Coach earned Rockets’ respect
Hall of Famer made Jazz fierce rival in title era
Rudy Tomjanovich, filled with memories of battles with Jerry Sloan that went back to their days as icons of the original versions of the Rockets and Bulls, thought instead of a night when the fight was over decades later.
Tomjanovich’s Rockets had defeated Sloan and the Jazz. Tomjanovich was not sure which season it was, and that did not matter since Sloan never changed. But after the most hardfought, frequently physical and emotional of playoff series, Sloan came into the Rockets’ locker room.
“I always remember when he came into the locker room after we won,” Tomjanovich said. “He said, ‘Good game,’ and ‘I’m not blowing smoke up your rear.’
“It meant a lot to me that he made that effort to come over there.”
That was Sloan, the legendary Jazz coach and fiercely competitive Bulls guard who died Friday morning at 78 of complications from Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia.
Straightforward. Unassuming. No-nonsense.
He was the guy who looked right in a well-worn John Deere cap, who would challenge opposing players if they (in his mind) stepped out of line, who would insist his players keep shirts neatly tucked in, and who would demand they set hard screens on the pick-androlls that were the foundation of his offense.
“They played the way he played,” Tomjanovich said.
“He would set picks hard. ( John) Stockton, being a guard, set a lot of picks in that offense. Jerry, that was the kind of stuff he would do when he was playing. A no-nonsense guy.
“He was a tough son-of-a-gun. He was a grabber. Plus, he was physical. He and (Norm) Van Lier would set the tone for those guys. They were really something else. What a duo of tenacious defenders.”
Sloan was the “Original Bull,” taken from the Baltimore Bullets in the 1966 expansion draft. He was twice an All-Star with the Bulls, was the first to have his number retired by the franchise, was their coach for three seasons before he was fired and joined Frank Layden’s staff with the Jazz, then succeeded Layden to begin a Hall-of-Fame coaching career.
Sloan won 1,223 games in his 23 seasons with the Jazz, fourthmost in NBA history. He is one of two coaches (along with the Spurs’ Gregg Popovich) to win 1,000 games with one franchise.
He was one of four coaches to take his team to the playoffs 15 straight years. He led the Jazz to consecutive Finals appearances, advancing past the Rockets as the Rockets had against the Jazz during their championship seasons.
“I look back with respect on those guys, because of how competitive they were and because of how Jerry Sloan’s character permeated that team and that franchise,” former Rockets forward Matt Bullard said.
“You go out there and compete against them, and it’s all the way up to the line and sometimes over. But then after the game you go out and have a beer, and he’s one of the nicest guys you’ve ever been around.”
Sloan grew up on a farm, the youngest of 10 children, in McLeansboro, Ill., and he remained a dirt farmer during offseasons throughout his NBA career. He twice led Evansville to the Division II national championship and was selected by the Bullets in the first round of consecutive NBA drafts, the second time with the fourth pick. He was a first- or second-team All-Defensive team selection in six of his 11 seasons.
“He was a tough guy,” said Rockets development coach John Lucas, who began his NBA career in 1976 the season after Sloan’s ended. “He and Norm
Van Lier, they were the original Bad Boy Pistons when they played.
“Jerry was one of the consummate old-school coaches. He could get guys to cross and run, and he had a system that lasted forever.”
He left his mark as one of the faces of a franchise, as much as Hall of Fame players Stockton and Karl Malone.
“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. Like Stockton and Malone as players, Jerry Sloan epitomized the organization.”
Yet he was so unassuming, he had game-night dinners in media dining rooms with longtime assistant Phil Johnson and whatever media members happened to be at their table, shopped at antique stores, and repaired old tractors.
The epitome of old school, he remained on the Jazz bench to teach the next generation after Stockton and Malone moved on. He went 53-29 in his final full season before stepping down during the 2010-11 campaign amid tensions with young star Deron Williams, saying it was “time to move on.”
“Jerry Sloan was among the NBA’s most respected and admired legends,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “He was the first coach to win 1,000 games with the same organization, which came to embody the qualities that made Jerry a Hall of Famer: persistence, discipline, drive and selflessness. His more than 40 years in the NBA paralleled a period of tremendous growth in the league, a time when we benefited greatly from his humility, kindness, dignity and class.”
That was what came back to Tomjanovich on Friday, from going at one another on the floor, to the night Sloan became Jazz head coach, to all those playoff games between the Rockets and Jazz.
“He was a guy, we had a lot of great battles not only as players, but as coaches,” Tomjanovich said. “Then, winning the championships having to go through him and Malone and Stockton makes those trophies mean a lot to me, because I respect those guys so much.
“Meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, straightforward, what you see is what you get.
“And it was good.”