Longtime Jazz coach Jerry Sloan dies at 78

 
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PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 7:09 am    Post subject: Longtime Jazz coach Jerry Sloan dies at 78

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29209339/long-jazz-coach-jerry-sloan-dies-age-78

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Longtime Jazz coach Jerry Sloan dies at age 78

Jerry Sloan, a bulldog as a player for the Chicago Bulls and coach of the Utah Jazz, died Friday at the age of 78.

The Jazz announced that Sloan had died from complications from Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia, which he had revealed diagnoses of in April 2016.

"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 team said in a statement. "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."


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Sloan was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009 after a 26-year coaching career, 23 of them with the Jazz. His no-nonsense style blended perfectly with Hall of Fame players Malone and Stockton, leading to 15 straight playoff appearances. The Jazz's nearly unstoppable pick-and-roll offense resulted in Western Conference titles in 1997 and 1998, but Utah lost each time to the Bulls, the team Sloan played for and coached.

Known for his defensive intensity as a player, Sloan became a fan favorite as one of the "Original Bulls." He played one season with the Baltimore Bullets before being taken by the Bulls in the expansion draft. That first Chicago team made the playoffs despite having a losing record. Led by Bob Love, Norm Van Lier, Nate Thurmond and Sloan, the Bulls reached the postseason in seven of their first eight seasons, losing in the conference finals twice.

Sloan's playing career was cut short by injuries after 10 years. He averaged 14.0 points per game, with a career-best of 18.3 with the Bulls in 1970-71. He was a two-time All-Star and was four times named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team. He still ranks in the top five in Bulls franchise history in points, rebounds, games and minutes.

"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 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."

After his playing career, Sloan accepted the head-coaching job at his alma mater Evansville in March 1977 but backed out after five days, citing personal reasons. In December of that year, the Aces' team plane crashed after takeoff, killing all aboard.

Sloan returned to basketball as a scout for the Bulls and was named an assistant with the team in 1978. He took over as head coach the next season. After three seasons and one playoff appearance, Sloan was fired.

Jerry Sloan Coaching Career
NBA RANK
Regular-Season Games 2,024 4th
Regular Season Wins 1,221 4th
Playoff Games 202 4th
Playoff Wins 98 6th
He then served as a Jazz assistant from 1985 to 1989 before taking over as head coach and going on a legendary run. The Jazz registered 16 straight winning seasons and 15 consecutive playoff appearances. They missed the playoffs three straight years in the post-Malone-Stockton era before reloading to make the postseason from 2006 to 2010 with All-Stars Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer.

Sloan quit abruptly 54 games into the 2010-11 season, and there were rumblings that a conflict with Williams led to him stepping down. Both the coach and player disputed that, however.

"I've had confrontations with players since I've been in the league," Sloan said at the time. "There's only so much energy left, and my energy has dropped."

Sloan finished his coaching career with 1,221 regular-season victories, behind only Don Nelson and Lenny Wilkens. He was later passed by the San Antonio Spurs' Gregg Popovich; Sloan and Popovich are the only coaches in NBA history to win at least 1,000 games with one team, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Sloan returned to the Jazz as an adviser and scouting consultant in 2013, and the team honored him with a banner in 2014 that featured the number 1,223, the number of regular-season and playoff wins Sloan had for the Jazz.

He was an All-State player at McLeansboro High School in Illinois before playing for Evansville from 1962 to 1965. He led the Aces to two Division II titles and was the fourth overall pick in the 1965 draft.

Sloan was married to his high school sweetheart Bobbye for 41 years, and they had three children. Even though he coached in Salt Lake City, Sloan and his family always maintained a home in McLeansboro. His son Brian won a state championship for the high school in 1984 before going on to play for Bobby Knight at Indiana.

Bobbye Sloan died in 2004 at the age of 61 after a well-publicized battle with cancer.

Sloan married Tammy Jessop in 2006 and had a stepson from that marriage.

Parkinson's, the same disease that has afflicted boxing great Muhammad Ali and actor Michael J. Fox, is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects speech and movement and worsens over time. There is no known cure, but symptoms can be controlled by medication and Sloan had said that he was walking four miles per day when he announced his diagnosis.

