Utah Jazz: Sloan — Spotlight, speech, squirm

This is somewhat of a sweet-and-sour week for Jerry Sloan.

Sweet because, well, as much as he hems and haws about not wanting to be in the spotlight, the Jazz coach is about to become immortalized in the hoops world with one of the greatest tributes and achievements in all of sports.

And he gets to experience that at the same time as one of his favorite people and former players, John Stockton.

So, make no mistake. Sloan graciously admits that being inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame with his legendary point guard — which will happen for them Friday in Springfield, Mass., along with Michael Jordan, David Robinson and C. Vivian Stringer — is quite special.

Sweet even.

"It's a tremendous honor for me and my family, just something that I never expected and really didn't dream about," Sloan said. "A lot of people talk about dreaming about it. It wasn't one of those things for me, because I can't dream that good."

And the sour part?

Sloan prefers hangnails to hoopla about himself, for starters.

Then there's the fact that he feels less than qualified to be in the Hall because he's yet to coach a team to a league championship. Getting enshrined at the same time as the man who helped thwart his two best attempts — that'd be Jordan and his 1997 and '98 Chicago Bulls, of course — is one heckuva a reminder of that.

There's also that darn speech he has to give at the official enshrinement ceremony.

Sloan has been working on it, but, oh boy, don't remind him. Might as well hand him some lemon pulp to gulp.

"I don't know what the hell it will be," he joked this past week. "It's not something I look forward to doing."

It will be from the heart, though. And if it's the shortest speech in Hall of Fame history, it won't be for a lack of Sloan voicing his appreciation to those who have helped him make this moment possible.

"The most important thing is to try to thank a bunch of people. That's all I know. What else am I going to say?" Sloan said. "I wouldn't be here without a whole lot of people. That goes without saying.

"There's people everywhere that's had a piece of my career," he added, "whether it be a teammate or a coach, all the people I've been involved with."