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Jazz owner champions Sloan as coach of year
By Tim Buckley
Deseret Morning News
Friday, March 9, 2007
If not now, then when?
When in the world will Jerry Sloan win the Red Auerbach Trophy for NBA
Coach of the Year, as awarded by the league and selected by media members
from throughout North America?
That's what Jazz owner Larry H. Miller was wondering after Utah's latest
win, a Wednesday victory ─ No. 13 in its last 15 outings ─ over Indiana
that pushed the franchise's record to 42-19, fourth-best in the NBA this
season.
"If he doesn't get it this year," Miller said, "something's wrong."
Though honored in voting by his peers as The Sporting News' Coach of
theYear after leading the Jazz to a 42-40 record in Utah's first season
post-John Stockton and Karl Malone, 2003-04, he has never won the official
NBA award via media balloting.
Not when the Jazz went to back-to-back NBA Finals in 1997 and '98, not
when they still managed a winning record despite the fact two of the league's
all-time greats no longer were playing for him in Utah.
Others around Sloan have been so honored.
His longtime top assistant, Phil Johnson, won while coaching the Kansas
City-Omaha Kings in 1974-75. Former Jazz coach Tom Nissalke, who still
attends the team's home games as a radio analyst, got it coaching the Houston
Rockets in 1976-77. And ex-Jazz coach Frank Layden was the 1983-84 season
winner.
But never Sloan, who trails only Lenny Wilkens, Don Nelson and Pat Riley
─ all former winners of the award themselves ─ on the NBA's all-time
coaching victories list.
And with Toronto's Sam Mitchell being mentioned by many in the media as
a leading candidate this year ─ along with both last year's winner, Avery
Johnson, whose Dallas Mavericks have the league's best record this season,
and, to a lesser degree, Washington's Eddie Jordan ─ it remains to be seen
if Sloan's turn finally will come in 2007.
Theories abound as to why the 19th-season Jazz coach has been snubbed so
far, and Miller buys them all. There is one, though, that he seems sold on
more than the rest.
"During the playoff years, the 1997-98 years, I was introduced to a
term that I hadn't heard before. ... It's 'a media black hole,"' the Jazz
owner said, "And I think, to a degree, that Utah's in that ─ between L.A.
(Los Angeles) and New York and Chicago.
"You hear the Jazz talked about a little bit, but it's not unusual ─
on radio shows, and TV shows ─ that they have the Jazz totally ignored when
they're talking about (this season's) playoff picture," Miller added.
"They'll still talk about the Lakers and Houston, who are behind us, and even
Denver occasionally. To me, that kind of supports the 'media black hole'
concept. And I think that's part of it."
Another factor may be that Sloan shuns such attention and has suggested
in the past that personal accolades mean little if anything at all to him.
"I think that hurts him ─ he's not out tooting his own horn at all,"
Miller said.
So the Jazz owner and auto-dealership mogul honks it for him.
Miller adamantly defends Sloan's never-let-the-guard-down approach to
coaching, one that left him complaining about Utah's slow start even after
a 22-point win over Indiana on Wednesday pushed the club's current victory
streak to five straight.
"He's always looking to the negatives to see what we can do better,"
Miller said. "I do that myself in my own work, where the good things I
expect, (so) now let's work on the bad ones.
"I don't think he's self-degrading in his comments, but I think he's
very ... focused on what's next, so nobody relaxes."
Beyond that, Miller suggests electorate ─ who'll cast ballots late this
season ─ need look no further than the Jazz's 2006-07 body of work.
True, he'd concede, Utah has two first-time All-Stars in Carlos Boozer
and Mehmet Okur, another one-timer in Andrei Kirilenko, and a likely All-Star
to-be in Deron Williams. But there are no certain future hall-of-famers like
Stockton and Malone. And there is a roster filled much more with youth than
experience, many more pups than sage old dogs.
"It's just too obvious what's happening every night out there ─ and I
think Jerry is a big part of it," Miller said, "because I think he's learned
how to adjust to the players, at their level and their needs, in a way that
I was never sure he could.
"He's done it this year, and I think it's one of the big reasons we're
so good.
"If you look at how deep the bench is ... you've got to give a whole lot
of this to coaching, and to keeping the attitude positive," the Jazz owner
added. "The camaraderie in the locker room's really good. It's something
you wouldn't have seen in years past ─ but it's fun to see this year."
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660201797,00.html
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