The new Salt Lake City Stars practice facility harkens back to the days of Stockton and Malone

West Valley City • The story of the Stars’ new practice facility starts with an eviction.

For two decades, the Utah Jazz practiced in Salt Lake City’s Sugar House neighborhood, on the campus of the then-Westminster College. The school’s Payne Gym was where John Stockton, Karl Malone, and scores of Jazzmen practiced from the team’s arrival in 1979 until 1999.

But when Westminster wanted to start an intercollegiate basketball team, it forced the Jazz out.

“With our little gym, we didn’t think it would work as well as it has in the past,” Westminster’s then-vice president Steve Morgan told The Salt Lake Tribune at the time.

The Jazz found an unassuming corner of Franklin Covey’s warehouse district in West Valley City, tucked in next to I-215 and about 2700 West and 2700 South. And there, they constructed a basketball court, a small training room, and a “lounge with couches and a big-screen television,” as The Tribune put it then.

It was only their home until the team finished the Zions Bank Basketball Center in 2003. The team stopped renting the Franklin Covey warehouse, and the space remained largely untouched in the years after.

But the organization never forgot about the location. In time, it would be needed for another venture: the G League’s Salt Lake City Stars, the minor-league affiliate of the Jazz.

Leading into this season, the Jazz and Stars have completed renovations to the property, turning it into what they‘re calling the “Stars Center.”

“When they walk in here, right away, they understand that this is a professional environment. This isn’t the junior varsity,” Stars head coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “This is a professional environment that’s dedicated to helping guys get better.”

From the outside, the building still looks as bland as can be. (Someone, a reporter let’s say, might drive past it more than once before spotting the entrance marked by a decal on the otherwise forgettable door.)

But from the inside, the facility now looks like a professional-level training center. There’s a new court, brighter and much improved from the old one. The locker room has been completely rebuilt, eschewing high-school-style skinny lockers for familiar cubby holes for each player. Offices have been added for the team’s coaching staff and front office personnel.

And perhaps most noticeably, the walls now reflect that the court belongs to the Stars — mentions of award-winners, league leaders, and, most desired of all, lists of NBA call-ups adorn the facility.

“This is one of the best facilities in the G League. It might be the best one around,” Jazz player Jason Preston, who has played for three G League teams, said. “Honestly, it’s cool.”

It’s actually a bit rare among G League teams. Most teams share court space with their NBA teams at their practice facility. Worse, others share time at local community colleges or recreation spaces — that’s what the Stars did, sharing time at Salt Lake Community College until they moved to the Franklin Covey warehouse. The result is that professional players can’t practice when they want, and have to wait until a gym or court is open to hone their craft.

The facility is within a mile of the Maverik Center, where the Stars play their home games. It’s even closer to the apartment building where the Stars put up their players for the season.

The location of all three, on Salt Lake City‘s west side, isn’t an accident: the team is trying to market itself as a fan-friendly (read: cheaper) alternative to the Jazz, for those who can’t afford or don’t want to spend money on the Delta Center’s typically higher ticket prices.

“It‘s very intentional on the proximity, being close to the Jazz but being on the west side,” Stars general manager Marquis Newman said, himself a graduate of the west side’s Cyprus High School. “It’s an amazing experience to provide a team, an environment and a fun place for fans to come watch basketball from the west side.

“There’s a lot of people that want to go to a ton of Jazz games and maybe can’t afford it, so we provide a team that you can come watch where you can get close to the action,” Newman said.

The Stars' 50-game season begins Saturday on the road against Bronny James and the South Bay Lakers. The team‘s first home game is on Nov. 18 against the affiliate of the Portland Trail Blazers, the Rip City Remix, and the schedule continues through March.