Jerry Sloan

No. 14, 4
Guard / Forward
Personal information
Born	(1942-03-28) March 28, 1942 (age 70) McLeansboro, Illinois
Nationality	American
High school	McLeansboro
Listed height	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Listed weight	195 lb (88 kg)
Career information
College	Evansville (1961-1965)
NBA Draft	1965 / Round: 1 / Pick: 4th overall
Selected by the Baltimore Bullets
Pro career	1965–1976
League	NBA
Career history
As player:
1965–1966	Baltimore Bullets
1966–1976	Chicago Bulls
As coach:
1979–1982	Chicago Bulls
1988–2011	Utah Jazz
Career highlights and awards
2x NCAA Champion (1964), (1965) 2× NBA All-Star (1967, 1969) 4× NBA All-Defensive First Team (1969, 1972, 1974–1975) 2× NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1970–1971) #4 retired by the Chicago Bulls
Career NBA statistics
Points	10,571 (14.0 ppg)
Rebounds	5,615 (7.4 rpg)
Assists	1,925 (2.5 apg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Basketball Hall of Fame as coach

Gerald Eugene "Jerry" Sloan (born March 28, 1942), is an American former National Basketball Association player and head coach, and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.^[1] NBA commissioner David Stern called Sloan "one of the greatest and most respected coaches in NBA history."^[2] Sloan had a career regular-season win–loss record of 1,221–803, placing him third all-time in NBA wins at the time he retired.^[3] Sloan was only the fifth coach in NBA history to reach the 1,000 victories and is the only coach in NBA history to record 1,000 wins with one club (the Utah Jazz). He also coached for one team longer than anyone in NBA history. The 2009–10 season was his 22nd season (and 21st full season) as coach of the Jazz. Sloan coached the Jazz to 15 consecutive playoff appearances from 1989–2003. Although he never won a Coach of the Year award, he is one of only three coaches in NBA history with 15-plus consecutive seasons with a winning record (Pat Riley and Phil Jackson are the others).^[3] He led Utah to the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998 but lost to the Chicago Bulls both times.

After Tom Kelly stepped down as manager of the Minnesota Twins in Major League Baseball in 2001, Sloan became the longest-tenured head coach in American major league sports with their current franchise. He resigned on February 10, 2011.

Playing career[link]

Born and raised in Gobbler's Knob, 15 miles south of McLeansboro, Illinois,^[4] Sloan was the youngest of 10 children and was raised by a single mother after his father died when he was four. He would wake up at 4.30 a.m. to do farm chores and then walk almost two miles to get to school in time for 7 a.m. basketball practice. Sloan graduated an all-state player from McLeansboro High School in 1960.^[5]

He spent around five weeks at the University of Illinois then quit school due to homesickness.^{[citation needed]} After working for a time at the oil fields^[where?], Sloan moved to Evansville College (now University of Evansville). He played college basketball under Evansville coach Arad McCutchan even as he worked part-time making refrigerators for Whirlpool.^[6] Amassing 15.5 points per contest, Sloan was the leading scorer for the Purple Aces in each of his three seasons as a starter. He led Evansville twice to the NCAA College Division Championship (now known as the Division II Championship), which included a perfect 29-0 season in 1965,^[7] and was voted a first team Little All-America along with teammate Larry Humes during his senior season.

Sloan was originally selected as an eligible junior in the third round of the 1964 NBA Draft by the Baltimore Bullets. He decided to stay in college, and was then selected by the Bullets again in the 1965 NBA Draft with the fourth overall pick. He played just one season for the Bullets under coach Paul Seymour. He then went on to play for the Chicago Bulls under Johnny Kerr during the Bulls' formative years.^[8] He was the first player selected by the Bulls in the expansion draft, earning him the nickname "The Original Bull." Sloan was known for his tenacity on defense, and led the expansion team to the playoffs in its first season.^[9]

Sloan played in two All-Star Games, being named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team four times and the All-Defensive Second team twice. He also led the Bulls to the playoffs on various occasions and helped them to win one division title, the only one the franchise had earned before the Michael Jordan era. Sloan averaged 9.1 rebounds per game in his second season, and his career rebounding average of 7.4 rebounds per game is unusually high for a guard. He is currently fourth on the Bulls' all-time scoring list. With an average of 2.15 steals per game (tabulated over his last three seasons), Sloan is ranked tenth in the NBA's all-time leaders category for steals per game,^[10] just behind John Stockton (2.17 SPG). Sloan recorded two triple-doubles during his career, and scored a career-high 43 points in a 1969 game versus the Milwaukee Bucks.

