Before Hall of Famers Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen became the legendary pillars of the Chicago Bulls, leading them to six Larry O’Brien trophies in eight seasons in the 1990s, the face of the franchise was during their infancy back in the 1960s was a gentleman who played with a tenacity on both ends that endeared him to the “Windy City.” He would go on to a legendary carrier that began in the “Windy City” and then in Salt Lake City where he would build that team into a consistent playoff perennial, which had them at the door step of the championship in back-to-back seasons in the late 1990s. At the close of this week, the NBA said goodbye to this great man who proved that you can still have a stellar NBA career if you are willing to work hard at your craft.
Early Friday morning, Hall of Fame head coach Jerry Sloan, who coached the Utah Jazz to back-to-back appearances in the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998 against Jordan’s Bulls died after complications with Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia, which he was diagnosed with in Apr. 2016. He 78 years old and is survived by his wife of 14 years Tammy Jessop and her son Rhett, and his three children to his high school sweetheart of 41 years Bobbye, who passed away at the age 61 in 2004 after a six-year battle with breast cancer.
“Jerry Sloan will always be synonymous with the Utah Jazz. He will forever be a part of the Utah Jazz organization and we join his family, friends and fans in mourning his loss,” the Jazz said in a statement on Friday. “We are so thankful for what he accomplished here in Utah and the decades of dedication, loyalty and tenacity he brought to our franchise.”
“…Like [John] Stockton and [Karl] Malone as players, Jerry Sloan epitomized the organization. He will be greatly missed. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his wife Tammy, the entire Sloan family and all who knew and loved him.”
Coach Sloan was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame 11 years ago this September after a 26-year head-coaching career, with the first three with the Bulls (1979-82) and the next 23 with the Utah Jazz (1988-2003). His hardnose, no-nonsense, competitive style blended well with the Hall of Fame point guard/power forward duo of John Stockton and Karl Malone whose unstoppable pick-and-roll, precision passing offensive attack resulted in 16 of the team’s 20 consecutive postseason appearances, the second most in NBA history behind the 21 straight playoff appearances by the Portland Trail Blazers (1982-2003).
“Jerry Sloan was among the NBA’s most respected and admired legends,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “After an All-Star playing career in which, his relentless style shaped the Chicago Bulls in their early years, he became one of the all-time greatest head coaches during 23 seasons with the Utah Jazz—the second longest tenure in league history. He was the first coach to win 1,000 games with the same organization, which came to embody the qualities that made Jerry a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer: persistence, discipline, drive and selflessness.”
“His more than 40 years in the NBA also paralleled a period of tremendous growth in the league, a time when we benefited greatly from his humility, kindness, dignity and class. Our thoughts are with Jerry’s wife, Tammy, and their family, as well as his former players, colleagues and the Bulls and Jazz organizations.”
In the seasons they produced a franchise record 64, followed by 62 wins respectably in 1996-97 and 1997-98, the Jazz reached the NBA Finals but lost both times in six games to Jordan and the Bulls, who Coach Sloan played for and then as mentioned coached.
“Everybody likes to win one. But to come and compete after losing the first one and come back and compete for the next one-To me is one of the most rewarding things you can do. Even though we didn’t win,” Sloan said in 2011 about losing to the Bulls in the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals.
Sloan, who was drafted No. 4 overall by then Baltimore Bullets, now Washington Wizards in the 1965 NBA Draft out of the University of Evansville, played for the Bulls for a decade (1966-76) and his defense and intense play, which made him a fan favorite as one of the “Original Bulls.” The Bulls selected him in the NBA’s 1966 expansion draft after his lone season with the then Bullets.
Led by Bob Love, now longtime Bulls television analyst Norm Van Lier, Chet Walker and Sloan, the Bulls made the postseason eight of their first nine seasons, falling in the Conference Finals twice.
One big fan of both Sloan and Van Lier was Chicago native, longtime sportswriter for The Washington Post and now co-host of ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption (PTI)” Michael Wilbon, who he called his first basketball “idols.”
Wilbon said on the Friday early evening edition of “PTI” that he once told Malone back in the 1980s how much of fan he was of Sloan, but he never told his childhood basketball idol how he felt.
