Jerry Sloan: First Coach to Win 1,000 Games with One Team

[00:00:00] On November 7, 2008, Utah Jazz Head Coach Jerry Sloan leads his team, the Utah Jazz, against the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 104-97 win in Utah, where he became the first coach to ever win 1,000 games with one franchise.

[00:00:18] He was a staple of the Utah Jazz, leading them to their most successful period of all time, and despite the lack of championships, was one of the greatest coaches to ever step on the NBA sidelines.

[00:00:31] Today we're going to dive into who he was and how he had such a long staying power in the NBA, today on Daily Sports History.

[00:00:47] Welcome to Daily Sports History, I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge.

[00:00:56] As today we're going to learn about Jerry Sloan.

[00:00:59] And today's trivia question to listen out for is, how many times did Jerry Sloan have a losing record when coaching the Utah Jazz?

[00:01:09] Now Jerry Sloan was born in Illinois and was the youngest of 10 children, raised by a single mother after his father died when he was just four years old.

[00:01:19] And he lived on a farm, would do farm chores at a young age, waking up at 4.30 in the morning, and then after doing his chores would walk two miles to get to school,

[00:01:29] just to get there by 7am to be on time for basketball practice.

[00:01:33] This just shows the gritty has and the work ethic he developed at such a young age, out of necessity, that helped lead him to greatness.

[00:01:42] And he ended up graduating in 1960 and was named to the Illinois All-State Team.

[00:01:50] And he would go on to play basketball for the Evansville Purple Aces in Evansville, Indiana.

[00:01:56] And would become the player of the year in the Indiana Collegiate Conference two times and become a three-time all-ICC selection.

[00:02:05] And he was so good, even though he was at a Division II college, he was able to get drafted 19th overall in the 1964 draft by the Baltimore Bullets.

[00:02:14] But at the time, he could be drafted without declaring for the draft.

[00:02:18] So he decided to stay another year in college, leading the Purple Aces to their second consecutive Division II national title.

[00:02:27] And then he would go on to be selected fourth overall the following year by the Baltimore Bullets again.

[00:02:32] They seemed to really like him.

[00:02:34] Despite that though, the following year in 1966, the Chicago Bulls were given an expansion team.

[00:02:39] And as part of the expansion draft, they selected Jerry Sloan, where he became known as the original Bull.

[00:02:46] Known mainly for his defensive prowess, as he was a first-team all-defensive player four times and second-team player twice.

[00:02:53] And was an all-star for the Bulls two times.

[00:02:56] And he finished his career averaging 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 2.5 steals a game.

[00:03:02] He was a great player for the team and helped usher in the Bulls to the league.

[00:03:07] But he would retire after the 1976 season, where he actually took a job at Evansville, his alma mater, to try to help them out as they previously, their basketball team and their coaching staff was killed in a plane crash.

[00:03:20] And he helped and get the Evansville team back up again.

[00:03:24] But two years later, he would go back to join the Bulls, become a scout, and then become an assistant.

[00:03:29] And work his way up to be the head coach for a little over two seasons, having a record of 94-21.

[00:03:36] And would be let go before the end of his third season.

[00:03:38] But he wasn't done coaching.

[00:03:40] Then he would take an assistant position with the Utah Jazz and work his way up to being named the head coach in December of 1988, after their previous coach was let go.

[00:03:49] And this is where his career really took off.

[00:03:51] And he became ingrained with the Utah Jazz.

[00:03:54] As the team had started, was starting to come around with making two of the best value first round selections from small schools, taking Karl Malone in 1985 out of Louisiana Tech, and John Stockton in 1984 out of Gonzaga.

[00:04:10] These two players from small schools would go on to become Hall of Famers under the tutelage of Jerry Sloan.

[00:04:18] Now Jerry was a hard-nosed coach and really focused on defense, as that was his bread and butter when he was a coach.

[00:04:24] And he would lead them to six divisional championships, as well as 10 seasons with more than 50 wins.

[00:04:30] But the problem was, despite having two Hall of Famers on his team and a solid roster, he would only make it to the NBA Finals twice in 1997 and 1998.

[00:04:42] Facing off against Michael Jordan.

[00:04:45] Losing both the series in six games.

[00:04:47] And there were also other factors to this.

[00:04:50] It wasn't just the Michael Jordan era.

[00:04:51] It was also, they were in a small market.

[00:04:54] Utah is not a big market overall.

[00:04:55] It's a strong market and they have a rabid fan base, which is great, but it's hard to attract free agents and great players there.

[00:05:03] Karl Malone and John Stockton were homegrown talents that helped lead the team farther than they've ever been, as the Utah Jazz have never won a championship.

[00:05:11] But they faced other likes such as Magic Johnson in the Lakers, Hakeem Olajuwon in the Rockets, Tim Duncan and David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs.

[00:05:20] And then the Lakers came around again with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.

[00:05:24] These great teams in the West helped keep the Jazz as a good team.

[00:05:29] They just could never get over that hump.

[00:05:31] In his 23 years with the Utah Jazz, he never had one losing season of his entire career with the Utah Jazz.

[00:05:40] The worst he ever finished was 500 winning 41 games in 2005.

[00:05:45] Even after transitioning from two superstars after Karl Malone and John Stockton retired, he was able to transition with new players and continue to have success.

[00:05:56] Because he created a team culture and a strong work ethic that resonated around the whole team that helped him always be a consistently hard challenge to fight.

[00:06:07] And he had loyalty and trust from the ownership and was able to build a relationship with most of his players that created respect overall.

[00:06:15] Often we forget about Jerry Sloan because he never won anything.

[00:06:19] And really, he was Greg Popovich before Greg Popovich.

[00:06:22] We think of Greg Popovich as a guy who has broken all the records Sloan has done.

[00:06:27] He now has the most wins for a coach with one team and the longest tenure with one team as well.

[00:06:33] But Sloan showed how if you keep consistency, that's what you need to win.

[00:06:39] Even though he didn't win the big game, it really allowed the chance for them always to win.

[00:06:44] If you are in the playoffs, there's always a chance.

[00:06:47] And luck of the draw didn't fall their way in any of those times.

[00:06:51] It happens, sadly, to a lot of teams.

[00:06:54] But if you're not there, you can't win.

[00:06:56] And despite the success he had through all his seasons in 2011, he started to have issues with his star player, Darren Williams.

[00:07:04] And this called strife between the team and Sloan was just ready to walk away.

[00:07:08] And he resigned on February 10th, 2011, midseason, ready to move on to a new life.

[00:07:15] And if you want to dive more into the Utah Jazz, check out the Salvageable podcast.

[00:07:21] Where reporter Sarah Todd and long jazz fan Greg Foster give you two unique perspectives on the jazz.

[00:07:30] Giving you all the information you need to keep up with the greatest musical basketball team in Utah.

[00:07:36] If you enjoyed today's episode, please like and subscribe wherever you're at.

[00:07:40] That way you do not miss another episode.

[00:07:42] And today's trivia question to listen out for is, and the answer to today's trivia question,

[00:07:47] how many times did Jerry Sloan have a losing record when coaching the Utah Jazz?

[00:07:54] And the answer is zero.

[00:07:57] The worst record he ever had was going 500 one time in his career with the Utah Jazz.

[00:08:03] The first record he was on the list.

[00:08:03] The first record he was on the list of the