When I said last time that the front office of the New Orleans Jazz had solidified, I wasn’t being entirely honest. That post was running long and I wanted to make sure I devoted the proper attention to Barry Mendelson, the man who did more damage to the Jazz than perhaps anyone else.
Mendelson was an Army Communications Specialist from New York, who got his start calling radio games for the Giants and Jets. In 1969, he created a radio show for Boston Celtic legend Red Auerbach, who almost immediately helped Mendelson join the Celtics front office as a vice president. In 1971, Mendelson moved out to Los Angeles, where he continued his radio work and his practice of building relationships in the NBA. In 1972, he became the personal manager for Laker legend Jerry West, and also may have represented Gail Goodrich (I wasn’t able to find enough corroborating information on that last bit, but I still think it was highly likely).
In 1974, when the New Orleans Jazz were scooping up everyone and anyone who was ever associated with the Lakers, Mendelson was brought on board as a vice president. In 1976, Bill Bertka stepped down as general manager and became an assistant coach. I’m not sure if he was forcibly demoted or if he willingly chose to return to the bench, but I do know that his vacancy was filled by Mendelson. And Mendelson immediately sought to make a couple of big, splashy moves to bolster the supporting cast around Pistol Pete.
Mendelson’s first move was to offer a massive three-year, $1.4 million contract to five-time All-Star Gail Goodrich. Now, this was in the days shortly after the landmark Oscar Robertson lawsuit that expanded the concept of free agency. The NBA only begrudgingly allowed the practice, but still sought to discourage it as much as possible through punitive compensatory mandates. In this case, New Orleans’ compensation to the Lakers came in the form of a complex trade. The Jazz gave up their first-round picks for 1977, 1978, and 1979, plus their 1980 second-round pick, in exchange for Los Angeles’ 1977 second-round pick and 1978 first-round pick. I don’t know how much of this trade was a mandate from the league and how much was Mendelson’s idea to appease all parties involved, but I do know that Mendelson later took full responsibility for the trade.
We’ll analyze the acquisition of Goodrich in just a little bit. But first, let’s talk about Mendelson’s second major transaction. Or rather, attempted transaction. Mendelson arranged with the Portland Trail Blazers to purchase the contract of four-time All-Star Sidney Wicks. The former Rookie of the Year would have filled a gaping hole at power forward for the Jazz, and Mendelson excitedly proclaimed this deal to the world. But Wicks refused to play in New Orleans (see, it’s not just Utah!) and the deal was called off. I wasn’t able to find a definitive reason why Wicks turned down the Jazz, other than the fact that he wanted to play for a winning organization like the Celtics instead. In any case, Wicks made Mendelson look like a fool, and he did not take it well. Mendelson reportedly accused Wicks of having a bigger ego than Pete Maravich despite being a worse player than him and a worse human being than any other player on the Jazz roster. Yikes!
Mendelson’s third big (and controversial) move was to fire Butch van Breda Kolff in December 1976. This was a major shock as the Jazz, just barely into their third season, actually had a winning record at the time (14-12). Plus, van Breda Kolff was reportedly popular among the players and the fans. But for whatever reason, he did not get along with the New Orleans front office. I wasn’t able to find any concrete examples of their disagreements beyond a few vague references to managing certain players’ minutes.
Not only was van Breda Kolff loved by New Orleans, but he loved New Orleans back. After being fired by the Jazz, he took up the head coaching job at the University of New Orleans for two seasons. He then took over the New Orleans Pride of the Women’s Professional Basketball League for two more years. After three years of coaching high school ball in Mississippi, he returned to Lafayette, where he had begun his coaching career way back in 1951. After four seasons, he continued to retrace his steps by returning to Hofstra for five seasons. In 1996, he finally had his last coaching job with the Tampa Bay Windjammers of the United States Basketball League. He died in 2007 in Spokane, Washington, at the age of 84.
Elgin Baylor, who had coached one game as an interim in New Orleans’ inaugural season, was now officially promoted to head coach. Unfortunately, he was unable to maintain the momentum van Breda Kolff had been building. Baylor went 21-35 the rest of the way, giving the Jazz a 35-47 record at the end of the season. Of course, not all of this was entirely Baylor’s fault. There was a fairly significant injury that I will discuss very soon, I promise. But first I need to wrap up the Mendelson saga.
