When Caroline Klein became the chief communications officer of the Utah Jazz in August 2022, she faced the added challenge of stepping into the job the same season the Jazz was going to host NBA All-Star Weekend. She was quickly thrown into helping plan the annual event, including speaking with reporters in the lead-up to the weekend. Soon, she was faced with a story request from a major media outlet that surprised her. \u201cThey wanted to do a story about how unique it was for Utah to host an All-Star Game on a Sunday, and asked if we got permission from the LDS [Latter-day Saints] Church,\u201d she says. \u201cI immediately said no and clarified that it wasn\u2019t unique because we had hosted multiple games on Sundays in the past few years with the NBA Playoffs. I would say the national media has a narrative of Utah that is outdated, and I was seeing that we have to face these misconceptions head on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Klein (\u201907) was ready for the new challenge. She had spent her entire career working in communications and PR for hospitality and travel businesses before making a pivot and becoming the CCO of the professional basketball team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m always on the hunt for continuous self-improvement,\u201d says Klein, who hails from Milwaukee and worked for the California-based Preferred Travel Group for almost a decade and eventually became CCO. \u201cThis was an exciting opportunity from a learning and growth standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also helps that Klein loves basketball. Her father started Wisconsin Playground Club, a nonprofit basketball program in Milwaukee, which Klein and her brother played in and, she says, became one of the top Amateur Athletic Union programs in the country. Klein played basketball competitively through high school. While at BU, she would shoot hoops on the basketball court near her Brookline apartment to decompress after a long day of classes. She also coached the girls\u2019 varsity basketball team at a high school in Boston\u2019s South End for a season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I told most people about my move to the Jazz, and out of travel and hospitality, it seemed out of left field because I\u2019ve been in that space for so long. But, for everyone who knows me from Milwaukee, it made perfect sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Klein arrived at her office in Salt Lake City in August ready to make a difference in the Utah Jazz organization. But the transition wasn\u2019t without challenges. The CCO position was a newly created role for the organization\u2019s executive team, so she didn\u2019t have any precedent to follow. \u201cAt this stage of my career, people don\u2019t really consider what it\u2019s like to start over,\u201d she says. \u201cI almost had to be an intern again. I asked every question regardless of how small I thought it was\u2014I had to ask things like, how do things work in the NBA? What\u2019s this organization like? I was asking to tag along with different people so I could gain that perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the process, Klein found a fellow Terrier and COM alum in the organization: Michael Goodkind (\u201918) joined the Jazz as an in-arena host in September 2022. He got to be the in-arena host during NBA All-Star Weekend in February. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Klein crafts the Jazz organization\u2019s internal and external communications plans, and oversees the public relations, community relations and broadcast teams, which weren\u2019t previously led by the same executive. <\/strong>That can include everything from helping to negotiate broadcasting rights, to collaborating with local government officials on events and initiatives to coordinating speaking engagements for Jazz ownership and front office staff. \u201cMy job is really about making sure that the storytelling the Jazz are putting out inspires action and that it is very consistent with who we say we are.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, Klein says authentic storytelling has been a key part of all of her jobs. At BU, she majored in journalism, hoping to one day work as a travel writer. But an internship at the British concierge services company Quintessentially, while studying abroad in London, inspired her to approach storytelling from a public relations and communications perspective. She liked the idea of helping craft brand narratives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the Jazz, Klein has been working to create more collaboration between key departments, including the corporate partnerships and the community relations, in order to better leverage corporate partners for funding that the community relations team can use to make an impact. \u201cI want to help create a proactive profile for the Jazz that extends beyond basketball,\u201d Klein says. \u201cIt\u2019s highlighting how the Jazz are a pillar of the community and showing all of the work we\u2019re doing to support the community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n With my journalism background, I\u2019m looking for all of the stories happening within the organization that need to be told, and I really like telling the story within the story.<\/p>Caroline Klein<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In January 2023, she and her team collaborated with the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition<\/a>\u2014a nonprofit group consisting of NBA players, coaches and executives devoted to social justice advocacy\u2014and community partners to host a Clean Slate Summit<\/a> at the Jazz home arena. Utah is one of 10 states in the US with a clean slate law, which allows for the expunging of arrest and conviction records for people with certain misdemeanors who have completed their sentences and remained crime-free for an extended period of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The event included opening remarks about the importance of the bill by Jazz owner and Qualtrics co-founder, Ryan Smith; Utah\u2019s governor, Spencer Cox; Salt Lake City\u2019s mayor and county mayor; the executive director of the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition; and other community leaders. Then volunteer lawyers assisted more than 400 people. Klein says that more than 150 records were expunged on the spot, while other people had their applications for expungement submitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis was seeing a bill in action, changing people\u2019s lives. The Jazz were using their platform to help that happen,\u201d Klein says. \u201cThis is the first time the NBA has done something like this, and it was incredible to see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Klein says much of the team\u2019s other community programming is centered around helping youth, including opening STEM centers at schools, working with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and having players visit local children\u2019s hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other key projects Klein has worked on since joining the Jazz organization include collaborating with the Jazz president to identify a new local broadcasting partner. She also helped coordinate a major announcement: Delta Air Lines, which held the naming rights for the Jazz arena from its opening in 1991 through 2006, is repurchasing those rights this year. Beginning in July 2023, the arena will once again be named the Delta Center. \u201cThat was really exciting because [the original Delta Center name] is such a part of the basketball community here,\u201d says Klein. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith my journalism background, I\u2019m looking for all of the stories happening within the organization that need to be told, and I really like telling the story within the story, digging into how something came about, or what impact it\u2019s going to have,\u201d she says. \u201cWith the Delta Center announcement, for example\u2014did you know that it\u2019s the first time a naming rights partner has ever returned to an arena in the history of sports in the United States?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAll-Star Moment<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n