Mellow Sloan leads to smooth Jazz

[RonnieBrewer (急凍人布魯爾)]

Mellow Sloan leads to smooth Jazz

By Greg Boeck, USA TODAY

SALT LAKE CITY ─ The coach of one of the biggest surprise teams in the NBA
is arguably the biggest surprise of the Utah Jazz.

Jerry Sloan, hard-nosed as a defensive bull of a player for 11 years and
hard-line with young players as a coach the last 21, has relaxed his
drill-sergeant tactics and shown patience with his youthful team.

The payoff: The Jazz, picked to battle for a playoff spot, own the league's
fourth-best record (43-23) going into tonight's home game against the Golden
State Warriors.

Thank Tammy Jessop. Three years after Sloan, who turns 65 March 28, lost
his wife of 41 years, Bobbye, to pancreatic cancer, he married Jessop, an
executive with Sysco Foods, Sept. 12. They live 40 minutes south of downtown
with Jessop's 10-year-old son, Rhett, a regular wearing Jazz paraphernalia at
home games. His wife declined to be interviewed for this story.

The marriage was low-key and private. The Jazz didn't even learn of it until
Sloan called general manager Kevin O'Connor after the ceremony to talk
business and off-handedly said, "Oh, by the way, I got married today."

Longtime friends and even Sloan say the marriage brought a new perspective to
life and coaching. "It was huge," Sloan says. Life, he says, isn't "quite so
hectic." He pauses, then concedes, "Maybe I'm not as volatile as I once was."

Larry H. Miller, the Jazz owner who has made Sloan, in his 19th season with
Utah, the longest-tenured coach in the four major professional sports, says
the stabilizing influence of the marriage has translated directly to his
team. "This year Jerry clearly made a breakthrough in being able to know when
to encourage them and when to kick them in the rear. He has gotten very
patient and given them a chance to make mistakes and develop, and it's really
paid off."

Too late, if you ask John Amaechi. In revealing last month that he is gay,
the former Jazz player said Sloan hated him and detailed a curse-laden
exchange on the bench, after which Amaechi was suspended. Sloan said the two
didn't see eye to eye in response to Amaechi's criticism in his book, Man in
the Middle, but since has declined to address the subject.

Overlooked on bench

Despite a .601 winning percentage, only one losing season at Utah, 15
consecutive playoff appearances that featured two Finals teams and 1,027
victories (fourth all time), Sloan has never been coach of the year and
doesn't really care. "I hope they don't mention my name. It's such a
political thing."

Sloan is the opposite ─ no nonsense, no excuses.

From superstars Karl Malone and John Stockton to one-time whipping boy Greg
Ostertag, players know where they stand with him. It's the Jazz Way or the
highway. Still, Sloan is smiling more these days. "He has a little more
spring in his step," says Hot Rod Hundley, longtime voice of the Jazz. "He
needed someone."

Paul Millsap, one of three rookies on a team that features two players in
their second season ─ point guard Deron Williams and guard C.J. Miles ─
heard war stories. "He can be tough, walk around with that face on," the
forward says, "but he compliments us and is good at keeping our confidence up."

Their confidence got tested during a 0-4 trip East last week. It's not their
first stumble. After opening the season 12-1, the Jazz went 12-13 and lost
All-Star Carlos Boozer for eight games with an injury. But they bounced back
with a 14-2 stretch before the winless trip.

They're not impostors; the Jazz are 6-2 against the West's best ─ 1-1 vs.
the Dallas Mavericks, 2-1 vs. the San Antonio Spurs and 3-0 vs. the Phoenix
Suns. Sloan turned the team over to Williams in the second half of his rookie
season after a rocky introduction. Williams is having a breakout second year.

Sloan is so thrilled with Williams' development, he pays him an extraordinary
compliment. "I've been blessed in coaching, because I've had two guys at the
point (Stockton being the other) who are smarter than I am." 

Sloan also has relied on a productive bench laden with youth. Millsap is
averaging 17.5 minutes and fellow rookies Ronnie Brewer and Dee Brown are
averaging 11.5 and 7.0, respectively. Miles is logging 10.6 minutes for a
bench that is averaging 31.4 points a game.

The Jazz Way is different, from the fundamental style of play that demands
sharing the basketball to the team handbook of rules.

The rules include a midnight road curfew, uniform shirts and drawstrings
tucked in, right hand over the chest for the playing of the national anthem,
uniform colored game shoes and no cellphones in the locker or on the team bus.

"You have to have something you can hang on together if you're going to be a
team," Sloan says.

Sloan pondered retirement after the Jazz reached the Finals in 1997 and 1998
and then was talked out of quitting by Bobbye when her cancer became terminal
in 2004.

And now? "This business will make you wonder if you belong in it," he says.
"You have to face the fact you can't do it anymore. And that may be tomorrow
morning."


Posted 2d 5h ago
Updated 1d 17h ago


http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/
jazz/2007-03-19-sloan_N.htm?csp=34

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