Lewy body dementia mirrors some of the symptoms of Parkinson's but also causes a progressive decline in mental abilities.
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PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 7:24 am    Post subject:

This sucks. May he RIP.
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PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 8:54 am    Post subject:

Wow what a horrible year this has been, RIP Sloan.
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PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 9:36 am    Post subject:

RIP
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PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 9:52 am    Post subject:

Hard nosed player and coach, he seemed too tough to ever die.

I always had a ton of respect for Jerry Sloan, Rest in Peace Sir....
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PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 10:20 am    Post subject:

Just saw this on FB. It made me sad, although it’s not surprising I know he’s had health issues for a while. But he was one of my fave coaches. May he RIP...
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PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 10:22 am    Post subject:

I always had a lot of respect for coach Sloan.
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PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 10:39 am    Post subject:

LakerLanny wrote:
Hard nosed player and coach, he seemed too tough to ever die.

I always had a ton of respect for Jerry Sloan, Rest in Peace Sir....


I wish he could have been our coach when Phil left, he would have been great for our franchise.


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PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 10:43 am    Post subject:

LakerLanny wrote:
Hard nosed player and coach, he seemed too tough to ever die.

I always had a ton of respect for Jerry Sloan, Rest in Peace Sir....

Feel the same way. Just like Pop, I hated him but couldn't help respect the hell out of him.
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PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 11:13 am    Post subject:

Always one of my favorite coaches. Definitely left his mark on the game, and earned the respect of the entire basketball word. May he rest in peace.
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PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 12:34 pm    Post subject:

Will never forget when the Jazz were playing a team the Lakers were fighting for, either a playoff spot or positioning late in the season. The Jazz had absolutely nothing to play for as they were locked into the top spot and they asked Jerry Sloan if he would rest his stars and he scoffed at that question saying something along the lines of, 'Are you kidding me? This game may not be important to us, but it’s really important to other teams...'

Will never forget that, especially in these days with all the load management. Respected the hell out of Sloan ever since then.


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PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 2:35 pm    Post subject:

One of the best. He was my pick after Phil left as others have mentioned.
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PostPosted: Mon May 25, 2020 1:22 pm    Post subject:

Great player and even better coach. RIP JS
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PostPosted: Mon May 25, 2020 1:43 pm    Post subject:

I have mixed feelings about sloan. Admired him as a competitor, and he got a lot out of his teams, but aside from being a dirty player and presiding over an even dirtier team, his biggest weakness was that he could only work within a rigid, fairly vanilla scheme that benefited from execution and Stockton/Malone (and their willingness to let him call virtually every play), but really wasn't up there with the better x and o guys.
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PostPosted: Mon May 25, 2020 2:37 pm    Post subject:

Omar Little wrote:
I have mixed feelings about sloan. Admired him as a competitor, and he got a lot out of his teams, but aside from being a dirty player and presiding over an even dirtier team, his biggest weakness was that he could only work within a rigid, fairly vanilla scheme that benefited from execution and Stockton/Malone (and their willingness to let him call virtually every play), but really wasn't up there with the better x and o guys.


It’s great that you aren’t hiding the feelings you have for Sloan especially after he passed away, no one is perfect but you still can appreciate someone especially when they bought so much to the game.
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PostPosted: Mon May 25, 2020 2:57 pm    Post subject:

Inspector Gadget wrote:
Omar Little wrote:
I have mixed feelings about sloan. Admired him as a competitor, and he got a lot out of his teams, but aside from being a dirty player and presiding over an even dirtier team, his biggest weakness was that he could only work within a rigid, fairly vanilla scheme that benefited from execution and Stockton/Malone (and their willingness to let him call virtually every play), but really wasn't up there with the better x and o guys.


It’s great that you aren’t hiding the feelings you have for Sloan especially after he passed away, no one is perfect but you still can appreciate someone especially when they bought so much to the game.


