If not for the unheard consistency of the Utah Jazz franchise, I likely would have lost interest in the NBA a long time ago. I became a fan of the team way back in the late 1980’s, and haven’t given up on them since.
But today, that era of Utah basketball has officially ended with the unexpected resignation of long-time head coach Jerry Sloan.
It may not be quite the exit that he envisioned, but it’s a well-earned retirement nonetheless. Not only did he serve as the head coach in Utah for 23 seasons, but he made his mark as an NBA player for the Chicago Bulls in the 60’s & 70’s. He walks away from the game leaving a legacy that won’t soon be forgotten.
As the league and the game changed, Sloan never did. His fierce competitive nature and work ethic made everyone around him that much better. Though his teams never achieved the ultimate goal of a championship, Sloan always got the most out his players. His signature philosophy of hard-nosed defense and fundamental basketball kept his teams competitive year after year, even when short on talent.
As a fan, I would just like to say thanks to coach Sloan for all the years of hard work and dedication. You will be missed.
One can only hope that newly appointed head coach Tyrone Corbin can establish the same kind of consistency that Sloan did for all those years. But it won’t be easy.
Though most of the team’s issues have been kept behind closed doors, it’s clear that something isn’t quite right in Utah. The front office has done a solid job of replacing departed talent, but this year’s team has yet to put it all together. Add to that the speculation over Deron Williams’ future with the team, and you have quite a mess.
Even though it probably wasn’t just one thing that led to Sloan’s retirement, the timing of his resignation indicates that the team isn’t headed in a positive direction. The talent level is about the same as it has been over the past few years, but the chemistry isn’t there.
So there is probably much more to the story of Sloan’s retirement, but none of it really matters at this point. It’s a new era for Utah Jazz basketball, and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
On another note, ESPN still sucks! I have stopped tuning in to SportsCenter completely, but flipped over to ESPiN today to see the story on Sloan. They had a brief and uninformative interview with former Jazz center Mark Eaton, and then went into a lengthy segment about how wonderful the Miami Heat are supposed to be. As if we were still unaware of LeBron taking his talents to South Beach. They even had dramatic background music and everything.
Thank you ESPiN, for doing your best to destroy sports journalism. Keep rolling those Blake Griffin and Stephen Curry highlights…and I’ll keep waiting for a Golden State/LA Clippers conference finals showdown. Stupid pricks.
I accidentally ran into one of the many Espin channels every now and again. And there's usually some riveting coverage of random dunking and hockey highlights. Not sure what kind of highlights there can be in hockey other than fights, and maybe squid being chucked onto the ice.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm just not that into sports? Or maybe I'm tired of the same old shit in sports. I really liked Jim Rome back in the late 90's, I thought his stuff was funny and edgy. But I caught his show last year sometime whilst driving. Most comedians or entertainers will come up with something new to keep fresh. Rome was doing the same lame ass "rack em" and tired OJ jokes. I quickly found an NPR station. And the douchebags on EssPn do the same thing. "back back back" and "Boo ya" can go fuck themselves.