JAZZ LEGEND SLOAN DIES
The Hall of Fame basketball coach who spent a majority of his coaching career with the Utah Jazz died Friday at 78 years old
Jerry Sloan, the Hall of Fame basketball coach who spent a majority of his coaching career with the Utah Jazz and was a former NBA player with the Chicago Bulls, died on Friday. He was 78 years old.
Sloan announced in 2016 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia, a terrible combination of neurological disorders.
Sloan said he decided to go public with the diagnosis because the symptoms were noticeable. He also told the "Salt Lake Tribune" he didn't “want people feeling sorry for me.”
Sloan was one of the greatest coaches in NBA history and is No. 4 on the all-time winningest coaches list with 1,221 victories. Among coaches with at least 500 games coached, he is ninth with a .603 winning percentage.
“Jerry Sloan will always be synonymous with the Utah Jazz," the team said in a statement. "He will forever be a part of the Utah Jazz organization and we join his family, friends and fans in mourning his loss. We are so thankful for what he accomplished here in Utah and the decades of dedication, loyalty and tenacity he brought to our franchise."
He spent 23 seasons with Utah, and Sloan and San Antonio's Gregg Popovich are the only coaches in NBA history to win 1,000 games with one team. In his 26 seasons – three with the Bulls – he had just three losing seasons and just one losing season in his two-plus decades with Utah.
Late in the 2010-11 season, citing lack of energy, Sloan resigned even though Jazz ownership and the front office tried to persuade him to finish the season.
Sloan guided the Jazz to consecutive playoff appearances and 13 seasons with at least 50 victories, including 64 victories in 1996-97 and 62 victories in 199798. Coached by Sloan and led on the court by Karl Malone and John Stockton, the Jazz won the Western Conference title both of those seasons but lost to Chicago and Michael Jordan in the NBA Finals each time.
Sloan was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009.
Sloan became an all-state player in high school and played college basketball at Evansville. The Baltimore Bullets drafted Sloan in 1965 with the No. 4 overall pick and traded him to Chicago the following season. With the Bulls, Sloan was a shooting guard-small forward with a knack for defense. He averaged 14 points and 7.4 rebounds in his 11-year career, was a two-time AllStar and named all-first team defense four times.
After he retired in 1976, Sloan took the head coaching job at his alma mater but withdrew from the position five days later. That season, the Evansville basketball team and coaching staff died in a plane crash.