Sloan would've been happy serving under Jazz's Layden

[RonnieBrewer (Reverse Layup)]

Sloan would've been happy serving under Jazz's Layden

By Todd Hefferman, The Southern

MOUNT VERNON - Jerry Sloan loves leading the NBA's Utah Jazz.

He'll enter his 20th season with the team this winter and is the longest-
tenured coach with one team among the four major sports. A season after
falling to the eventual NBA champions in the Western Conference finals 4-1,
he hopes to capture his first championship next year.

But the 64-year-old would have been OK with being an assistant, he said. As
long as it was under Frank Layden.

"If things would have worked out the way I would have liked things to have
worked out, I would still be Frank's assistant coach," Sloan said Tuesday in
Mount Vernon. "I loved working for him. He's a wonderful guy. Sometimes, when
you get into this position, you think you're the most powerful guy in the
world, and Frank really didn't care about that. He let his assistant coaches
coach. He let them be involved, and do things, and he was terrific to me."

At the monthly meeting of the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce at the
Mount Vernon Holiday Inn, Sloan challenged others to try to get involved in a
cause close to his heart. The foundation named after him and his first wife,
Bobbye, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2004, will hold two big fundraising
events this weekend in the area.

Layden, who hired Sloan as an assistant coach in 1984, will be the featured
speaker at the second annual Bobbye and Jerry Sloan Hand-in-Hand Foundation
Celebrity Dinner and Auction Friday night at the Rend Lake Resort and
Conference Center. The evening will feature a buffet dinner, a live auction
and a cash bar, although not in that order.

The cost is $55 per person or $100 for two. The foundation will also host a
sunrise run/walk Saturday morning.

Sloan said Layden helped make him the coach he is today, with how he was able
to criticize a player without a lot of fanfare and maintain his personality
in the face of enormous distractions.

Last season Sloan tied San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich with his 87th
playoff victory, tying him for fifth place all-time. He became just the fifth
coach ever to win over 1,000 games and reached the postseason for the 16th
time as a head coach. Prior to that he was a two-time all-star with the
Chicago Bulls, who retired his No. 4 jersey on Feb. 17, 1978.

"I look at myself and I think I've been one of the luckiest guys in the
world," Sloan said. "To grow up in the country in McLeansboro and have a
chance to be involved in professional basketball for as many years as I have,
you have to have a lot of luck.

"Just a couple years ago I lost 56 games and kept my job. Not a lot of people
do that in our business."

The Hand-in-Hand Foundation has raised over $350,000 since it began in 2005.
For more information on the foundation and its events, please go to
www.bobbyeandjerrysloan.org.

"My life has changed a great deal, but our efforts are still in the same
area, to do, hopefully, some things that will help other people as we move
forward," Sloan said.


Published on: Wednesday, August 1, 2007 7:25 AM CDT


http://www.southernillinoisan.com/articles/2007/08/01/sports/21029507.txt 

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推 JerrySloan:現在沒時間討論這個
推 CarlosBoozer:懷舊風不好嗎
推 Actus:如果現在總教練是Frank Layden，AK還會想走嗎 @@?
推 projazz:據說安西教練是取材於Layden的形象...
→ projazz:安西可以說服流川留在湘北,Layden應該也可以說服ak吧~
→ projazz:維基上說Layden跟另一個師公級教頭Hubie Brown是大學室友