Remembering the Greatness of Jerry Sloan

As San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich said it,  "It's a sad day for all of us who knew Jerry Sloan"

It is indeed a sad day for the National Basketball Association (NBA) fans who saw Jerry Sloan as the greatest coach who never won a championship as the 78-year old longtime Utah Jazz head coach passed away due to complications of Parkinson's Disease and Lewy Body Dementia.

While most NBA fans would remember the late Jerry Sloan as perhaps the longest-tenured coach in the history of American sports, one may even surprised to see that the Jazz wasn't the first team Sloan coached. It was the Chicago Bulls where he started as an assistant coach before taking over at the helm in 1979 until 1982. And even before he was working on the sidelines, he actually played in the NBA by beginning with the Baltimore Bullets who picked him fourth overall in the 1965 NBA Draft before playing for the Bulls in 1966 to 1976 after the Bulls, then an expansion team picked Sloan in the 1966 NBA Expansion Draft. Prior to this, the Bullets originally picked Sloan in the 1964 NBA Draft as the 19th overall pick but Sloan decided to remain in college where he led the Evansville Purple Aces to another Division II championship. His NBA career saw him become a two-time NBA All-Star, a member of the NBA All-Defensive First Team (four times) and, a member of the NBA All-Defensive Second Team (twice). And yes, it was Jerry Sloan who led Chicago to their only division title and playoff appearance prior to the arrival of one Michael Jordan

After a three-season run with the Bulls, Jerry Sloan started out as an assistant coach with the Jazz in 1985, and in 1988, he took over the head coaching job- one he would keep until 2011.  He may have failed to win a championship despite leading the Jazz to 1,223 wins as a head coach but Sloan was able to achieve greatness by becoming one of the few head coaches in NBA history to have 10 or more seasons with 50+wins. He had a great tandem in Karl Malone and John Stockton during the early '90s and that tandem faced the Michael Jordan-led Bulls team twice in the NBA Finals only to lose both times. And even after both Malone and Stockton retired, the Jazz would still be a consistent playoff-bound team under Sloan with Utah even managing to reach the Western Conference Finals in 2007. 

Jerry Sloan didn't win a championship both in his playing and coaching career but he will always be remembered by Jazz fans as the longtime head coach who put the Jazz back into the basketball map.

Rest in peace, Jerry Sloan

Photo is from ESPN