The Utah Jazz rose from the French Quarter curb, playing in New Orleans for five seasons from 1974-79 before relocating, nickname and all, to the calm and quiet of Salt Lake City.
     
Wednesday night, the Jazz head home ? opening their 2002-2003 regular season on the road against the New Orleans Hornets, whose move from Charlotte to Cajun Country means the NBA is officially back in Louisiana for the first time since Pistol Pete Maravich and friends waved bye-bye.
     
Yet even as they do travel south, one native son returns with no emotional attachment to the history that precedes him.
     
Born and raised in Louisiana, Karl Malone has toiled 17 seasons, soon to be 18, for the franchise whose roots rest squarely in the home of hot beignets and Dixieland jazz.
     
For him, however, no ties bind.