In March 1977, Mendelson was abruptly fired. To his credit, he actually did sit down with a reporter to discuss some of his controversial moves. As I said earlier, he did take full responsibility for the Goodrich trade, even going so far to say that he would do it again. I find that a bit odd, considering that in the same breath, he also acknowledged that the trade really hurt his credibility and the credibility of the franchise. As for the Wicks debacle, he didn’t have anything to say, but he was surprisingly defensive about the van Breda Kolff firing. Mendelson seemed particularly irked that he got all the blame for that, even though the decision made by the entire front office. Of course, Mendelson was quick to add that he fully supported that decision, but he just didn’t want to be the only one criticized. It probably won’t surprise you to learn that Mendelson never ran another NBA team after this. And I think you would be hard-pressed to find another general manager who caused this much damage in such a short amount of time.
So with all that drama out of the way, let’s take a look at the five most interesting players for the Jazz this season, beginning with their big off-season acquisition.
Gail Goodrich was born and raised in Los Angeles, where he was named Mr. California Basketball in high school. He initially wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps by attending USC, but coach John Wooden persuaded him to join UCLA, where he ended up winning two national championships. In 1965, he was drafted by the Lakers as a territorial pick, but he really didn’t do much for them in his first three seasons. So in 1968, the Lakers left Goodrich exposed to the Phoenix Suns’ expansion draft.
Goodrich exploded in Phoenix and became an All-Star right away. In 1970, the Lakers traded Mel Counts for Goodrich, and were pleased to discover that he could be the perfect shooting guard alongside Jerry West, despite his 6-foot-1 height. Goodrich made four more All-Star appearances with the Lakers and helped them win the 1972 title. But a contract dispute in 1975 soured his relationship with the organization. He was a holdout during the start of the 1975-76 season and he eventually ended up suing the Lakers.
Between Goodrich and Wicks, it’s clear to see that Mendelson was laser-focused on disgruntled All-Stars. But in Goodrich’s case, Mendelson clearly overpaid. Giving a large, three-year contract to an 11-year vet past his prime is bad enough. But having to give up two unprotected first-round picks and a pick-swap on top of that is inexcusable. And it certainly did have a lot of people scratching their heads back in 1976. But to his credit, Butch van Breda Kolff gave a glowing endorsement of the trade, explaining that the Jazz offense always sputtered whenever Maravich was out, and the team lacked a strong second option to draw defenses away from Pistol Pete. I think it was van Breda Kolff’s kind words that led to the prevailing narrative that he had engineered the Goodrich acquisition. But in all the newspapers I read from this time, Mendelson claimed sole responsibility.
Now, I know you’re dying to know just how bad Goodrich was. Well, he was second in scoring, just as expected, but he only put 12.6 points per game — the lowest he had averaged since his second season in the league. But the worst part was how he tore his Achilles after just 27 games and needed to take the rest of the year off to recover from surgery. But don’t worry — in just a couple of years, this trade will look monumentally worse!
Pete Maravich responded to Goodrich’s injury by playing the best basketball of his life. He threw down 31.1 points, 5.4 assists, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game. He lead the NBA in scoring (both total points and ppg), free throws made, field goals attempted, and minutes per game. He became the first All-Star in Jazz history, made his second-straight All-NBA First Team, and finished third in MVP voting behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton. He also played in 73 games, which is notable because he sadly would never play more than 50 games in a season for the rest of his career. (Look at me with all my ominous foreshadowing!)
E.C. Coleman was born and raised in Mississippi, and played at Houston Baptist College. In 1973, he was drafted in the third round by the Houston Rockets, but had a fairly quiet rookie season. In 1974, he was picked up by New Orleans in the expansion draft and saw his playing time increase substantially. Coleman never put up big numbers, but he gained a reputation of being one of the toughest defenders in the league. And that all came together in the 1976-77 season.
Behind averages of 8.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game — and a mere 0.8 steals and 0.4 blocks each contest — Coleman became the first Jazz player to be named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team. I imagine he was someone like former Spurs player Bruce Bowen, who was a tremendous lockdown defender despite not getting many steals or blocks. Anecdotally, Coleman has some terrific credentials. Stars such as Rick Barry and Rudy Tomjanovich declared him the best defender they ever went against. Sadly, Coleman’s career did not last long.
Coleman’s younger brother, Mack, played with him at Houston Baptist and almost became his teammate in the NBA. Mack was drafted by the Jazz in the fourth round of the 1975 draft, but he didn’t make the team. In June 1977, Mack had a medical episode and threatened to jump off a building. Police assumed he was drunk and booked him jail. Two hours later, he died of a hereditary heart disease.
