TNT crew sharply criticizes Sloan, Jazz

Even in the midst of a Tuesday-night win over Phoenix, some of cable network TNT's crew came down quite hard on coach Jerry Sloan and the Jazz.

Retired NBA star and current TNT NBA studio analyst Charles Barkley, in fact, essentially called for Sloan to resign.

"It might be time for Coach Sloan to move on," Barkley said at halftime of the nationally cable-televised game.

"I've always said he's probably the most underrated coach in the NBA. I admire him, I respect him and I think he's one of the greatest coaches. But for any coach there comes a time where it doesn't work for you anymore, and the players start to tune you out. He's got a really young team, and he's so old school, and I think they are tuning him out."

Barkley challenged the now 32-35 record of the Jazz, who face Washington tonight at the Delta Center.

"Utah should not be this bad," he said. "I'm going to blame the players, but I think there's shelf life for every coach and I think he needs to say that his way is not working any more."

Barkley's TNT studio sidekick, ex-NBA player Kenny Smith, suggested the Jazz do not have enough players with ties to their glory days.

"(They) don't have a reference point right now," he said. "They don't have a guy who can say (what Sloan is doing) will work, because there isn't a guy who was (in Utah) when it worked."

That assertion, however, is not totally true.

Star Andrei Kirilenko has played five seasons in Utah, including two when Karl Malone — whose uniform No. 32 is being retired tonight at the Delta Center — and John Stockton had the Jazz in the playoffs.

Ditto for reserve center Jarron Collins.

Starting small forward Matt Harpring played one season with Stockton and Malone, and reserve center Greg Ostertag is the Jazz's last remaining player link to their NBA Finals teams of 1996 and '97.

After Tuesday's win over the Pacific Division-leading Suns, Barkley did not back down. But he did suggest there still is some degree of hope for the Jazz, who with 15 games left in their regular season remain in contention for a Western Conference playoff berth.