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Last weekend, the Utah Jazz celebrated the life of former coach and executive Frank Layden. They have a season-long tribute to the late Layden in the form of a patch on the players’ jerseys, but last Sunday night, the team invited Layden’s family to the arena and showed a number of video tributes to one of the most important people in Jazz history.
Every person who talks about Layden, always mentions his joy and humor. You’d be hard pressed to find a single person who wasn’t made to laugh by Layden, even if they’d only met him once.
“His disposition is one that you don’t see a lot of, where he’s obviously incredibly smart, very competitive, but he did it all with a smile on his face,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said.
By fortunate happenstance, the Jazz were playing the Chicago Bulls on Sunday, a team coached by Billy Donovan, who was drafted by the Jazz in 1987 (before being waived prior to the season beginning) when Layden was coach.
And although Donovan didn’t play a single regular-season game with the Jazz, Layden left an imprint and Donovan shared an anecdote from one of his preseason games with the Jazz.
“I loved coach Layden, I just thought he was absolutely historic,” Donovan said. “I couldn’t believe the size of the team when I got here. It was Mark Eaton, Thurl Bailey, Darryl Dawkins was here, (Marc) Iavaroni. I mean, it was unbelievable.
“And we were playing in Pittsburgh — actually playing Chicago in Pittsburgh — and he comes into locker room ... and you’ve got Eaton and Thurl Bailey and Karl Malone, all the big guys are sitting on one side of the room. And he goes, ‘You two guys get up and sit over there. I don’t want the room to tip over.’ And that was at halftime! So, he was great. He really, really, really made me laugh a lot. Playing for different coaches, I’d never seen that kind of sense of humor on a regular basis.”
And Layden’s joy for the Jazz lasted for the entirety of his life.
“We stayed up many nights right to the end and followed the team, and he was the team’s biggest supporter,” Scott Layden said.
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Up next
- Nov. 23 | 6 p.m. MST | Utah Jazz vs. Los Angeles Lakers | KJZZ
- Nov. 24 | 8 p.m. MST | Utah Jazz @ Golden State Warriors | KJZZ
- Nov. 28 | 7:30 p.m. MST | Utah Jazz vs. Sacramento Kings | KJZZ