Heat’s loss wound up being big gain for Jazz
Passed over by Miami, coach became Hall of Famer in Utah
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan nearly became the Heat’s first coach.
There was a time when the veil of secrecy was limited with the Miami Heat.
Back in June 1988, with office space restricted at Miami Arena, Jerry Sloan arrived for a coaching interview only to find himself sitting in the public lobby alongside a member of the media.
Small talk followed, including how the trip also included a college visit for his daughter, the former Chicago Bulls guard said with a small suitcase at his side.
Sloan, then a Utah Jazz assistant, was there as the second of two finalists for the Heat’s inaugural coaching job, one that days later would go to then-Detroit Pistons assistant Ron Rothstein.
Within months, Sloan and Rothstein would find themselves as coaching rivals, with Sloan named Jazz coach in December 1988 when Frank Layden moved into the Jazz front office.
Rothstein would coach the Heat for the franchise’s first three seasons, later to return as coach of the organization’s WNBA team, the Miami Sol, and then to serve as a Heat assistant under Pat Riley. He shared in the franchise’s 2006 NBA title.
Sloan would go on to coach the Jazz for 22 seasons and was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
“I felt I was in good company,” Rothstein said of being one of the two finalists along with Sloan.
Sloan died Friday at battle with Parkinson’s 78 after a lengthy disease and Lewy body dementia.
The disappointment of losing out on the initial Heat job soon turned into a prolific coaching career. Sloan retired in 2011 with 1,223 regular-season victories, third at the time on the all-time coaching list. He stands along with Riley, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and former Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson as the only coaches with 15 or more consecutive seasons with winning records.
And yet the irony is that Sloan was not the Heat’s initial Jazz target. Instead, upon taking over in the Heat’s nascent front office, Billy Cunningham first applied for permission from Utah to interview Layden. Only when that overture was rejected did the team move on to Sloan and Rothstein, who currently serves as a Heat radio and
television analyst.
At the time, Layden quipped of being targeted for that initial Heat job: “I have an ego, and I’ll wonder what would have happened. I’ll probably look back once in a while, especially during one of those losing streaks.”
Instead, Layden pushed
Sloan, then assistant.
“I don’t understand why Jerry doesn’t have a head job in the NBA,” Layden said. “I really front for our team. Ask any media here, and they’ll tell you that he runs our team during a game while I stand around and talk to them. The Miami team would be very lucky if it got Jerry.”
Ultimately, it wasn’t until July 12, 1988, weeks after his lead the expansion and college drafts, that Rothstein was named Heat coach. The Heat went 15-67 in that inaugural 1988-89 season.
The Jazz finished that season 51-31 under Sloan.
The Heat eventually moved from Rothstein to Kevin Loughery to Alvin Gentry as coaches before emerging as an enduring success when Riley took over as coach and team president in 1995.