In 1976 at age 34, Chicago Bulls two-time All Star and six-time NBA All-Defensive Team guard Jerry Sloan blew out his knee. Age and circumstances had conspired against him and the handwriting on the wall was clear enough. He had to walk away from the game he loved to play.

Yesterday, Sloan, now 68 and in his 23rd season as Utah Jazz Head Coach, could again read the writing. Hard as it was, it was time for him to move on.

Word is that the end was hastened by increasingly-frequent disputes between Sloan and his superstar point guard Deron Williams. The flashpoint occurred Wednesday night in a game against the Bulls when Williams reportedly ignored the play Sloan signaled for and ran one of his own. A heated exchange between the two occurred at halftime. In a report by Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, a league source said “He (Sloan) decided right there at halftime that he was done. He felt like ownership was listening more to Williams than they were to him anymore. He was done.”

After the game (a loss, dropping his team’s record to 31-23) Sloan met with Jazz GM Kevin O’Connor. Reports are that Sloan resigned during the meeting, but O’Connor asked him “to sleep on it.” Sloan agreed, but his mind was made up. Sloan said he slept very well Tuesday night.

The story of a NBA superstar causing the departure of his head coach is certainly nothing new. Though the head coach is nominally “the boss,” we all know the truth. Superstars generally make 4 times as much as their head coaches…and that gap would be greater if not for the NBA’s maximum salary rules. You do the math. So it’s not surprising that when a head coach locks horns with his team’s superstar, the coach traditionally fairs poorly in the exchange.

The thing is that, for nearly all of Sloan’s tenure in Utah, the Jazz were an exception to the rule. The organization was committed to its head coach and his system. If a player couldn’t or wouldn’t play within Sloan’s system, the player rather than the head coach was shown the door. Sloan was the constant. The result was a record of consistent excellence that was the envy of every other small and mid-market sports franchise. In 23 seasons as the Jazz head coach, the team had only one losing season…one. His record with the Jazz was 1127-682, a remarkable .622 winning percentage.

Truth be told, I don’t know that Sloan was any sort of coaching genius. He was just a gym rat who turned into a basketball-lifer. He understood the beautiful simplicity of the game and stressed the fundamentals of team play. On offense, you move the ball, set screens and work for the open shot. His best teams, the Karl Malone-John Stockton teams, simply ran the pick-and-roll until an opponent showed they could stop it…very few could. On defense, Sloan’s specialty as a player, you got down low, got as physical as the referees would allow and helped your teammates. Most of all, you played your tail off all the time…no exceptions.

Nothing tricky about it…it’s just how you’re supposed to play the game and how Sloan coached it. It’s a credit to the Utah Jazz organization that for so many years, they allowed Sloan to be what a head coach should be, namely, the undisputed boss. Unfortunately, Sloan saw this unwavering commitment to him and his system changing. Their superstar Williams would become a free agent in 2012 and Williams wasn’t happy. Sloan was asked to be reasonable, to appease his young star. While in the NBA this seems like a reasonable enough request, Sloan knew only too well that what he was being asked to do had nothing to do with playing winning basketball. He understood more keenly than his superiors that the secret to the Jazz’s success as a team and his success as a head coach is that “players play and coaches coach.” When it becomes OK for a player, no matter how good he is, to decide whether the play the coach has called is the right one, you’re no longer the head coach…not really.

Sloan wanted none of it so he acted quickly, decisively and with characteristic class. He rightly thanked the Jazz organization for giving him, for so many years, the increasingly-rare opportunity to be a genuine head coach in the NBA.

I only had two boyhood sports heroes – Dick Butkus and Jerry Sloan. As a player, Sloan wasn’t particularly talented, but he was tough as nails and absolutely relentless on the floor. When it came to the game he loved, there was no room for compromise.

Some people don’t change.

Godspeed, # 4.

Tom Nossem

Sources: Yahoo! Sports, ESPN, nba.com, basketball-reference.com

"Jazz forward Paul Millsap does not sit around and wait for Wesley Matthews to suddenly return. Utah guard Ronnie Price said that the current Portland Trail Blazers guard is still a personal friend, but now an on-the-court enemy. And Utah forward C.J. Miles believes that his team is doing perfectly fine without Matthews, an undrafted player whom the Jazz discovered, helped raise, and then were forced to watch unceremoniously leave.

Thirty games into the 2010-11 season, Utah is living life without Matthews. And while the former Jazzman is putting up All-Star-caliber numbers for the Blazers, his old team is not just adapting — it is excelling. Utah (21-9) leads the Northwest Division by a half game over Oklahoma City and is tied for third place in the Western Conference with the Los Angeles Lakers.

To Millsap, the fact that the Jazz have been able to successfully replace Matthews with a varied assortment of trusted veterans, one-time castoffs and unproven rookies is a tribute to the intelligence of Utah's front office.

"That's a good choice that the executives made bringing guys in to fill that spot," Millsap said Sunday prior to practice. "Everything happens for a reason. We're our team, and that's the team that we've got to live with for the rest of the year."

