JERRY SLOAN, WHO guided the Utah Jazz for 23 seasons during a Hall of Fame coaching career before retiring in 2011, died Friday at age 78, the team announced.
Sloan, a two-time NBA All-Star who played 11 seasons as a guard before his epic coaching career, died of complications from Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia, which he had been fighting since at least 2015.
Sloan, inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009, was taken by the Baltimore Bullets with the fourth overall pick of the 1965 NBA Draft and played one season for them before spending a decade with the Chicago Bulls, who retired his number four jersey in 1978, an unprecedented move by the club.
After a 2 1/2-season stint coaching the Bulls from 1979-82, Sloan began his epic tenure with the Jazz in 1988 and guided Utah into the playoffs for 15 consecutive seasons from 1989-2003.
With Karl Malone and John Stockton as a superstar duo, the Jazz enjoyed their best seasons under Sloan in 1996-97 and 1997-98, reaching the NBA Finals only to lose to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls each time.
“It was an honor and a privilege to have one of the greatest and most respected coaches in NBA history coaching our team,” Jazz owner Gail Miller said in a statement.
“We have appreciated our relationship with Jerry and acknowledge his dedication to and passion for the Utah Jazz. He has left an enduring legacy with this franchise and our family. The far-reaching impact of his life has touched our city, state and the world as well as countless players, staff and fans.”
Sloan finished his coaching career with the third most wins in NBA history (1,221-803) and seven division titles. His teams reached the playoffs 20 times.
“Jerry Sloan will always be synonymous with the Utah Jazz. He will forever be a part of the Utah Jazz organization,” 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.”
The longest tenured coach with one franchise of all major professional US sports teams when he retired during the 2010-11 campaign, Sloan was a stalwart for the Jazz while there were 245 NBA head coaching changes among other clubs.
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I know this is off topic but agureo is out for 3 months after a muscle tear.
Silva went off injured last night as well. My fantasy football team is falling apart.
Sky says its a month. Aguero is one player who shouldn’t be playing and international football outside of major tournaments.
great news, i lost alot of ground last week in fantasy league!
the Liverpool club and fans get excited far to quickly. he could barely do it in the bundesliga with a world class team so how will he do it with average leftover players in a top league. it really is baffling tbh
Could barely do it?? He won it twice with them..
Another United fan far more interested in what Liverpool are doing than that gobbeam LVG
Gavin Mark doesn’t speak for the United fans, Mark is a pretty stupid individual.
Matt also implies here that Germany is not a top league. Silly Matt.
You can criticise Liverpool while still accepting the reality that their manager has a more than decent record.
Louis Van Gaal also had a bad time at Barcelona the second best team of all time.. For 6 seasons Dortmund were 50/50 with Bayern..
This proves my point , Matt clearly stated yesterday that’s he’s a Chelsea fan but because he winds up the bitters he’s automatically classed as a Manu fan ! Now there’s something familiar about that ……
Which begs the question Cian , if things where so great at dortmund why did all the players choose to leave ?????
Gavin Doyle do you not relies by now that L.van Gaal is a spoofer. :-)
Money?
Money Justin. Where did those players go when they left? Bayern- gotze & lewandowski, Kagawa – Utd, sahin- Liverpool, and the fella whose name I can’t remember went to Real Madrid. All places where the money is much better than Dortmund
Sahin actually went to madrid and from there went on loan to liverpool and back to dortmund then…
Cheers fionn
So in other words it not going to matter what he does or wins at Liverpool cause if someone offers to pay players more money they will leave.
Nucky I didn’t see Matt mention Everton at all
Lvg a spoofer??? Have you seen the state of the Dutch team since he left.
Does it have “I’m the one who klopps” on the back of it!!!!
Matt the troll strikes again. Zzzzzzzzzz.
Do they have PL winners 15/16 on the back , well I’m not getting one then
Poor Danno, you must be devastated. I’m sure United will win a game again soon so you can go back to tipping them for the league, but you might have to wait until after Crystal Place away.
Well if its isn’t ‘ the king of the bitters’ ! Ron better to concentrate on your own teams form …. But do not despair ‘The Clairvoyant One’ has spoken …. He’s not making promises but if he’s still there in 4 yrs he’ll have won the league ….. Will I laugh now ….
Danno try taking your own advice & concentrating on your own team
Danno, the irony of you saying “better to concentrate on your own team” to someone ha ha, try taking your own advice..
It’s even funnier when you say it twice