As word comes out that Jerry Sloan has resigned as head coach of the Utah Jazz, it's only natural that you begin to put his tenure in Utah into perspective.
After all, in 23 seasons as the Jazz head coach, Sloan amassed 1,221 wins and finished with 21 winning seasons of the 22 he completed.
But, like it or not, sports has success defined by the number of rings and not the number of wins a coach has.
While Sloan has almost 100 more wins as a head coach than Miami Heat president Pat Riley, Riley's six rings are enough to put him on a much higher pedestal than Sloan. So while Sloan is a coaching success, he will not be remembered in the pantheon of great coaches.
While it would be easy to simple classify Sloan's career as “great, but not all-time great,” we must factor in that Sloan coached in the era of Phil Jackson.
Jackson's legacy can be debated in bars and barbershops all over the country, but his results cannot. Eleven championships in 20 seasons as a head coach makes him a winner among all-time coaching winners and one that Sloan was unfortunate enough to have to coach against.
Sloan twice reac ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Michael Cahill
Jerry Sloan: How Many NBA Titles Would He Have with No Phil Jackson Around?
February 10th, 2011 by Michael Cahill Leave a reply »
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