Of his playing days with the Bulls, Sloan would say, "If I had to choose one word for the Bulls of my time, it would be 'tough'. There simply wasn't a tougher team in the league." ^[9]

Sloan's playing career was cut short by successive knee injuries, and he turned his attention to coaching. As of the beginning of the 2011-12 season, Sloan was ranked fourth in Chicago franchise history in games played (10), field goals made (3,996), total points (10,233) and rebounds (5,385), and third in games (696) and minutes played (24,798). Because of his influential career with the Bulls, the franchise retired Sloan's No. 4 jersey, the first jersey retired by the Bulls. ^[9]

Coaching career[link]

While at Evansville, coach McCutchan suggested to Sloan to coach at his alma mater. After retiring in 1976, Sloan took the Evansville job but withdrew after five days^{[citation needed]}. That same season the Evansville basketball team as well as coaches were killed in a plane crash at Evansville Airport.

After two years, Sloan was hired by the Bulls as a scout.^[6] After one season in this role, he became an assistant coach with the team. In 1979, Sloan moved up the ranks to become head coach of the Bulls. He was head coach of the Bulls for less than three seasons, winning 94 games and losing 121. He led the team to the playoffs in his second year, but was fired after a poor start during the next campaign.

After departing Chicago, Sloan became a scout for the Utah Jazz for one season. He then became coach of the Evansville Thunder of the Continental Basketball Association for the 1984 season before returning to the rank of Utah assistant. After Frank Layden became team president in December 1988, the Jazz chose Sloan as new head coach.^[11] Sloan enjoyed a highly successful run of sixteen consecutive seasons of taking his team to the playoffs, and he has coached such players as Hall of Famers Karl Malone and John Stockton, Jeff Hornacek, Antoine Carr, Tom Chambers, Mark Eaton, and Jeff Malone during the process.

Sloan led the Jazz to six division championships and 10 seasons with greater than 50 wins. He also took the Jazz to the NBA Finals twice, losing in the 1997 and 1998 championships, both times to his old team, the Michael Jordan-led Bulls. By the end of this period, he had joined Pat Riley and Phil Jackson as the only coaches with 10 or more seasons winning 50 or more games. After the retirement of long-time Jazz anchors John Stockton and Karl Malone, Sloan coached a younger group of budding stars, including Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko and, later, Deron Williams.

In spring of 2004, Sloan and his team were involved in a battle for the eighth spot in the Western Conference for that season, which would have given Sloan his seventeenth straight trip to the playoffs. The Jazz were tied with the Denver Nuggets for the eighth and last spot of the playoffs with three games to go in the regular season. The Jazz lost the final two games, causing Sloan to miss the playoffs for the first time in eighteen seasons as Jazz coach. After leading a young, dismantled team to an unexpected 42–40 record, he finished just behind Hubie Brown of the Memphis Grizzlies in voting for the 2004 NBA Coach of the Year Award.

Sloan collected his 1,000th career win against the Dallas Mavericks on December 11, 2006, in a 101–79 victory, which made him only the fifth coach in NBA history to reach the milestone.^[12] After disappointing seasons in 2004-05 and 2005–06, the strong play of the Jazz in the 2006–07 season had renewed speculation from some sportswriters^{[according to whom?]} that Sloan would be a strong candidate for Coach of the Year in 2007. But Sloan lost the award to Toronto Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell who led his team to a franchise-record-tying 47 victories and their first Atlantic Division title. Sloan lost by 93 points, 394–301.^[13]

Sloan and the Jazz advanced to the Western Conference finals on May 15, 2007 with a 100–87 win over the Golden State Warriors. It was the sixth time in franchise history that Utah advanced to the conference finals, all coming under Sloan.

During the 2008-09 season, Sloan reached 1,000 wins as coach of the Jazz on November 7 after beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 104–97 in a Friday night game. He is the only coach in NBA history with 1,000 wins for one team.^[14] Sloan returned as head coach of the Jazz for the 2009–10 season, leading the team to a 53-29 record and the playoffs.

