The NBA lost a legend on Friday, as longtime Utah Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan passed away at the age of 78.
Many around the league have been paying their respects to Sloan, and most recently, San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich had this to say about the Hall of Famer:
“He was a mentor for me from afar until I got to know him,” said Popovich, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. “A man who suffered no fools, he possessed a humor, often disguised, and had a heart as big as the prairie. It’s a sad day for all of us who knew Jerry Sloan. Not only on the basketball court but, more importantly, as a human being. He was genuine and true. And that is rare.”
Sloan began his NBA playing career with the Baltimore Bullets in 1965. He spent one season there before heading to the Chicago Bulls for their inaugural campaign the following year.
The McLeansboro, Il. native went on to spend the next decade with the Bulls, making a couple of All-Star teams and leading Chicago to nine playoff appearances.
Sloan then took over as Chicago's head coach in 1979 and spent two and a half seasons at the helm, making one playoff appearance.
Then, in 1988, Sloan was named head coach of the Jazz and proceeded to lead Utah to 15 straight postseason appearances, including back-to-back trips to the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998. Sloan's Jazz beat Pop's Spurs in five games in the second round of the 1998 NBA Playoffs.
Sloan and Pop faced off in the playoffs only one other time, with the Spurs beating the Jazz in five games in the 2007 Western Conference Finals.
Overall, Sloan spent 23 seasons as the Jazz's coach, going 1,127-682 with 19 playoff berths.
Sloan was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a coach in 2009.
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