Basketball is king at house that Larry H. Miller built

Editor's Note: This is the first installment of an occasional series that will explore sports venues throughout the state and revisit the most memorable moments. Today — EnergySolutions Arena.

In its 17 years of existence, it's hosted concerts, monster truck shows, rodeos, the circus, hockey and football games and even realistic-looking dinosaurs. (That's not a reference to the Rolling Stones or Cher, even though they have entertained there).

It's also been the site of Olympic events, including one that turned into a you-can't-make-this-type-of-stuff-up international judging scandal.

But make no mistake about it, the venue formerly known as the Delta Center was designed, first and foremost, for basketball.

That's why EnergySolutions Arena currently sits at the crossroads of John Stockton and Karl Malone drives.

The house that Larry H. Miller built still gives the Utah Jazz one of the best home-court advantages in the NBA. The 19,911 fans are close to the action and it gets loud in there. Combine that with usually solid teams, and the Jazz have won 75 percent of their games in the building.

Which makes it all the more surprising that the most memorable game in Delta Center history was a heart-breaking Jazz loss.

It was 11 years ago today — June 14, 1998 — that Michael Jordan openly defied the Utah Indoor Clean Air Act by lighting up a victory cigar on the Delta Center court surrounded by his celebrating Chicago Bulls teammates.

It was Jordan's 17-foot jumper over the falling-backward defense of Utah's Bryon Russell with 5.2 seconds left that proved to be the game-winner/series clincher in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.

While the Jazz had gotten to the exact point the previous season — losing to the Bulls in six games — it was a completely different feeling in '98 for Jazz players and fans alike. In '97 the Jazz weren't expected to knock off the powerful Bulls. With games six and seven both in Chicago, nobody gave Utah a chance of winning the series after it fell behind three games to two.

But it was different the following year. Utah actually earned home-court advantage for the series by having a better regular season record. Many national prognosticators expected the Jazz to dethrone the Bulls.