The Portland Trailblazers and the Utah Jazz become some of the most infamous losers in NBA history.
For the first time in 21 years (1983-2003), the Portland Trailblazers didn’t make the playoffs. They were led by Portland favorites – Clyde Drexler, Kiki Vandeweghe, Terry Porter, Arvydas Sabonis, Rasheed Wallace, to name a few (there are a lot).
For the first time in 20 years (1984-2003), the Utah Jazz didn’t make the playoffs. The Jazz were led by Utah favorites – John Stockton, Karl Malone, and Jeff Hornacek.
The Jazz missed the playoffs by 1 game, while the Blazers missed out by 2 games during that ’03-’04 playoffs. The Jazz and Blazers have had extremely similar franchises, to the point of disbelief. The Trailblazers have made the playoffs 32 times out of their 47 seasons, and the Jazz have made the playoffs 26 times out of their 43 seasons.
The Blazers streak of 21 years in the playoffs is second only to the Philidelphia 76ers (22 years). The Jazz come in as a close third – now tied with the San Antonio Spurs (20 years, 1988-2017).