Jerry Sloan on Monday signed another contract with the Utah Jazz to coach them through next season.

But by Thursday, he was at least passively wondering if he could last that long if having to wear a live microphone during some games — such as tonight's at San Antonio — will make him measure his words.

That rematch of the last year's Western Conference Finals teams will be televised by ESPN (as well as locally by KJZZ), and that means Sloan will be among the NBA's first coaches to go through a game wearing a live microphone under a new league directive pertaining to ESPN and TNT double-header broadcasts starting in December.

Jazz spokesman Jonathan Rinehart said Sloan had been requested by the network to wear the mic for tonight's 7:30 MST game.

Asked before Thursday's practice in Salt Lake City if he will have to be careful about what he's saying during the game because of the microphone, the coach with the often-colorful language said, speaking more mildly than militantly, "Well, if I do, I'll quit coaching.

"If I have to watch what I say ... if you can't talk the way you are ... you know, I've been a certain way — now whether that's right or wrong, I'll let somebody else judge that — but if they don't want it, then they can get rid of me."

Sloan said he wasn't sure how he will cope with things tonight. "I don't know. I haven't done it yet," he said.

Sloan and other veteran coaches, such as the Spurs' Gregg Popovich, the Los Angeles Lakers' Phil Jackson and Chicago Bulls' Scott Skiles, are not happy with the NBA edict that came down via commissioner David Stern at last summer's coaches' meetings in Chicago. Sloan, Popovich and Jackson have all said they weren't at those meetings, but there was apparently no dialogue about it. It was a Stern mandate, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

Thursday night's TNT broadcasts of the Denver Nuggets-Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat-Portland Trail Blazers were the first games eligible for the new all-access media. Tonight's Bulls-Pistons and Jazz-Spurs matchups are the first available for ESPN.

Sloan is resigned to doing as told tonight, but he doesn't like it. "Well, I never thought any of those things were a good decision," he said, "but that's not my decision, obviously, and I have to go by the rules and play by the rules and see what happens."

The NBA is now requiring those coaches involved with games televised by TNT and ESPN on Thursdays and Fridays to be wired for sound, though it will supposedly be carefully monitored — conscious of its public image, the NBA won't want a blue streak of bad words coming over national TV.

And the coaches must do network interviews during selected timeouts, though the comments will be taped and presented later in the games.