“And Karl Malone said, ‘If you don’t Jerry Sloan you idolize him, I’m gonna tell him and embarrass you,’” Wilbon said of that moment. “So, it sort of forced me to go over and have a talk with Jerry Sloan.”
Mr. Wilbon said that conversing with Sloan was “great” and asked if he had talked with Van Lier, which he said “yes,” and that he was a guest on his radio show whenever he asked.
Sloan said to Wilbon during their conversation to tell Van Lier about the story of how the Bulls wanted to trade for Van Lier from the then Cincinnati Royals, now Sacramento Kings.
Back in their playing days, Sloan told Wilbon that he and Van Lier fight which led all the way out into the concourse of the arena, where fans were purchasing popcorn.
Sloan told when the Bulls front office brought this move to his attention that they “better” get Van Lier because anyone who would fight him into the stands is somebody he would want to play with.
“I loved them. Everything I learned as a kid about basketball was from Sloan and Van Lier,” Wilbon, a Northwestern University graduate said.
Injuries cut Sloan’s playing career to just 11 years, where he averaged 14.0 points and 7.4 rebounds, with his highest scoring average of 18.3 points coming in the 1970-71 season. He made two-time All-Star selection and was a six-time NBA All-Defensive selection (a four-time First Team selection and two-time Second Team selection). Today, Sloan ranks in the Top all-time in Bulls history in points, rebounds, and games, and only trails Jordan and Pippen for the most played minutes in franchise history. He also is the only player in the history of “The Association” to average more than seven boards and over two steals per game for a career.
“Jerry Sloan was ‘The Original Bull’ whose tenacious defense and nightly hustle on the court represented the franchise and epitomized the city of Chicago,” Bulls longtime chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “Jerry was the face of the Bulls organization from its inception through the mid-1970s, and very appropriately, his uniform No. 4 was the first jersey retired by the team. A great player and a Hall-of-Fame NBA coach, most importantly, Jerry was a great person. Our sympathies go out to the Sloan family and all his many fans.”
Former Bulls General Manager Rod Thorn also said about Sloan to ESPN’s Michele Steele on Friday, “He answered the bell all the time he was [in Chicago].”
“He played. He played hard. You knew what you were going to get out of him. So many players, they’re good for a couple of games, not so good for a couple of games-you’re not always sure what you’re going to get. With him, you pretty much know what you were going to get every night.”
Before he began the second act of his NBA career as a coach, Sloan returned to his alma mater in March 1977 to become the head basketball coach of the Purple Aces. He back out of it after five days citing personal reasons.
That choice tragically ended up being a good decision because nine months later Evansville’s team plane crashed after takeoff killing all on board.
Sloan returned to the Bulls as a scout and later was named an assistant on then head coach Dick Motta’s staff in 1978. He became the team’s head coach the next season and coached the team for the next three seasons. The Bulls made the playoffs in Sloan’s second season losing in the Conference Semifinals to Hall of Famer Larry Bird and the eventual NBA champion Boston Celtics. He was fired in his third season after a 19-31 start.
Sloan headed West serving first as a scout and then was promoted to be an assistant for the Jazz on then head coach Frank Layden staff in 1985. After three-plus seasons, Sloan became the teams head coach on Dec. 9, 1988 after Layden resigned 17 games into the 1988-89 season, and the rest was history.
While the headliners for the Jazz under Coach Sloan were Stockton and Malone, those successful Jazz teams also had key role players that complimented them like Stockton’s backcourt partner for six seasons Jeff Hornacek, big man Thurl Bailey and sharp-shooter Darrell Griffith.
Bailey, who played under Coach Sloan from 1988-91 and 1999 mentioned to NBATV’s Casey Stern and Hall of Famer Grant Hill on Friday evening’s edition of “Gametime” that the Jazz new of the “legend” of their soon to be head coach when he was Layden’s assistant and the players “never treated” him like he was just an assistant coach.
“We just treated him like another head coach because we knew that he was brought to the team for his knowledge, his toughness. The toughness he carried with him as a player, and as a coach,” Bailey said. “And he was about to change the identity of the Jazz teams going forward.”
