They say that a boy never really becomes a man until his father dies. If this is true, Jerry Sloan became a man when he was four years old. This may have been the first major disappointment in his life, but it certainly wasn’t the last.
Jerry was the first player to have his number retired by the Chicago Bulls. That came as more of a salute to his rabid underdog intimidation of opponents and a "sacrifice your personal physical health for the team" playing style in a generation that held such personality traits in high regard, than to his actual stats or athletic ability.
The physical nature of his game might have shortened a good career, but without hard picks, three-point plays, and scrappy rebounding, there is no career at all.
Christened "The Original Bull" by sportswriters, Sloan's number hangs in the rafters in Chicago like a flag for a fallen soldier of a lost war.
Despite winning an all time record of more than one thousand basketball games as coach of the small market NBA juggernaut Utah Jazz, he has never really been recognized as a success by his peers in the Coach of the Year voting.
Coach Sloan has amassed nearly as many wins as Hubie Brown, Sam Mitchell, and Gregg Popovich combined. I list those three because each has edged Sloan for the Red Auerbach Coach of the Year award in recent seasons. Sloan also has more wins than the legendary Celtics coach for which the award is named.
NBA.com doesn’t list him in their top 10, but instead has seven coaches with lower winning percentages and nine coaches with fewer total wins on its all-time NBA coaching list. I call these snubs a tragedy, but Jerry disagrees. He cares as much about his peers’ opinions as he does about his players’ feelings.
When a sportswriter asked him about the inconsistent play of 19-year old starting guard CJ Miles he said, “We can’t put diapers on him one night and a jockstrap on him the next.” He isn’t very interested in what the league thinks either. Sloan leads NBA coaches in all-time technical fouls.
12 comments Last one added 7 months ago — Leave a Comment
Rojo Grande 7 months ago
I'm glad someone finally did a story on Sloan. This is an excellent piece, J!
I remember him as a tenacious, defense-minded player. He has certainly imparted those qualities to his teams over the years.
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J. Michael Morris 7 months ago
Thank you for reading. Sloan is a very interesting person to me.
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Joe G 7 months ago
Great stuff. Sloan consistently does excellent work with less talent than most of the other contenders in the NBA. On his teams, the total output has always been greater than the sum of its parts. For me, he's easily one of the best coaches in league history.
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J. Michael Morris 7 months ago
I agree, but all the puzzle pieces aren't making a picture.
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Shan 7 months ago
Sloan cares about one thing and it is effort from his players, all the time, he breeds scrappers. Its no wonder that the Jazz have such a successful legacy, he is indeed an anomaly of a person. They broke the mold when he was born.
Great Article!!!!
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J. Michael Morris 7 months ago
Jerry probably broke the mold himself out of anger. Thanks for the read.
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Kristin Hamlin 7 months ago
Alright alright, so I don't know too much about basketball nor have I ever really cared to. But thank you for pointing me out to your article. You write very well--it helps a person with my amazing basketball knowledge a little bit.
Good job :)
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J. Michael Morris 7 months ago
Thanks for reading, just trying to expand your horizons, not offend.
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Diana Allen 7 months ago
I throughly enjoyed this article. Thanks for the good read.
I think Jerry is one in a million guy and we've been lucky to have him all these years.
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J. Michael Morris 7 months ago
The Utah Jazz may, if not for the perpetual success of Coach Sloan, be the Toledo Tornadoes or Vancouver Voracity or some craziness....could you imagine?
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Gray Ghost 7 months ago
J.M., Sorry I am late to this one - don't know how I missed it. This is one of the best personal story articles I have ever read - here on B/R or anywhere else for that matter. This is absolutely professional stuff. I am being honest - you need to submit this to The Sporting News or Sports Illustrated. They are idiots if they don't use it.
I love Jerry Sloan, and you are right - he is the Clint Eastwood type gun-slinging coach. Thanks for telling us what has happened to make mold him into such a tough guy and great coach. You are a writer my friend - don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise. *****POTD
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J. Michael Morris 7 months ago
It's really good to have the support of someone like you, thanks tons.
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