Sloan to coach Jazz at least one more season

The Jazz on Monday extended coach Jerry Sloan's contract for one year, through the end of the 2008-09 NBA season.

That's not to say either the Jazz or Sloan figure next season will be his last, and it's not to say he'll coach beyond then either.

In fact, the 65-year-old Sloan on Monday night was thinking — like he always does — much more short-term.

"I've got to get through this year first," he said. "That's all I've ever done — I just take 'em a year at a time, a day at a time.

"If I wake up tomorrow morning and it's time for me to get out," added Sloan, who is tenured longer with the same team than any coach or manager in America's four major professional sport leagues, "I'll get out."

Still, the extension does seem to be a sign Sloan has decided he believes he indeed does want to remain in Utah beyond this season — his 20th as head coach of the Jazz — but just isn't sure for exactly how much longer.

"We're interested in having him be here, of course, as long as he wants to be," Jazz owner Larry H. Miller said at halftime of Utah's 110-101 win over Miami on Monday.

"What was interesting to me was that he was more definitive than he'd been before about 'Yeah, I want to be here, and I want to be here at least one more year.'

"He said, 'Well, I'd rather not commit long-term.' I said, 'What does that mean?' He said, 'Well, I know I want to be here this year, and I want to be here one more, and I don't know after that. . . . I'd like to, but I don't want to commit long-term,' " Miller added. "I said, 'Well, tell me what you want to do.' He said, 'Let's go one more for now, and look at it again a year from now.'"

Or, as Sloan said, "I didn't want to put anybody against the wall that I wanted a 10-year contract or something like that. ... I'm too old to be greedy."

The end result:

Sloan and the Jazz renegotiated terms of the contract for this season, the last on a two-year extension — believed to originally average about $5.5 million per year — to an previously existing multi-year deal.

He also signed on for an additional year that — though financial terms were not disclosed — should ensure he remains among the NBA's five highest-paid coaches.