Griffin concurred by saying about Sloan to ESPN’s Eric Woodyard, “He’s one of the top coaches in the NBA even though he didn’t win a championship. That didn’t minimize his accomplishments. He’s been great for Utah, for the team and the basketball world. He’s taken that franchise and made it what it is over 23 years. He’s a Hall of Fame coach, and there’s nothing more you can add to what he’s done. He’s going to go down as one of the top coaches in the game. He already is, and rightfully so.”
Under Sloan, the Jazz registered 16 straight winning seasons, which included 15 straight playoff appearances. In that time, the Jazz won five then Midwest Division, now Northwest Division titles and produced 10 of their 13 seasons under Coach Sloan of 50-plus regular season wins, with three of seasons registering 60-plus wins.
“So much about coaching is trying to make your players better people. We played together because he insisted on it. We played together because he made that, “Stockton said about what Coach Sloan demanded. “That’s just the way you played the game of basketball if you want to be an honorable basketball player and honorable man in Jerry’s eyes. And there’s no way we’re gonna disappoint him.”
The player on the receiving end of many of Stockton’s passes in Malone echoed those same sentiments about Coach Sloan impact on him and the Jazz saying, “He earned respect by the way he was as a person, and the way he treated you as a player. But that’s Coach Sloan. They’ll never be another one like him.”
The Jazz missed the playoffs from 2004-06 after the Malone-Stockton era concluded before they reloaded with eventual All-Stars in guard Deron Williams and forward Carlos Boozer and made the playoffs from 2006-2010, reaching the Western Conference Finals in 2007, where they fell to the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs 4-1.
“When I got over to Utah, I was a young guy trying to figure out my path on how to make my name in the league, and right away he had Karl Malone call me and come meet with me, and work with me and helped me take my game to another level to improve as a player,” Boozer said about what Coach Sloan meant to him.
Boozer also said that as great of a coach as Sloan was, he was a “teddy bear” off the court, that possessed a great sense of humor. A “guys guy” who became a father-figure to a lot of the young guys during the former Cleveland Cavalier’s time in Salt Lake City.
Only Hall of Famers Don Nelson (1,335), Lenny Wilkens (1,332) and the head man of the five-time NBA champion Spurs Gregg Popovich (1,222 and counting) have more regular season wins in NBA history then Coach Sloan, who finished his coaching career with 1,221. Coach Sloan is only one of nine head coaches in NBA history with 1,000-plus wins on their resume.
To put Coach Sloan’s remarkable career with the Jazz into context, the Charlotte Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies, Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic, and Minnesota Timberwolves were not even in existence when he began his two-plus decade run on the Jazz’s sidelines. There were also 245 head coaching changes in the NBA during Coach Sloan’s tenure with the Jazz.
Coach Popovich and Coach Sloan are the only two coaches in league history to register 1,000 wins with one NBA franchise, which Sloan achieved first back in 2008.
“It’s a sad day for all of us who knew Jerry Sloan,” Coach Popovich said. “Not only on the basketball court but, more importantly, as a human being. He was genuine and true. And that is rare. He was a mentor for me from a far until I got to know him. A man who suffered no fools, he possessed a humor, often disguised, and had a heart as big as the prairie.”
Stockton’s backcourt partner from 1994-2000 in the aforementioned Hornacek echoed those same feelings saying about Sloan, “It’s unbelievable to be with one team and win 1,000 games, you know? You start thinking of the numbers you know, that’s 20 years of 50 games [wins].”
Hornacek added when he talked via phone with Stern and Hill that Sloan when he got dealt to the Jazz in the middle of the 1993-94 season, he had his reservations because of what heard about him being always intense and a stickler for playing defense. He said that Coach Sloan was welcoming from the “beginning,” and the formed a bond as two guys who played the game at an athletic disadvantage with respective bad knees, but got the most out of their respective abilities, which made them bond even more.
Sloan also has a Gold Medal on his career resume as the assistant coach on Coach Wilkens staff on the 1996 U.S.A. Men’s Basketball Team that consisted of Hall of Famers in Stockton and Malone, Charles Barkley, Gary Payton, Reggie Miller, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Mitch Richmond, and Grant Hill, and current head coach of the University of Memphis Tigers Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway.
