Jerry Sloan Resigns: Why Deron Williams, NBA Stars Have All the Power

Jerry Sloan, the longtime head coach of the Utah Jazz, announced today that he will be resigning from his position, according to reports in Salt Lake City.

Sloan, the 68-year-old coach of the Jazz for the past 23 seasons, abruptly stepped down after signing a one-year extension with the team on Monday.

The reports coming in say that Sloan has been feuding with All-Star point guard Deron Williams after Williams called a play different from what Sloan had called in Utah's loss Wednesday to the Chicago Bulls.

This, however, seems to just have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back for the third all-time winningest coach in NBA history.

With the relationship between Sloan and Williams deteriorating, he met with general manager Kevin O'Connor after the game, and seemingly gave O'Connor an ultimatum.

The old school style of Sloan was obviously clashing with the new school point guard play of Williams, as it has become more common for point guards to call their own plays during the process of a game.

Having to decide between a 68-year-old and a franchise point guard seemed to be an easy decision for O'Connor, as Sloan stepped down less than 24 hours after their loss to the Bulls.

This brings up the question, however, of who is really running things on NBA teams. Are the star players trumping the desires of head coaches, and can head coaches really control their superstars anymore?

There has always been conflict between head coaches and superstars, but it always seemed that things could be smoothed out during the course of a game, but things seemed to have taken a different turn over the last decade or so.

Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Deron Williams

One of the most publicized battles between player and coach came between Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson after a tumultuous 2003-2004 season in which the relationships that Bryant had with both Jackson and Shaquille O'Neal soured.

Kobe seemed to have forced O'Neal out at the end of the season (although there is a lot of room for debate there at this point), and the relationship between Kobe and Jackson had come to a boiling point.

Jackson told general manager Mitch Kupchak that he would not return if Kobe did, calling Bryant a "kid" in the process.

Bryant decided that he was up for the challenge of winning without Jackson, refused to change and Jackson was out.

He did come back after a year, seemingly being able to cope with the maturing (albeit slowly) Bryant.

The next instance of superstars winning out over their coach comes from this past summer with James.

After two straight 60-win seasons, and a Coach of the Year Award the previous year, the Cleveland Cavaliers cut ties with head coach Mike Brown in an attempt to please James.

James, heading into his uber-hyped free agency, had put it out there that he was a fan of other coaches, and although he never publicly criticized Brown, his attitude toward the man was never of respect but more of a spoiled child toward his divorced mom (and yes, I felt this way before The Decision).

John Calipari appeared at a Cavs-Celtics playoff game last season sitting right next to James' agent, the insufferable World Wide Wes. After that, the Cavs knew that landing Calipari would mean a better chance at landing James.

No less than two weeks later, Brown was out the door and the Cavs front-runner for the job was none other than Calipari.

Nothing happened with Calipari, so they moved on to Tom Izzo, and eventually ended up with Byron Scott.

Then, in the first month with the Miami Heat, there was the infamous bumping incident with Erik Spoelstra, which the media took and ran with.

Now, there is the story of a 26-year-old Williams being the choice for a franchise over the legendary Sloan.

With this story, however, it seems to be more of the coach making the ultimatum, rather than the player, so it is possible that there has become too big a generational rift between players and some of the older coaches.

I can only imagine how difficult it is for a 68-year-old white man to get along with a 26-year-old black man when they have very differing viewpoints on how to play a basketball game.

Jackson can do it because he is a man who knows the innerworkings of the mind better than most people can imagine, and he knows how people work, so he is able to get along with a wider range of players, especially when they are winning.

Nonetheless, it is evident that there is a bigger rift between player and coach, and when a team isn't winning like they think they should be, it definitely causes problems.