Karl Malone is Utah’s all-time leading scorer with 36,374 ca
The Utah Jazz have made 31 playoff appearances since their franchise entered the league. However, they have never won a championship. Some of their best chances to win a title came in the late-90s, but they couldn’t get past Michael Jordan and the Bulls. Let’s dig into their history and highlight their top five all-time leading scorers.
1. Karl Malone, 36,374 Points
Talk about a model of consistency. Malone played 18 seasons with the Jazz before finishing his career by playing for the Lakers for one season. With the Jazz, he averaged 25.4 points per game. Outside of the strike-shortened 1998-99 season, Malone never played in fewer than 80 games in a season for the Jazz. He also averaged 37 minutes per game. He won two MVP awards during his career and had nine top-five finishes in MVP voting.
2. John Stockton, 19,711 Points
Stockton is known more for his passing prowess that helped him average 10.5 assists per game for his career. However, his longevity and stellar health also helped him climb into second place on the Jazz’s all-time scoring list. Stockton was also an efficient scorer, shooting 51.5% from the field for his career. He also shot 38.4% from behind the arc, but averaged just 1.5 three-point attempts per game.
3. Adrian Dantley, 13,635 Points
Dantley played for seven different teams during his tenure in the league. He spent the most time with the Jazz, playing for them for seven seasons. In four of those seasons, he averaged at least 30.3 points per game. He never averaged fewer than 26.6 points per game during any of his seasons with the Jazz. Dantley was also efficient, shooting 56.2% from the field with the Jazz. His overall points total would have been higher had he not been limited to 22 games during the 1982-83 season and 55 games during the 1984-85 campaign.
4. Darrell Griffith, 12,391 Points
Griffith played his entire career for the Jazz. He won the Rookie of the Year award in 1980-81, averaging 20.6 points per game. He then went on to average at least 19.8 points in each of the next four seasons. When he entered the league, he missed a total of just 12 games over his first five seasons. He was then sidelined for the entire 1985-86 season with a foot injury and was never able to return to the kind of player that he was earlier in his career. He averaged 15.0 points during the 1986-87 season, but saw his scoring numbers continue to decline after that. In his final season in the league, he averaged 5.7 points and played just 13 minutes per game.
5. Thurl Bailey, 9,897 Points
Bailey spent 10 seasons with the Jazz and was one of their main scoring options off the bench. He averaged a career-high 19.6 points per game during the 1987-88 season and followed that up by averaging 19.5 points per game the next season. Over his entire tenure with the team, he averaged 14.0 points per game and shot 47.4% from the field.