“What I came away from was first of all he had a wonderful sense of humor,” Hill said on the Friday night edition of NBATV’s “Gametime” about what he learned about Coach Sloan then. “Just an incredible person. Salt of the Earth kind of guy. I enjoyed the few conversations we had. We talked about defense. We talked about teamwork. Spent time with my and his late wife as well…. Just impressed with the quality person that he was…But he brought integrity. He brought stability. He brought excellence to basketball, both as a player, as an assistant coach, and off course his long tenure, you know, time as head coach of the Utah Jazz.”
Scottie Pippen concurred saying about Coach Sloan on his Twitter page @ScottiePippen, “I loved everything about Jerry Sloan, form the way he played to the way he coached. He was a tenacious competitor who represented the Bulls of the 70s so well. Jerry became one of my favorite coaches when he was on the 1996 Dream Team and it was an honor to learn from him.
Sloan called it quits as head coach of the Jazz on Feb. 10, 2011 after 54 games into the 2010-11 season admits reports of a personality clash between Sloan and Williams about a the direction of the team and Coach Sloan’s insistence to consistently call plays from the sidelines, which he always did when Stockton was running the show for the Jazz. A charge both of whom have denied.
“I’ve had a lot of confrontations with players since I’ve been in the league,” Sloan said then. “There’s only so much energy left, and my energy has dropped.”
The now retired Williams, who was traded to the then New Jersey, now Brooklyn Nets 13 days after Sloan stepped down as Jazz head coach did say that he and Sloan sat down and patched things up two years ago when they met at Sloan’s home and Williams express his condolences about the passing of Sloan in a heartfelt message on Instagram page @dwill8, which included, “Blessed that I got to play for him and learn so much from him during my 5 ½ years in Utah. You knew he always had your back when you stepped out on that court.”
“It’s something I’ve wanted to do for years. Just kind of stubbornness and nerves and all that played a part in why I never reached out.”
The three-time All-Star also said about that meeting at the close of this week, “Definitely something that would have haunted me for the rest of my life.”
On June 19, 2013, Sloan returned to the Jazz as an adviser and scouting consultant.
On Jan. 31, 2014, the Jazz honored Coach Sloan when they raised a banner that featured the number “1223,” which represents the victories he had with the Jazz.
Through all the highs and lows of being the lead man on the sidelines for the Jazz, Sloan kept his well-known dry sense of humor. Collected an array of tractors as a way to keep in touch of his upbringing in Gobbler’s Knob in McLeansboro, IL where he woke up at 4:30 a.m. to do farm chores and antics.
Sloan also attended as many Jazz home games at now Vivint Smart Arena as he could, often sitting next to Coach Layden and greeted fans that wanted to talk to him with “interest” and “charm” according to ESPN’s Shelley Smith.
“From my beginnings in McLeansboro, the game of basketball has introduced me to opportunities and life experiences I’d never dreamed,” Sloan said during his Hall of Fame acceptance speech in 2009. “I love this game. I’ll always be grateful to what it’s given me.”
On Friday, the basketball world said goodbye to Gerald “Jerry” Eugene Sloan, who took all the lessons he learned growing up on the farm in McLeansboro, IL as the youngest of 10 children to having a stellar career as a collegian at the University of Evansville. He would go on to have a remarkable career first as a player for the Chicago Bulls and then a three decade plus run with the Jazz starting as a scout, then assistant coach and then an Hall of Fame head coach, who had the right balance of being no-nonsense but being able to relate to his players, who had a high level of respect for him both as their head coach and as a person.
“I think you people can see why where I am today because of players, the front office that have supported me as long as I’ve been here trying to coach this team. I think I’m the most blessed coach in basketball,” Coach Sloan said at his banner raising in 2014.
Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 5/22/2020 5:30 p.m. edition of ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” with Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon; 5/22/2020 8 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Casey Stern and Grant Hill; 5/22/2020 www.espn.com article, “Longtime Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan Dies at Age 78;” 5/22/2020 www.nba.com story, “Hall of Fame Coach Jerry Sloan Passes Away at 78;” 5/22/2020 www.nypost.com story, “Jerry Sloan’s Death ‘Would’ve Haunted’ Deron Williams If Not For Sitdown,” by Zach Braziller; Pages 128, 129, and 586 of the "Sporting News: Official 2006-07 NBA Guide;” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_men%27s_Olympic_basketball_team; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Utah_Jazz_seasons; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Jazz#; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Bulls; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Sloan.
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