Utah Jazz: Sloan would welcome extension

Jerry Sloan suggested Saturday that he wouldn't at all mind signing a one-year contract extension to remain as coach of the Jazz through the 2010-11 NBA season.

But the recently inducted Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame coach isn't in any hurry to get done what has become an annual formality of sorts, and he prefers to commit to only one more season beyond the one that got under way last week.

"That's all I'm interested in," Sloan said prior to practice Saturday, his 1-1 Jazz still 80 games away from completing his 22nd season as head coach in Utah.

"I don't want to put them (Jazz management and ownership) in a bind, and hold them up if they have other ideas. They've certainly been fair to me, and that's all I ask.

"And if they wanted to change," added Sloan, who has coached 2,082 career regular-season and playoff games in Utah and Chicago, "fine — I'd have no problem with that."

His preference, however, is to stay — and there have been talks in that regard, Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor said Friday and Sloan confirmed Saturday.

Contrary to a suggestion in an NBA.com report Friday, however, there has been no discussion whatsoever regarding a possible two-year extension.

"If my age (67) was a factor for them, then I don't have any problem," he said. "That's why I don't want a long-term contract, because I don't want to put them in a situation where they might be uncomfortable."

Sloan also confirmed that no signing announcement is imminent, as the NBA.com report seemed to suggest was the case.

He didn't sign his one-year extension for last season until Dec. 3, 2007, and — partly because he tucked away the paperwork in a drawer — he didn't sign an extension for this season until last Jan. 18.

"To be honest about it," Sloan said Saturday, "I forgot about it."

That probably won't happen again this time around. "Tammy probably would remind me now," he joked about his wife.

In any event, an extension announcement probably will come whenever both sides get around to dealing with the matter.

O'Connor said Friday he hopes an agreement indeed will be formalized, but stressed there is no urgency.

Sloan — currently tenured longer with the same team than any coach or manager in America's four major professional sports leagues — suggested the same Saturday.

"I don't even worry about when it gets done," he said. "Whatever time frame they have is fine.

"There's no deadline on my part."

Nor is there any desire to do anything different than he has the past couple years, or any reason to coach any way other than that which he always has.

Because even when he does sign another extension, he'll still have the right to retire before any contract he's under expires.

"I never go any farther," Sloan said, "than just the day-to-day. ... I don't know how long I'll be here."

e-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com