Jerry Sloan

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Gerald Eugene Sloan, better known as Jerry Sloan (born March 28 1942), is an American National Basketball Association coach. He is one of professional basketball's most successful coaches, with a career win-loss record of 1035-689 (as of April 18, 2007), placing him fourth on the list of all-time most winning NBA coaches. Sloan collected his 1,000th career win against the Dallas Mavericks in a 101-79 victory, which made him only the fifth coach in NBA history to surpass this milestone. After Tom Kelly stepped down as manager of the Minnesota Twins in 2001, Sloan became the longest tenured head coach in major league sports with a single franchise. The 2007-08 season will be his 20th at the helm of the Jazz.

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[edit] Playing career

Born and raised in McLeansboro, Illinois, Sloan played college basketball at the University of Evansville. He was the leading scorer for the Purple Aces in each of his three seasons as a starter, amassing 15.5 points per contest. He lead the college twice to the NCAA Division II Tournament and was voted a second team All-American during his senior season.

Sloan was originally selected in the third round of the 1964 NBA Draft by the Baltimore Bullets. He played just one season for the Bullets, then went on to play for the Chicago Bulls during the Bulls' formative years. He was the first player selected by the Bulls in the expansion draft, earning him the nickname "The Original Bull." Sloan was known for his tenacity on defense, and led the expansion team to the playoffs in its first season.

Sloan enjoyed a respectable NBA career, playing in two All-Star Games, being named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team four times and the All-Defensive Second team twice. He also led the Bulls to the playoffs on various occasions and helped them to win one central conference title, the only one the frachise has earned outside the Michael Jordan era. Sloan averaged 9.1 rebounds per game in his second season, and his career rebounding average of 7.4 rebounds per game is unusually high for a guard. He is currently fourth on the Bulls' all-time scoring list. Sloan recorded two triple doubles during his career, and earned a career-high 43 points in a 1969 game versus the Milwaukee Bucks.

A hardnosed contract negotiatior, Sloan earned a reputation of somewhat of a hustler while playing with the Bulls. His playing career was cut short by successive knee injuries, and he turned his attention to coaching. Because of his influential career with the Bulls, the franchise retired Sloan's No. 4 jersey, the first jersey retired by the Bulls.

[edit] Coaching career

Immediately after retireing, Sloan was hired by the Bulls as a scout. After one season in this role, he became an assistant coach with the team. In 1979, Sloan moved up the rank of head coach of the Chicago franchise. He was head coach of the Bulls for less than three seasons, winning 94 games and losing 121. He led the team to the playoffs in his second year, but was fired after a poor start during the next campaign.

After departing Chicago, Sloan became a scout for the Utah Jazz for one season. He then became coach of the Evansville Thunder of the Continental Basketball Association for the 1984 season before returning to the rank of Utah assistant. After Frank Layden's retirement from the Utah Jazz in 1988 as head coach, the Jazz chose Sloan to be his successor. Sloan enjoyed a highly successful run of sixteen consecutive seasons of taking his team to the playoffs, and he has coached such players as Karl Malone, John Stockton, Jeff Hornacek, Antoine Carr, Tom Chambers, Mark Eaton, and Jeff Malone during the process.

Sloan has led the Jazz to six division championships and ten seasons with over fifty wins. He also took the Jazz to the NBA Finals twice, losing in the 1997 and 1998 championships, both times to his old team, the Michael Jordan-led Bulls. By the end of this period, he had joined Pat Riley and Phil Jackson as the only coaches with ten or more seasons winning fifty or more games. After the retirement of long-time Jazz anchors Stockton and Malone, Sloan coached a younger group of budding stars, including Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko and, later, Deron Williams.

In spring of 2004, Sloan and his team were involved in a battle for the eighth spot in the NBA's western conference for that season, which would have given Sloan his seventeenth straight trip to the playoffs. The Jazz were tied with the Denver Nuggets for the eighth and last spot of the playoffs with three games to go in the regular season. The Jazz lost these final two games, causing Sloan to miss the playoffs for the first time in eighteen seasons as Jazz coach. After leading a young, dismantled team to an unexpected 42-40 record, he finished just behind Hubie Brown of the Memphis Grizzlies in voting for the 2004 NBA Coach of the Year Award, an award that he has still never won, despite his success.

After disappointing seasons in 2004-05 and 2005-06, the strong play of the Jazz in the 2006-07 season had renewed speculation from some sportswriters that Sloan would be a strong candidate for NBA Coach of the Year in 2007. But Sloan lost the award to Sam Mitchell, coach of the Toronto Raptors, who led his team to a franchise-record-tying 47 victories and their first Atlantic Division title. Sloan lost by 93 points, 394-301. Third place runner up was Avery Johnson of the Dallas Mavericks with 268 points.[1]

Sloan and the Jazz advanced to the Western Conference finals on May 15th, 2007 with a 100-87 win over the Golden State Warriors. It's the sixth time in franchise history that Utah advanced to the conference finals, all coming under Sloan.