This tragedy deeply upset E.C., who decided to sign with the Golden State Warriors in the offseason (the Jazz received a 1978 first-round pick as compensation). Coleman admitted that he lost his focus, in addition to a lot of weight — weight that he didn’t have to lose. Things only got worse when his other brother also died in 1977 and his mom died in 1978. Coleman still made the All-Defensive Second Team with the Warriors, but he showed up for the 1978-79 season a shell of his former self.
Golden State waived Coleman in November 1978, so he rejoined the Rockets. Sadly, he could only play in six games before they gently transitioned him into an assistant coach/scouting role — a job he only had for one year. He later found work as a doorman at a hotel and a limo driver. I know there were rumors of drug use — an all-too common malady for this era of basketball — but I think depression alone could have accounted for his decline.
Nate Williams once again was second in total points for the Jazz with 12.3 ppg and 1.0 spg. Sadly, this is the final full season the former Utah State Aggie spent with New Orleans. Turns out he didn’t have much of a role in Elgin Baylor’s rotation, as his minutes went to Aaron James in the 1977-78 season. After 27 games, Williams was traded to Golden State for a 1978 second-round pick. He stayed with the Warriors until 1979, then his contract expired and he was out of the league.
Otto Moore was born and raised in Miami and became a star at UT Rio Grande Valley. He was drafted sixth overall by the Detroit Pistons in 1968 and had a strong sophomore season, averaging 11 and 11 and even inexplicably earning one MVP vote. That high didn’t last, though, and he spent the rest of his career bouncing around between Phoenix, Houston, and Kansas City before making his way back to Detroit in 1974. But this second stint only lasted two games before he was waived.
Just when it seemed like Moore’s career was over, the New Orleans Jazz were desperate enough for a center to give him a chance. He had a bit of a revival in 1975-76 with 9.0 ppg, 9.8 rpg, and 1.7 bpg, but he took a step back in 1976-77 with 5.9 ppg, 7.9 rpg, and 1.4 bpg. His contract expired after this season, but he spent a few more years playing overseas and in the minor leagues. I’m not certain, but it seems like one of the Jazz management’s complaints with Butch van Breda Kolff was that he gave too many minutes to Nate Williams and Otto Moore over youngsters Aaron James and Rich Kelley.
And speaking of young players, the Jazz were once again unable to add any good rookies through the draft. New Orleans earned the sixth pick in the first round, but it belonged to Los Angeles because of the Gail Goodrich acquisition. The Lakers took Kenny Carr, who had a decent career, but nowhere near as good as the two Hall of Famers who were taken immediately after him — Bernard King and Jack Sikma. New Orleans also didn’t have its own second-round pick, as it had traded it to Portland last year. The Trail Blazers used the 28th overall pick on Kim Anderson, who only ended up playing 21 NBA games total.
None of the Jazz’s other picks made much of a difference, and most of them never even played in the NBA. However, New Orleans did actually draft a Hall of Famer in the seventh round … sort of.
Lusia Harris was born and raised in Mississippi and became one of the most dominant women’s basketball in the history of the game at Delta State University. She won three national championships and was named the MVP for each of those tournaments, averaging 25.9 points and 14.5 rebounds. In 1975, she won a gold medal at the Pan American Games in Mexico City, and in 1976, she helped Team USA take silver at the Montreal Olympics.
Naturally, it was a bit unorthodox for the Jazz to draft Harris. Technically, she was the second woman ever drafted by the NBA, but the first woman, Denise Long in 1969, was forfeited by the league because she didn’t play in college. So Harris became the first woman officially accepted by the NBA. However, it’s hard to tell how serious the Jazz were about her. The later rounds of the draft were often used on novelty picks — local celebrities, guys with funny names, etc. For example, just two picks after the Jazz drafted Harris, the Kings took Olympian Bruce Jenner (now Caitlyn Jenner).
Regardless, Harris was invited to the Jazz training camp. It certainly would have been intriguing to see how this 6-foot-3 center adapted her game for the NBA level. But the world never got to know, as Harris respectfully declined the invite — mainly because she was pregnant at the time. Harris later played a little bit for the Houston Angels of the Women’s Professional Basketball League, then became an assistant coach at Delta State. After serving as the head coach at Texas Southern University for two years, she returned to Mississippi to teach and coach at the high school level. In 1992, she was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. She then passed away in 2022 at the age of 66.
So yeah, that wraps up another kooky season of the New Orleans Jazz. Meanwhile, back in Utah … absolutely nothing happened. It seemed as if everyone had resigned to their fate. The ABA was gone and dead, and the NBA had no interest in coming to Salt Lake. There were no more last-ditch efforts or goofy gimmicks to return professional basketball to Utah. But that would change very soon.
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