Normally I give thoughts on each game win or loss. We all know that the bulls beat the jazz on weds, but thats old news, this post belongs to #4 Jerry Sloan.
I don't think I could write a proper blog/tribute whateva you want to call it for Sloan. I'm 18 years old. I started following the Jazz in Jr. Jazz, probally around age 8 or so, so like 10 years ago. I intensily started following the jazz in 8th grade (im a senior now) when I moved, and one of my first friends was a jazz fan. I had always paid attention, but Sproul was the key in rejuvinating my love the Jazz. I became a diehard probably around 2 years ago, and I still consider myself one of the biggest Jazz fans there is. HOWEVER. My point in all that is, I really don't know Sloan like most everyone else does. Sloan coached for 23 years for the jazz, im 18, do the math.
Who was sloan in my eyes?
I always saw him as our coach. I know thats painfully obvious, but he was like the steering wheel of my car (wow, horrible comparison). It wasn't until these last 2 or 3 years till I realized what he was.
Sloan is one of the greatest coaches of all time. No debate.
I have said this very often, but there are very few coaches that I think truely elevate a teams play. Sloan was one of them (Red, Pop...etc.).
A coaches duty is to coach a team into winning a game. coaches create gameplans, plays, and they teach the players to execute them. Well atleast thats what a coach does these days. Thats why coaches come and go, because lots of ppl can tell a player what to do.
However, like I already said, Sloan was a true coach. He could get 100% effort out of a player. Not many people can do that.
Sloan coached the jazz for about 23 (22 full seasons) years. He made it to the finals 2x, playoffs 19x, and had only 1 losing season (injuries to top players killed us). However (I like saying however..however..however..ill stop) his greatest accomplishment (mine is spelling that right) was the season after karl and stock left.
That year the jazz were predicted not only to be the worse team in the nba, but many had them to be the worst team in the history of the nba and win 10 or less games. Not only did that team not suffer a losing season, but they almost made the playoffs. Jerry got 100% out of those guys. I doubt any other coach EVER could of done what he did with that team.
I want to write a 23 page tribute to sloan, because i can't. I'm not qualified, iv watched sloan for a few years, and he has gained my respect without a doubt. But my knowledge of bball, jazz, and sloan is nothing, absolutely nothing when compared to what he did and how he did it. I will leave it at that.
Thank you Jerry, have fun with the tractors.
-Kyle
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