Tag: Jerry Sloan
Keith Langlois: Dwane Casey statement …
Keith Langlois: Dwane Casey statement on the death of NBA great Jerry Sloan:
Why Jerry Sloan was different from other NBA coaches
SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports’ Jeff Zillgitt and former Jazz Center Mark Eaton discuss the impact Jerry Sloan had not only on the game of basketball but on the lives of people he encountered as well.
SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports’ Jeff Zillgitt and former Jazz Center Mark Eaton discuss the impact Jerry Sloan had not only on the game of basketball but on the lives of people he encountered as well.
Rockets react to passing of legendary Utah coach Jerry Sloan
Several Houston legends had kind words Friday for the late Jerry Sloan, who coached against the Rockets in several classic playoff series.
Legendary Utah Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan, who led the team from 1988 until 2011, passed away Friday due to complications from Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia. He was 78 years old.
Sloan ranks fourth on the NBA’s all-time coaching list with 1,221 regular-season wins, and sixth in the playoff history with 98 wins. He’s one of only two coaches in league history to record 1,000 wins with one club.
Sloan coached for one team longer than anyone in NBA history, and he led the Jazz to 15 straight playoff appearances from 1989 through 2003 (including two Western Conference titles in 1997 and 1998). He’s one of only four coaches in history with 15-plus consecutive seasons with a winning record, joining Gregg Popovich, Pat Riley, and Phil Jackson.
Rest easy, Coach ❤️
» https://t.co/5eonFoUR61 pic.twitter.com/ynrk0JnO0V
— utahjazz (@utahjazz) May 22, 2020
The Jazz and Rockets have long been rivals, and six of Sloan’s postseason trips (1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2007, and 2008) featured playoff series between Utah and Houston. None ended in sweeps, and in five of the six series, the losing team still won at least two games.
Houston defeated Utah on its way to a pair of NBA championships in 1994 and 1995, and the Jazz returned the favor on their way to the first NBA Finals trips in franchise history in 1997 and 1998.
Though the playoff battles were intense, Sloan clearly earned the respect of Houston’s players, as he did throughout the NBA. Here’s a sampling of Friday’s reactions from the Rockets organization, both past and present.
Rudy Tomjanovich on the late Jerry Sloan: “He was a good guy, no nonsense.What you see is what you get.He coached the way he played. His teams reflected his blue-collar mentality. I felt a little bit of a bond with him.I was there in New Orleans (as a #Rockets ass’t, scouting)..” pic.twitter.com/5oWQ3IOrCn
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) May 22, 2020
Sorry to hear about the passing of Jerry Sloan. Rest In Peace
— Vernon Maxwell (@VernonMaxwell11) May 22, 2020
Sad to hear about the passing of Jerry https://t.co/Jnd6yckMtn of my favorite NBA https://t.co/TO93CkiiWI was a pleasure competing against you RIP my friend.@utahjazz 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🏀
— mario elie (@marioelie1) May 22, 2020
.@LAClippers ass’t coach Sam Cassell, who won two championships with the #Rockets, with some thoughts on the late Jerry Sloan: “Coach Sloan was a joy to compete against. His teams were always prepared to win. We just had some better teams & some better luck against those guys..” pic.twitter.com/HnabSsWkG0
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) May 22, 2020
Jerry Sloan is a legend. He was tough and always pushed his players to play tough as well. He put Utah on the map. May he RIP. #NBA
— Eric Gordon (@TheofficialEG10) May 22, 2020
RIP #JerrySloan .. one of the greats! No player achieves greatness without great coaching. john Stockton projected as a good little backup and Karl Malone as a quality power forward before meeting Sloan and became Alltime greats! RIP
— Kenny Smith (@TheJetOnTNT) May 22, 2020
Kenny Smith (@TheJetOnTNT) agrees with Rudy Tomjanovich, #Rockets beating the late Jerry Sloan’s @utahjazz in the playoffs n 1994 & 1995 makes those titles even more special: “100%.They were always the most difficult foe.We knew if we lost to them they could win the championship”
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) May 22, 2020
I grew up admiring this man as @chicagobulls. I remember standing by him during a game talking smack he just laughed and said “good game Eddie” He knew it was all gamesmanship and not personal. I wanted to play for him after that exchange. RIP Jerry you were the best! @utahjazz pic.twitter.com/Ow7D9h2sy0
— Eddie A Johnson (@Jumpshot8) May 22, 2020
Steve Luhm: Jerry Sloan’s humility: …
Gordon Hayward: I didn’t get to spend a …
Gordon Hayward: I didn’t get to spend a lot of time playing for Coach Sloan, but coming in as a rookie he had a major impact on my transition to the @NBA. I’m grateful for that. Prayers to his family, friends and loved ones. May he Rest In Peace.
Michael C. Wright: Pop on Sloan: “It’s …
Michael C. Wright: Pop on Sloan: “It’s a sad day for all of us who knew Jerry Sloan. He was genuine & true. That is rare. He was a mentor for me from afar until I got to know him. A man who suffered no fools, he possessed a humor, often disguised, and had a heart as big as the prairie.”
Sasa Pavlovic spent his rookie season …
Sasa Pavlovic spent his rookie season in the NBA with the Utah Jazz and under the late Jerry Sloan. Following Sloan’s, Pavlovic talked about the “great coach and a great man” to Serbian website Nova and remembered how the Hall of Fame coach helped him when he made his beginnings in the NBA.
WHe was a huge authority, similar to …
WHe was a huge authority, similar to European coaches but with serious respect for each player and their personalities. You may have found out [that Sloan was so highly-paid] on the internet or in the newspapers because that information is public in the United States,” Pavlovic added on Sloan. “However, Sloan never showed any arrogance, nor did he show that anything is measured by money. I always remember the pictures of him coming to training in a truck, like the rest of the world.”
Scott Agness: Interesting note from …
Scott Agness: Interesting note from Donnie Walsh’s statement on the passing of Jerry Sloan: “He was the first coach I interviewed for our head coaching position with the Pacers but he told me me he had already accepted the position as the head coach for the Jazz” So Walsh hired Jack Ramsay.