miller retired the team's Number 1 for him.
When the WNBA was founded in 1997, all the charter franchises were operated by the NBA teams in their cities. Miller founded the Utah Starzz -- note the matching Double-Z's at the end -- and had Layden coach them in the 1998 and 1999 seasons. But Layden was tired, and retired as both Jazz GM and Starzz head coach.
Miller tired of owning the Starzz, and sold them to the San Antonio Spurs' owners after the 2002 season. They were moved, and became the San Antonio Silver Stars. By 2018, when WNBA teams were no longer necessarily owned by NBA teams, the team was sold again, to Mark Davis, who was in the process of moving the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas, and he moved the Silver Stars to become the Las Vegas Aces.
Frank and his wife, Barbara, remained in Salt Lake City. They had sons Mike and Scott, and daughter Katie. Scott was an assistant coach for the Jazz, and later the general manager of the New York Knicks and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Frank Layden died yesterday, July 9, 2025, in Salt Lake City, at the age of 93.
1 comment:
The Frank Layden story that I recall: A young girl asks her mom if she can go swimming in the ocean. Her mom replies: No, Mr. Layden is using it.
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