[edit] Coaching record

Team Year Regular Season Post Season
G W L Finish Result
Chicago Bulls1979-80 8230523rd in MidwestMissed Playoffs
Chicago Bulls1980-81 8245372nd in CentralLost in First Round
Chicago Bulls1981-82 5119315th in Central(fired)
Utah Jazz1988-89 6540251st in MidwestLost in First Round
Utah Jazz1989-90 8255272nd in MidwestLost in First Round
Utah Jazz1990-91 8254282nd in MidwestLost in Second Round
Utah Jazz1991-92 8255271st in MidwestLost in Conf. Finals
Utah Jazz1992-93 8247353rd in MidwestLost in First Round
Utah Jazz1993-94 8253293rd in MidwestLost in Conf. Finals
Utah Jazz1994-95 8260222nd in MidwestLost in First Round
Utah Jazz1995-96 8255272nd in MidwestLost in Conf. Finals
Utah Jazz1996-97 8264181st in MidwestLost in NBA Finals
Utah Jazz1997-98 8262201st in MidwestLost in NBA Finals
Utah Jazz1998-99 5037132nd in MidwestLost in Second Round
Utah Jazz1999-00 8255271st in MidwestLost in Second Round
Utah Jazz2000-01 8253293rd in MidwestLost in First Round
Utah Jazz2001-02 8244384th in MidwestLost in First Round
Utah Jazz2002-03 8247354th in MidwestLost in First Round
Utah Jazz2003-04 8242407th in MidwestMissed Playoffs
Utah Jazz2004-05 8226565th in NorthwestMissed Playoffs
Utah Jazz2005-06 8241412nd in NorthwestMissed Playoffs
Utah Jazz2006-07 8251311st in NorthwestLost in Conf. Finals

[edit] Quotes

"These guys have been criticized the last few years for not getting to where we’re going, but I’ve always said that the most important thing in sports is to keep trying. Let this be an example of what it means to say it’s never over." — Jerry Sloan after the Utah Jazz defeated the Houston Rockets in Game 6 of the 1997 Western Conference Finals.[2]

"I don't care if he's 19 or 30. If he's going to be on the floor in the NBA, he's got to be able to step up and get after it. We can't put diapers on him one night, and a jockstrap the next night. It's just the way it is." — Jerry Sloan on second year guard C.J. Miles, the youngest player on the 2006-07 Utah Jazz.[3]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2847536
  2. ^ http://www.nba.com/history/Classic_NBA_Quotes_Winning_Losing.html
  3. ^ http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650204371,00.html

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Scotty Robertson 		Chicago Bulls Head Coach
1979–1982 		Succeeded by
Phil Johnson
Preceded by
Frank Layden 		Utah Jazz Head Coach
1988– 		Succeeded by
N/A - current
 v • d • e Current head coaches of the National Basketball Association
Eastern
Conference 		Atlantic D. Rivers (Boston) L. Frank (New Jersey) I. Thomas (New York) M. Cheeks (Philadelphia) S. Mitchell (Toronto)
Central J. Boylan (Chicago) M. Brown (Cleveland) F. Saunders (Detroit) J. O'Brien (Indiana) L. Krystkowiak (Milwaukee)
Southeast M. Woodson (Atlanta) S. Vincent (Charlotte) P. Riley (Miami) S. Van Gundy (Orlando) E. Jordan (Washington)
Western
Conference 		Southwest A. Johnson (Dallas) R. Adelman (Houston) M. Iavaroni (Memphis) B. Scott (New Orleans) G. Popovich (San Antonio)
Northwest G. Karl (Denver) R. Wittman (Minnesota) N. McMillan (Portland) P. J. Carlesimo (Seattle) J. Sloan (Utah)
Pacific D. Nelson (Golden State) M. Dunleavy (L.A. Clippers) P. Jackson (L.A. Lakers) M. D'Antoni (Phoenix) R. Theus (Sacramento)
v • d • e
Chicago Bulls Head Coaches
Kerr • Motta • Badger • Costello • Robertson • Sloan • Johnson • Thorn • Westhead • Loughery • Albeck • Collins • Jackson • Floyd • Berry • Cartwright • Skiles • Boylan
v • d • e
New Orleans/Utah Jazz Head Coaches
Robertson • Baylor • van Breda Kolff • Baylor • Nissalke • Layden • Sloan
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