Sloans Departure Begs The Question: Can Superstars Overrule Coaches?

We live in an imperfect world.

We already know this.  As children, the virtues of integrity, respect, and, ultimately, honor are instilled in us so we can positively integrate and productively contribute with the rest of society.  Yet those virtues become marginalized for a simple reason:honor will never measure up to the dollar.

No, don't simply classify this exclusively as a casualty of the reputably ruthless business world, because it is not.  It is everywhere.  The world we live in rewards pragmatism, no matter how deceitful, conniving or self-serving it is.

Exhibit A—Mark Zuckerberg.

The young, brilliant mind that innovated a social vehicle which would revolutionize the world in ways that, to this day, only seem earnest and fruitful.  For that, he was recognized as Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2010.  However, most of the members of Facebook never would've known about how he stole the principle idea of Facebook had they not watched The Social Network.  Now that we (myself included) do possess that information, it 's not even a fact worth dwelling over.

Which brings us to Jerry Sloan's "voluntary" departure from the Utah Jazz.  Apparently, there was a dispute between Deron Williams, the Utah Jazz's franchise player, and JSloan about a play, which later manifested itself into a more central dispute on who holds the final voice in the locker room.

Eventually, general manager Kevin O'connor stepped in to mediate the situation, and no matter what the plausible details were, or however the Jazz organization will attempt to spin this to their redemption, the reality is simple.

Jerry Sloan's value in being one of the most heralded and respected coaches in the National Basketball Association - which he earned in his 23 years of service with the Utah Jazz - was no match against William's value as a talented basketball player.

Not because Sloan isn't a good coach, but rather because the team established its hierarchy of power on the food chain, and Jerry Sloan paid the price of messing with a bigger gun—his own player.

Is this an aberration?  Why don't we ask Mike Brown, LeBron James or Dan Gilbert?

In the ultimate reversal of fortunes, Gilbert's years of paying unprecedented homage and leverage to James at the expense of everyone else in the Cleveland Cavaliers organization, much less head coach Brown, backfired in his face. 

He watched on TV with baited breath like everyone else in the world to see where James was going this summer.  In just that instant, he should have realized that he already lost, as he was reduced to watching it from the lens of just another viewer completely in the dark of his own former, tenured employee.

Gilbert's malicious letter of response wasn't an act of vengeance against James.  It was his public admission that he, himself, forgot the cardinal rule of virtue in sports—there is no "I" in team.  Shamefully, he never even got the slight gratification of being the "I". 

By the way, somewhere in the world, Donald Sterling is smiling about that.

Need some more examples?  Don't bother looking far because you can find it in the safe, cozy confinements of your own home.

Remember what Chris Rock said about the big piece of chicken?  No, this isn't an issue of sexism, because it's not about who gets the big piece, but why they get it.

The provider of money.  That's right.  The great equalizer.

So where do we go from here as it concerns the Jazz.

Do we blame Williams?  He would seem to be the most likely candidate.  But he has an alibi.  He may have been the dog in the fight, but he didn't make the decision of who won. 

So maybe we blame Kevin O'connor, and the rest of the brain trust in the Utah Jazz organization, including the owner (Larry Miller's estate), as no dispute this central would go unspoken by them.

But, they too have an alibi.  Fans don't pay to see the coaches, they pay to see the players.  So the Jazz organization is just giving the people what they want.  And before you bring in the "arbiter of wins" argument to Sloan's defense, because, after all, isn't winning what everyone in support of a team wants to see? consider these words—"you can never have enough talent."

"It takes talent to win, but character to repeat."

Who said those words? 

The first one belongs to Pat Riley, the author of "The Winner Within".  Oh, by the way, he is also a Hall of Fame head coach.

The second quote?  Famed National Football League icon, John Madden.  Another coach.

Take these words in whatever context you want, but the indisputable reality is that you can't make something out of nothing, and to the chagrin of Jerry Sloan and the many more who will follow in his footsteps, that something isn't coaching.  It's talent.

So, getting back to the blame game, what is our alibi?

Maybe it's that as children, we were never clarified to the motto—the ends justify the means.

Because, little did we know then, "mean" isn't a figurative form of speech.

It's an adjective.