End of an era

Over-paid athletes with long-term contracts and leagues that are more worried about television contracts than the sport itself define the sports world today. This era is not exactly known for loyalty, longevity, commitment, toughness or old-school work ethic. A singular exception to this rule was Jerry Sloan, the now former head coach of Utah. He was a head coach at one place for 23 years - which is equivalent to 25 dog years, which is about 120 human years. He was the longest tenured coach in all of US professional sports. It’s almost impossible to enjoy such long tenures at this day and age and NBA is especially notorious when it comes to hiring and firing head coaches.

High salaries, unrealistic expectations and a general cultural shift towards instant gratification are all challenges to extended tenures for these high-profile coaches, GM and even superstars. But Jerry Sloan survived all of that and more. He also survived the retirement of two Hall of Famers – Karl Malone and John Stockton. He was able to do his thing for 23 years due of several reasons, but primarily because he was a great coach. He was one of the best at his craft even though his style is old school and several modern day athletes definitely didn’t enjoy it. Case in point – Deron Williams. Sloan and D-Will have clashed often and recently during the halftime of a loss to the Chicago Bulls. This incident is rumored to have pushed Sloan over the edge.

Williams is a talented and hard working guard who doesn’t have a reputation of being a cancer or even a bad seed. But I can easily see how Sloan and him clashed over stuff. That’s going to happen in any high-stakes environment like the NBA. But whether or not that caused his exit, only Sloan knows. The theory is that the ownership was getting more and more friendly to Deron’s position and Sloan felt like his authority was being compromised. He apparently told them that if this is how they want to run their franchise, he doesn’t want any role in it and walked away. This is probably what happened because I can’t imagine Sloan quitting in the middle of the season without a strong trigger like that. Sloan is one of the toughest SOB and he is definitely not a quitter. He is not going to be pushed out by a kid like D-Will after 23 years at the helm. He has seen it all and handled every conceivable situation. So the only plausible explanation for him exiting like this is that he thought the front office was not behind him this time.

This actually means the front office is probably more responsible for him leaving than Deron Williams, though this will probably stick to Deron. It will be interesting to see how the Jazz faithful responds to D-Will now. They are a nice, well-behaved, religious fan-base and you could say that’s one of the reasons why Sloan even survived 23 years. But they may still turn on D-Will, especially if Utah starts losing a lot. I think that won’t happen because the team is loaded with talent and the new coach Tyronne Corbin might open it up and make it more fun for Williams and the team. While Sloan was a great coach and preached fundamentals, toughness and defense like no other, he did not often tweak his style to suit his talent. It was always the other way around with Sloan. The talent on the roster had to get on with the proven program or sit on the bench. If Ty Corbin finds a middle ground between the rigidity of a great system and the versatility of the phenomenal talent at hand, Jazz could have a great rest of the season.

As for Jerry Slaon, he should be retired for good at this stage. He is 68 years old and I can’t imagine him coaching anywhere else. That’s probably a good thing because this way, he would always be remembered as a Utah Jazz and we don’t have to deal with things like him coming into town as a visiting head coach. I can definitely see him in a television role, but I am not sure if he wants that. In any case, this was a shocking culmination to a recent spate of long tenured coaches retiring, resigning or getting fired. First, it was Atlanta’s Bobby Cox retiring after 21 years as the manager of the Braves and the longest tenured manager in MLB. Then it was Jeff Fisher getting out of Tennessee in a surprising move after 17 years at the helm and the NFL lost it’s longest tenured coach. Now it’s Sloan who was the leader in the NBA and all of sports - all 3 changes happening in a 5-month spam. As of today, the NFL honor belongs to Andy Reid, Greg Popovich leads the NBA in terms of tenure and the longest tenured coach in all of sports now is MLB’s Tony LaRussa. Not bad replacements, but it’s still a sad day in sports and an end of a glorious era. We will all miss Jerry Sloan.