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The basketball brought it all back for me.

To fully appreciate the impact of a trust designed to effortlessly pass the Utah Jazz to future generations of the Miller family, you almost need to have lived around here in the mid-1980s, when the prospect of the NBA franchise's departing to Minneapolis was very real. The late Larry H. Miller saved everything with his risky, $8 million investment of April 11, 1985 — and again the next year, when he bought the remaining half of the Jazz to prevent a move to Miami.

Monday's news, if less dramatic or heroic, is just as meaningful in its own way.

And there, in Gail Miller's hands, was the game ball from the Jazz's 145-107 victory over Portland, in a contest staged a few hours after the '85 announcement. Remember that night? The moment of relief and sheer joy in this town in John Stockton's rookie season of 32 years ago suggested that while the Jazz clearly were going places in the NBA, they were not literally moving.

Bryan Miller was the blond, 7-year-old kid in the video shown Monday, holding his mother's hand as they walked to center court of the old Salt Palace, where Larry Miller told Utahns the Jazz were "all yours."

During the news conference on the top floor of Vivint Smart Home Arena, Bryan quoted his father's words and said the trust is "something I know Larry would be thrilled with."

So here we are, more than three decades later. The Jazz are rising in this league again, after four years out of the playoffs. They're endearing again. They're fun to watch again. And they're in Utah for good, thanks to action that should "finally put to rest the questions and speculation about the team being sold," said another son, Steve Miller.

Let's be honest, any announcement that removes doubts about whether or not the Jazz are here to stay is shrewd strategy. The favorable, permanent perception of the Jazz being Utah's team bolsters the other aspects of the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies — and that's critical to the operation, even beyond any tax advantages the trust offers.

Yet the Miller family made a convincing point that the real value of the transaction goes to Utahns who will enjoy this team for generations to come. Imagine this place without the Jazz—- "the one thing that unifies the state," as Bryan Miller said in the video.

This stuff probably never should have happened, you know. Sam Battistone really shouldn't have moved the Jazz from New Orleans to Salt Lake City, where the Jazz's home opener drew fewer than 8,000 fans in 1979. Larry Miller seemed crazy to leverage everything as the owner of two auto dealerships in Murray to invest in the Jazz in '85. Never mind that the franchise is worth billions of dollars now; buying into it required an impulsive decision. As Larry famously told Gail, "The Jazz can't leave."

And now the Jazz truly cannot leave. Gail Miller spoke of "many opportunities" to sell the franchise to another market, and that's not going to happen. In the video, she said, "This team belongs to Utah. It belongs in Utah."

So as the Jazz took the court Monday night against Oklahoma City, a team representing another small market that also has no other franchise in traditional major league sports, the Jazz took on a renewed sense of stability. Gail Miller labeled Jan. 23, 2017 "an important date in Jazz history." Maybe it is not quite in the same category as April 11, 1985 or June 16, 1986. We'll never know if the Jazz otherwise may have been sold, which is a good thing.

Redd Miller, 10 weeks old and already ticketed as a fourth-generation Jazz owner, was the youngest person attending the news conference. According to the plan, the franchise's time in Utah will outlive him. That's good for everybody in this state. As young Redd's great-grandfather once said, this basketball team is all ours.

Twitter: @tribkurt