Some believe, though, that the Jazz as currently constructed are good but not great. And if Utah is lacking anything, it is a dangerous wing player who can consistently knock down outside shots — drawing pressure off of the Jazz's big three of Deron Williams, Millsap and Al Jefferson — and provide lock-down defense.

Matthews initially appears to be the perfect missing piece. The best traits of his game — perimeter shooting, ballhandling, dribble penetration, running the fast break, defense — were clearly evident last season, when he averaged 9.4 points and 2.3 rebounds as a rookie for the Jazz.

But when asked whether Utah needs to add one more star athlete to the team's 13-player roster, Price and Miles insisted that the Jazz are strong enough as currently constructed."

Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/jazz/50...-utah.html.csp

The Dallas Mavericks don't mind facing hot teams.

They already had halted winning streaks by Boston (five games), New Orleans (eight games), Oklahoma City (five games) and San Antonio (12 games).

Add Utah to that list after Dirk Nowitzki scored 26 points Friday night on 12-of-18 shooting in a 93-81 victory that ended the Jazz's winning streak at seven.

"We feel we can beat anybody anywhere," said Dallas forward Caron Butler, who added 16 points as Dallas improved to 15-4. "We are playing great basketball. The environment in that locker room is second to none."

Paul Millsap led Utah with 21 points, and Al Jefferson had 18 points and eight rebounds.

Read more: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=301203026

Jazz executive Greg Miller's mother-in-law was slain on Tuesday in Salt Lake City.

On Wednesday, detectives were collecting evidence at the South Salt Lake book shop where she was found stabbed to death.

Police had no immediate suspects in the slaying of Sherry Black, 64, who was found by her husband Tuesday afternoon at their store, B&W Collector Books and Billiards Supply.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5871361

This is the kind of game the Golden State Warriors might not have pulled out a year ago.

"We would have given up and lost by 20," leading scorer Monta Ellis said.

Now, they're doing the little things -- like getting key rebounds when the first shot doesn't fall.

Stephen Curry returned from an ankle injury to score nine points over the final 2:35, lifting the Warriors to an 85-78 victory over the short-handed Utah Jazz on Friday night to stay unbeaten at home.

David Lee had 14 points and 15 rebounds for his fifth double-double in as many games, tipping in a miss with 21.8 seconds left to help clinch it. Lee is showing the Warriors he is very much the reliable player on both ends of the court they expected after acquiring him in a July trade with the New York Knicks.

Read more: http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=301105009

Deron Williams figures he'll eventually get a triple-double. For now, he's more excited about the improvement the Utah Jazz have shown after a pair of ugly losses to start the season.

"We're getting out and running more, pushing the ball and getting easy looks," Williams said. "A lot of it just comes from energy and intensity, especially in the first half tonight."

Williams came within two rebounds of a triple-double as the Jazz rolled to a 125-108 victory Wednesday night over the Toronto Raptors.

"D-Will is D-Will," teammate Al Jefferson said of the All-Star guard. "He's amazing. He gets guys involved."

Read more: http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=301103026

After a perfect preseason, Utah's slow start in the games that count was magnified.

That's what happens with a franchise that hasn't lost three straight games to start the season in three decades -- a streak that's still alive after the Jazz got double-doubles from Paul Millsap, Deron Williams and Al Jefferson and beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 120-99 on Sunday night.

Millsap had 30 points and 16 rebounds, Jefferson added 23 points and 10 rebounds and Williams directed the show before finishing with 16 points and 15 assists as Utah broke into the win column after an 0-2 start.

"People said a lot about our team, but tonight we proved otherwise," Millsap said. "We proved that we could play defense, we proved that we could move the ball like we're supposed to, we proved that we can make shots."

Read more: http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=301031025

Phoenix Suns coach Alvin Gentry predicted his team would be a work in progress this season.

While the Suns don't have Amare Stoudemire anymore, they still have Steve Nash. And at 36, the All-Star guard shows no signs of slowing down.

He scored 18 points and had five assists to lift the Suns to a 110-94 victory over the Utah Jazz on Thursday night.

"It was undoubtedly an important game for us tonight," Nash said. "We learned our lesson and held our composure for longer stretches, and in particular, we held it together at the end of the game."

It wasn't just Nash. Reserve Hakim Warrick added 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Jason Richardson chipped in 16 points, including a pair of 3-pointers.

Read more: http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=301028026

Antsy and anxious, Nuggets coach George Karl returned to the bench after battling cancer.

His team turned it into a stress-free evening.

Carmelo Anthony scored 23 points, Arron Afflalo added 22 and the Nuggets opened the season with a 110-88 win over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night.

Karl missed the final two months of last season after being diagnosed with throat and neck cancer. In his absence, the Nuggets stumbled and were eliminated by Utah in the first round of the playoffs.

Did his presence ignite his team?

"I hope Utah fired them up a little bit more than me," Karl said.

Now that he's back, Karl's next assignment is coaxing Anthony to stick around.

Read more: http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=301027007