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I couldn't believe that Jerry Sloan called it quits. I thought he would stay on for a year.

No other NBA coach did more with less. Sure, he had Stockton and Malone but that's about it. Plus, it was hard to get free agents to come and play in Mormon country and for a small market team.

Sloan made no excuses. He just kept chugging along. Sometimes, I wonder if Phil Jackson was put in Sloans' position, how would he fare? Slaon is the last of the "punch you in the gut coaches" in the NBA.

It's going to be strange not to see him on the sidelines.

I considered Sloan to be one of the top-3 coaches in the NBA, behind only Popovich and Phil Jackson. Utah is going to take a huge hit, imo, with Sloan out of the picture.

As a Lakers fan I had a lot of respect for Sloan. There was a long stretch I hated to watch Lakers-Jazz games.

I was kind of shocked myself that he did not finish out the season. Sloan is one of the greatest and most respected coaches in NBA history. He will be missed on the sidelines for years to come by fans and especially the Jazz.

This is what happens when owners fall in love with a player over a great coach. The player will be gone when his contract ends.

More with less??....he had 2 hall of fame players. Nobody was ever crying for Sloan!

He coached 23 years, and had 2 hall of fame players.  Yeah...what a greedy talentmonger he was. ::)

Any idea how difficult a sell that Salt Lake City, Utah is to a top shelf free agent athlete? If you offered a good free agent the choice between playing in Utah or getting kicked in the nuts, most star hoop free agents would consult with a physician on recovery times for bruised nuts before they answered...

Jerry Sloan was a great coach. 23 seasons, and only one losing season. In Fucking Utah...

Some guys coach decades and have no hall of fame players. He had 2....at the same time!!

If you would be so kind as to provide "one" example of an NBA coach who coached "decades" (20+ years) without coaching a single hall of fame player, I'd love to see it. 

Personally, I don't believe you can do it... ;)

George Karl has been coaching since 1984, where is the hall of fame player he has had? Maybe Melo makes the hall of fame some day (yet to be determined) but as of now I don't know of one he has ever coached.

Mike Fratello coached 16 years and only coached one hall of fame player (Wilkins).

Don Nelson coached 34 years, I think the only hall of fame player he had was Patrick Ewing and he has him for a whole 4 months and he faught with him the whole time and quit/got fired over it. I can't name another hall of fame player Nelson ever coached in 34 years!


Point being coaching 2 hall of fame players in your career is rare. Coaching them at the same time (especially in the 80's, 90's and 2000's) is very very rare!  Now as we saw last offseason players team up all the time in cities. Jerry Sloan is a great coach. An underrated coach a hall of fame coach, but I don't want to hear the sad story how he won with little talent in Utah. He had two imortal players at their position. Stockton is arguably a Top 3 PG of all time. And Malone is one of the great true power forwards ever to lace up sneaks!

Wow.  First Jeff Fisher, now Jerry Sloan.  How many more long tenured coaches are going to be leaving?

Andy Reid is now the longest with one team in the NFL. And in that city you are always on the hot seat.

I agree.  The fact that Philly fans booed Santa Claus and cheered while Michael Irvin lay motionless on the field and they had to carry him off on a stretcher tells me all I need to know about them.

They threw "D" batteries at JD Drew when he was playing in the outfield. Could have damn near killed him. And Mike Schmidt who hit 500 home runs for them and was the only reason to watch that team play for many years also got boooo'd

Your argument is based on your memory...and you may just be too young to actually remember some of the guys these coaches had on their roster.

In addition to 'Nique, Fratello also coached Moses Malone for a solid 2-3 year run in Atlanta. Still, The Czar is definitely the best support for your argument.

George Karl coached surefire hall of famer, Ray Allen, in Milwaukee, plus guys like Melo, who will likely be in when he retires, and guys like Gary Payton and Chris Mullin, who I expect to see enshrined within the next 2-3 years.

Nellie coached a significant number of hall of famers, from Alex English and Bob Lanier up in Milwaukee to more recent players who likely will make it when they retire, like Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki.

Look, I get what you're saying...I really do, but my point of "If you coach for more than 20 years in the NBA, you're bound to get a couple of hall of famers" is valid as well. The bottom line on Sloan is that he built a consistent winning program in a place where nobody worth a damn would choose to go play, and he did it by building disciplined "good fundamental" teams.

Jerry Sloan was a great coach...period.

nobody said Jerry Sloan wasn't a good coach. But having 2 hall of fame players at the same time helped. Don't make it sound like he was fielding an AAU team going up against the big boys

So what about the other "great" coaches who had the best talent available during their runs? Does this mean Sloan is better than Phil? Red? Riley? These guys were surrounded by HOF talent in their title runs. If Sloan is tainted by having two HOF players what is the 80's Lakers or Celtics to those coaches? The Jordan Bulls and KObe Lakers to Phil? The Cletics under Red with all those HOFers? How about Popavich?
Does this mean SLoan is better than them??

Who said Sloan was tainted?

The point was made Sloan won with less or little talent. That isn't the case at all. He won with HALL OF FAME talent like Phil and Red and Riley. That's all. Maybe Sloan didn't win the brass ring but he still was a big-time winner. But lets not portray him as someone who won with little talent on his roster. He had a TON of talent on his roster.

Karl Malone came into the league unpolished. So was Stockton. You have to credit Jerry Sloan for challenging them to make themselves better. The thing about Sloan was that he didn't care who you were, if you were not performing, he'd jump on your ass.

Stockton and Malone was all Utah really had but Sloan knew how to use role players to maximum effect. No free agent wants to play in Utah but Sloan made it work.

Sloan made Stockton and Malone HOF players.

There were several other teams that had HOF's at the same time (Magic- Jabbar), (Jordan-Pippen), (Kobe-Shaq), Erving-Malone but their overall talent base was better than Utah.

My question is...how did he get away with all that cussing in a Mormon community? That's a feat within itself.

Because Mormons are still human, which means that they're more than willing to forgive a winner...