Some of the stories from the initial few seasons of New Orleans in the NBA sound more like the stone ages of professional basketball, as opposed to something that took place a couple generations ago. For example, when the inaugural ’74-75 Jazz played home games at Loyola Fieldhouse – which used an elevated three-foot stage for its basketball court – the team put up nets all the way around the hardwood, for safety purposes. As Sports Illustrated explained of the reasoning behind the protective nets, “The NBA Players Association, conjuring visions of their dues-paying members hurtling off the edges, made the Jazz (pay) $5,000 for restraining nets.
In many ways, the 1970s NBA of the New Orleans Jazz bears no resemblance to today’s league