Please, I'm not out bashing him, I don't wish he was dead, and I am not going to go say mean things about his family. But we are discussing him as a coach and player in here and those are valid critiques IMO.
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PostPosted: Mon May 25, 2020 4:34 pm    Post subject:

Omar Little wrote:
Inspector Gadget wrote:
Omar Little wrote:
I have mixed feelings about sloan. Admired him as a competitor, and he got a lot out of his teams, but aside from being a dirty player and presiding over an even dirtier team, his biggest weakness was that he could only work within a rigid, fairly vanilla scheme that benefited from execution and Stockton/Malone (and their willingness to let him call virtually every play), but really wasn't up there with the better x and o guys.


It’s great that you aren’t hiding the feelings you have for Sloan especially after he passed away, no one is perfect but you still can appreciate someone especially when they bought so much to the game.


Please, I'm not out bashing him, I don't wish he was dead, and I am not going to go say mean things about his family. But we are discussing him as a coach and player in here and those are valid critiques IMO.


no problem
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PostPosted: Mon May 25, 2020 9:03 pm    Post subject:

He had some pretty bad luck. Lots of close losses to the Bulls, the 1999 lockout with a crazy schedule the last month that did his old team no favors, a 60 win team in 1995 and all they got for that effort was a first round matchup with the 95 Rockets (and the Jazz almost won which would have changed the entire postseason). Stockton was playing with an injury in the 96 conference finals which might have kept them from making the finals 3 years in a row.

Jazz fans were tough on him when I looked at their forums back in the 2009 or 2010 playoffs. It surprised me.
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PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2020 8:34 am    Post subject:

Steve007 wrote:
He had some pretty bad luck. Lots of close losses to the Bulls, the 1999 lockout with a crazy schedule the last month that did his old team no favors, a 60 win team in 1995 and all they got for that effort was a first round matchup with the 95 Rockets (and the Jazz almost won which would have changed the entire postseason). Stockton was playing with an injury in the 96 conference finals which might have kept them from making the finals 3 years in a row.

Jazz fans were tough on him when I looked at their forums back in the 2009 or 2010 playoffs. It surprised me.


Malone and Stockton not winning at least 1 title is one of the biggest shockers in sports history they are arguably a top 5 duo in NBA history.
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PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2020 11:55 am    Post subject:

Inspector Gadget wrote:


Malone and Stockton not winning at least 1 title is one of the biggest shockers in sports history they are arguably a top 5 duo in NBA history.



I don't think it's that big a shocker. They were great players but most of their teams fell into the good-but-not-great class. It's not like they were usually the top seed in the west. They did have a few surprising first round flameouts.
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PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2020 7:18 pm    Post subject:

Steve007 wrote:
He had some pretty bad luck. Lots of close losses to the Bulls, the 1999 lockout with a crazy schedule the last month that did his old team no favors, a 60 win team in 1995 and all they got for that effort was a first round matchup with the 95 Rockets (and the Jazz almost won which would have changed the entire postseason). Stockton was playing with an injury in the 96 conference finals which might have kept them from making the finals 3 years in a row.

Jazz fans were tough on him when I looked at their forums back in the 2009 or 2010 playoffs. It surprised me.


Had to contend with Hakeem's Rockets, MJ's Bulls and Kobe's Lakers (some encounters with Duncan's Spurs IIRC). About as bad luck as bad luck gets lol.

He was a pretty good fit for a passionate, small market base like Utah. His squads were remarkably consistent both in terms of winning and identity.
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PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2020 5:20 pm    Post subject:

https://nba.nbcsports.com/2020/05/27/nba-being-sued-for-missed-rent-payments-amid-coronavirus-shutdown/

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Grandsons remember Jerry Sloan as kind-hearted person with a tough exterior

Collin and Brendan Wood — like more than 5 million others the past five Sundays — watched the Michael Jordan-centered 10-episode series “The Last Dance” intently.

But Collin and Brendan watched it from a different angle than most. Their grandfather, Jerry Sloan, the Utah Jazz coach for two NBA Finals against Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in 1997 and ’98, was part of the series in a short but memorable role. After the Bulls’ 96-54 win over the Jazz in Game 3 of the ’98 Finals, the documentary showed a portion of Sloan’s postgame interview as he looked at the box score.

“This was actually the score? Is this the final?” Sloan asked.

