Sloan could get new contract if necessary

If Jerry Sloan does return to coach the Jazz next season, as things stand now, he would do so with just one year remaining on his current contract.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

The Jazz, owner Larry H. Miller said, would be willing to either give Sloan a new contract or extend his existing deal.

"If Jerry indicated he wanted that, we would do it," Miller said. "We've always done it."

Doing so now, Miller added, is "a little premature."

"But, basically, if Jerry said, 'I feel uncomfortable going into a season without a new contract,' " the Jazz owner said, "we'd give him a new contract in a heartbeat."

Sloan, who has returned to his farm in southern Illinois to decide if he wants to return for an 18th season as head coach in Utah, suggests the fact he has not been extended yet will have no influence whatsoever on his deliberations.

"That wouldn't be a consideration," he said, "because I've never coached here for money.

"And they've been fair with me," added Sloan, who made about $5 million this past season and will make another $5 million or so if he returns next season. "It's not like I'm going to be hung out to dry if something goes wrong, or something doesn't work the way they want."

Still, no one wants to be a lame-duck coach.

Miller understands, and seems to realize the importance of long-term security — especially for someone like Sloan, who was fired by the team for which he played, the Chicago Bulls, in his only other NBA head-coaching gig.

"I always felt bad for Jerry," Miller said, "because I felt like he was always looking over his shoulder. . . . Bobbye (the coach's late wife) said since he was in the ninth grade, he was going to the board to see if he was cut.

"He told me that in Chicago one day they said, 'You're our guy; you're here; quit worrying.' And the next day they're holding a press conference. The very next day. I think that added fuel to the fire about his concern, and his being unwilling to trust what we were saying."

Because of the Chicago experience, Sloan always has coached under the belief that every day could be his last.

Eventually in Utah, though, he developed a sense that his employer really did believe in him.