Mirroring his tenacity as a player, Sloan was just as fiery as a coach. He was suspended one game for pushing referee Bob Delaney in April 1993. After a decade, Sloan was served a seven-game suspension in 2003 for pushing referee Courtney Kirkland in Sacramento.^{[citation needed]}

In April 2009 Sloan was announced to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, in the same class as his former longtime point guard John Stockton. Sloan chose Class of 2006 Hall of Famer Charles Barkley to introduce him during his induction ceremony.^[15]

Resignation[link]

Sloan revealed on February 7, 2011 that he had earlier in the year signed a contract extension to coach the Jazz for the upcoming 2011–2012 season for what would have been his 24th season as head coach with the Jazz.^[16] However, on February 10, 2011 Sloan and assistant Phil Johnson resigned their positions effective immediately.^[17] Sloan downplayed reports that conflicts with players prompted his departure. "I've had confrontations with players since I've been in the league," Sloan said. "There's only so much energy left and my energy has dropped." KSL-TV later asked Sloan whether reported conflicts with guard Deron Williams forced him to leave. "I forced myself out," Sloan responded.^[18] Williams acknowledged he had a disagreement with Sloan during the previous night's game, but he added, "I would never force coach Sloan out of Utah. He's meant more to this town, more to this organization than I have by far. I would have asked out of Utah first."^[19]

Nearly two weeks later, Williams was involved in a trade on February 23, 2011 that sent him to the New Jersey Nets.^[20] Without the familiar sight of Sloan on the Jazz sideline and now without an all-star talent in Williams, longtime NBA writer Ian Thomsen wrote, "First Jerry Sloan leaves, now Williams is sent away. For two decades we knew who the Utah Jazz were and what they stood for as a franchise. Now we, and they, can have no idea."^[21]

A year later Karl Malone, who played under Sloan for more than a decade, indicated that Sloan did not feel supported by Kevin O'Conner and Greg Miller.^[22]

His last NBA game as Jazz head coach came against, coincidentally, the Chicago Bulls. The Jazz lost, 91-86, on February 9, in a game with various subplots such as former Jazz forward Carlos Boozer, now a Chicago Bull, revisiting his former club, and Sloan's long association with the Bulls as a player and coach. Assistant coach Tyrone Corbin was named as Sloan's replacement.^[3]

Phil Jackson's reaction to his resignation was typical of the response from around the league:

He was stubborn, you have to be as a coach. But he had a system and the system was effective. It’s not easy to have a team in Utah. It’s not the biggest draw in the country as far as free agents to go there. And they were able to have a really great home record, played the kind of basketball that was admirable. So we all had admiration for him as coaches around the league. So as a colleague, we’ll miss him.

—Phil Jackson, Los Angeles Lakers head coach^[2]

Personal life[link]

He married his high school sweetheart, Bobbye Sloan. After a well publicized six-year battle against breast cancer, she died of pancreatic cancer in 2004.^[23] They had three children and were married 41 years. One of his sons, Brian, also played basketball for McLeansboro High School and was a member of its undefeated 1984 state championship team, and also played five seasons under Coach Bob Knight at Indiana University, collecting an NCAA title in 1987.

In 2006 Jerry Sloan married Tammy Jessop, in Salt Lake City. Sloan has a stepson, Rhett as a result of his marriage to Jessop.^[24]

Sloan is known to wear John Deere hats^[4] and to collect and restore tractors as a hobby.^[25] After amassing a collection of tractors that numbered 70, Sloan decided to sell all but two of them after a 35-year old Allis-Chalmers tractor of his was stolen.^{[26] [27]} After years of a self-confessed habit of drinking and smoking too much, he has since stopped both, although he has claimed that it never affected him or his coaching.^[4]

Head coaching record[link]

Quotes[link]

"These guys have been criticized the last few years for not getting to where we're going, but I've always said that the most important thing in sports is to keep trying. Let this be an example of what it means to say it's never over." –after the Utah Jazz defeated the Houston Rockets in Game 6 of the 1997 Western Conference Finals.^[28]

"I don't care if he's 19 or 30. If he's going to be on the floor in the NBA, he's got to be able to step up and get after it. We can't put diapers on him one night, and a jockstrap the next night. It's just the way it is." –on second year guard C.J. Miles, the youngest player on the 2006–07 Utah Jazz.^[29]

After Stockton had injured his finger during a game, Jerry was asked what finger Stockton injured. Jerry replied, "The one on his hand."

"Size doesn't make any difference; heart is what makes a difference." ^[30]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official NBA.com bio
• BasketballReference.com: Jerry Sloan (as coach)
• BasketballReference.com: Jerry Sloan (as player)
• Jerry Sloan's legacy
• Jerry Sloan's Hall of Fame Induction Speech