That line elicited a laugh from both Collin, a 2019 Brebeuf Jesuit graduate, and Brendan, a junior-to-be at Brebeuf. Sloan, who died on Friday at age 78 following a battle with Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia, is best-known as a Hall of Fame coach who led the Jazz for 23 seasons through a remarkable stretch of consistency that included 15 consecutive playoff appearances.

Jerry Sloan with grandons Brendan Wood (left) and Collin Wood.
But Collin and Brendan were glad to see that dry sense of humor of their grandfather showed up in the last episode of the series Sunday night.

“It was good to see people got to see the funnier side of our grandpa,” Collin Wood said. “When he talked about the score in that game, I think people got to see the what he was like as a person.”



Sloan grew up the youngest of 10 siblings on a farm south of McLeansboro in southern Illinois. Jerry’s father died when he was 4. Collin, Brendan and older brother Adam, a 2016 Brebeuf graduate, grew up hearing stories about their grandfather’s humble upbringing from their mother, Kathy, one of Jerry and Bobbye Sloan’s three children.

They also saw it for themselves when the family would visit their grandfather before he retired during the 2011 season. Sloan was a beloved figure in Salt Lake City, even after his retirement.


“After he retired we would go out to eat and people would say, ‘Hello Jerry’ or whatever, but they wouldn’t really come up and bother him,” Brendan Wood remembered. “They treated him like he was a regular person. I think there was a lot of respect there from the people in Utah. That’s what I remember the most about being around him then.”

Sloan, after graduating high school in 1960 at McLeansboro, made his name as a star player at the University of Evansville, leading the Purple Aces to Division II national championships in 1964 and ’65. He was selected fourth by the Chicago Bulls in the 1966 NBA draft and became known as the “Original Bull”, becoming a fan favorite for his tenacious defense and hustle during an 11-year career that saw him earn All-Star honors twice and was a four-time all-defensive team selection.

Michael Wilbon shared a story on his “Pardon The Interruption” show on ESPN on Friday of a fight between Sloan and Norm Van Lier, who was then playing with Cincinnati that spilled out into the concourse. The Bulls wanted to trade for Van Lier, but ran it by Sloan first.


Sloan’s reaction? “Anybody who would fight me into the stands is a guy I want to play with,” said Wilbon, a Chicago native. Sloan and Van Lier were teammates through the 1970s for one of the NBA’s toughest backcourts.

“All we knew of him as a player were the stories we heard,” Collin Wood said. “But they were great stories. It goes back to his upbringing. I think one thing we always knew about him was that he came from a hard-working family and brought himself up from nothing. He was a humble guy. Every time you would hear him talk, he would say he was grateful for his opportunities. He was always such a down-to-earth type of person.”

Sloan’s wife, Bobbye, died in 2004 from pancreatic cancer. The Sloans had three children — daughters Kathy (Wood) and Holly (Parrish) and son, Brian. Brian Sloan was Mr. Basketball in Illinois in 1984 after leading McLeansboro to the Class A state title before going on to play at Indiana for Bob Knight from 1984-89. Kathy, who is married to Todd Wood, also played college basketball at DePaul before transferring and playing at Evansville.


The Woods remember traveling to see Jazz games prior to Sloan’s retirement and getting to see some behind-the-scenes action up close.

“After games we would be able to stay late and the players would come by and we’d get to meet them,” Collin said. “I remember after one of the Jazz-Spurs playoff games (in 2007) Carlos Boozer came out of the locker room and talked to us and gave me his wristbands.”

It was in those moments that they could also see their grandfather in a different light than just the stories of the hard-nosed player and coach.


“There was a softer side to him that people didn’t see as much,” Collin said. “He cared a lot about his family and friends. And he had a sense of humor to him that was easy to see if you were around him.”

Sloan had made visits to see his grandkids play basketball up until four or five years ago. That is around the time his health had slipped due to Parkinson’s. But the Woods are thankful for the time they did have with their grandfather and the outpouring of support the family received.

“I would want him to be remembered as a great coach,” Brendan Wood said. “His goal was to get the job done. He was a simple and kind-hearted person who treated people the right way. He would talk to everyone and put them under his wing and make them feel important. He was hard-nosed but also had that softer side that I’ll always remember. He treated people right.”
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