Johnson's job if Sloan retires

Jerry Sloan has a weighty decision to make: retire or return for season No. 18 as head coach of the Jazz.

Should Sloan opt for the formerl, Jazz owner Larry H. Miller has already decided his next course of action: The job, Miller has said frequently in years past and again since the Jazz's season ended last week, would be offered to longtime assistant Phil Johnson.

"I have always said publicly, and privately, that if Jerry chose to step down unexpectedly that the job would be Phil's — if he wanted it," Miller said.

Would he?

Johnson isn't saying.

"I don't make a decision," Johnson said Wednesday, "until a decision needs to be made."

Until Sloan determines his own plan for the future, in other words, the issue is moot in Johnson's mind. Even broaching the subject before Sloan has made his call makes Johnson uncomfortable.

"It's something I really don't like to talk about," he said.

"I don't even think about it that much until he (Sloan) has to make his decision, and each year he does," Johnson added. "That's where I leave it."

Miller, too, isn't certain what Johnson would do.

Johnson said he has not been contacted regarding any of the league's six current head-coaching vacancies, in Portland, New York, Cleveland, Minnesota, Orlando and with the Los Angeles Lakers.

But he was a finalist for openings at Denver and Toronto in recent summers past — before eventually withdrawing from consideration and opting to remain in Utah.

This week Johnson is evaluating his own future plans. He said he "probably will" return as an assistant if Sloan indeed returns. Beyond that, at least for now, he remains publicly non-committal.

"I'm not positive Phil would want it," Miller said, "but obviously the (salary) numbers are quite a bit different for a head coach and the assistant coach, so he might not mind a year or two of it."

Johnson, a Grace, Idaho, native, is a former NBA Coach of the Year. That honor was bestowed 30 years ago after Johnson's second season in charge of the Kansas City/Omaha Kings, 1974-75. He has not been a head coach since the 1986-87 season with the Kings in Sacramento.

Between his two stints with the Kings, Johnson was an assistant to Sloan in Chicago and to Frank Layden in Utah. The Dick Motta protege has been Sloan's top Utah assistant since Dec. 11, 1988, two days after Sloan succeeded Layden as head coach of the Jazz — a fact of which Miller is well-aware.

For as much time as Johnson has spent by Sloan's side, though, Miller senses the veteran right-hand man would bring his own style to the job should he be elevated.

"Phil is always a good soldier," he said, "and always plays the way Jerry wants to play and coaches the way Jerry wants to coach.