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Utah Jazz: Sloan returning for 21st season

Good! I'm glad we'll have Sloan for at least one more year. This team is just *thisclose* to being in the finals again, and I'd love to see Sloan and my Utah Jazz get another crack at it.

I'm also glad to get the first word in on this one--before all the Sloan-haters come out. I'm sure we'll see plenty of those morons on here soon enough.

I know all of the Sloan haters cannot will be moaning and whining, but I for one am glad to have him back.

Set your watch...Jerry Sloan's keeping us in suspense has ended, as it always does, with another year in Utah. Now, hopefully Boozer will decide to come back next year too...after taking the 2008 playoffs off to think about it.

Another trip to the playoffs, followed by an early exit from said playoffs, surely awaits us.

If the last 20 years has shown anything, it has shown that jerry is, at best, an average coach. In 18 out of 20 seasons the jazz underacheieved. What is it going to take to gut the coaching staff and finally get a real coach here.

The players and fans deserve a change, we have suffered long enough with jerry. In the end, it really doesn't matter what the team's results are, because if they win, jerry gets all the credit, when they lose LHM and the fans put ALL the blame on the players anyway.

The jazz have very loud and devoted fans, but not very bright.

Let me just preempt the "fire Sloan" crowd with a statement. We should be so lucky to have a coach of this caliber willing to work here in Utah for so long.

With all the turmoil in gas prices, the stock market, the middle east, the FLDS children, and the democratic primaries, it's nice to have some stability in our lives!

Jerry & Larry, thanks for your contributions to our community. Hard work, discipline, honesty, and accountability are lessons I can teach my kids through sports and by watching the Jazz - on and off the court. I hope you stay together for many more years.

Go Jazz

Does anyone think that next year's results will be any different?

If Sloan can't get a championship ring with the Stockton and Malone combo(hall of famers), how will he ever get there with a disgruntled Russian, an under-rated point guard and a power forward that can't deliver at crunch time (let alone play defense)????

Jazz fans are in for yet another great season of "mentoring" the young players and leaving "veterans" in to go 1 for 15....

Hey Sloan - how about giving me a shot? After watching you for 20 years I'm sure I couldn't do any worse!

Seriously, I'll take 1/4 your pay and do 10 times the job! I'd bench Boozer when he goes cold, I'd play Kirelinko until his legs break, I'd give D-Will carte blanche with the offense, I'd beg Milsap to stay with the team forever and I'd trade Jason (can't hit anything) Hart for ANYONE like Dee Brown.

And Larry H. - if you're listening - I'll bet you your next ESA payment that until you get a superstar like KOBE, the Jazz won't get any calls and will lose in the 1st or 2nd round next year to the Lakers (again).

p/o

Thanks for coming back, coach. Utah is lucky to have you, and we'll take you as long as we can have you.

One word of advice: Dump Andrei. Use ESPN's Trade Machine and find us a good swingman or two. :)

I cannot believe anyone would say Sloan is average
based on the winds he has achieved with average talent. I just wish the team had more of a killer
instinct....I think Williams has it. Face it, we
have the best point guard on the planet.

I think you make a very good point about jerry. I have never understood how the owner and fans always put all the blame for failure on the players and never on the coach. Jerry loves taking credit, but when things go bad, its that the players didn't execute. Jerry get paid every 2 weeks, right?

to paraphrase the man himself, if he did everything the fans wanted him to do, he'd be sitting with them instead of on the bench. one sub-500 year out if 20 is better than any coach in the league can say.

I find the comments on this board intersting. The question you have to ask yourself, is do you want a team that is consistently competitive? Or one that is a flash in the pan? I'll take the consistent one every day, or we will all end up like Laker fans. Fair-weather that is. Jerry provides competitive basketball year in and year out. And you want to change that for one fleeting moment? There are no guarantees that a different coach will be a winner, but there is a guarantee that Jerry's Kids will be at least competitive. Without Coach Sloan, we might get more than our share of losing seasons. Of course no real talent would ever want to play in this small market under that scenario. The team would probably even relocate. I say we are lucky to have him, even if your argument of no championships is correct.

It's really sad that Jerry will NEVER get the Coach of the Year award because he never has a bad team that he can make better. They're always good. Yes! I know the Jazz only won 26 games a the year before Deron Williams showed up but then, when they were supposed to remain bad they won 41 games. Not enough for COTY award but enough so that the next year, when they went to the Western Conference Finals, it didn't look like such a leap, and still no COTY award. I'm glad Jerry will be back and hope he stays for many more years.

lost in DC - You and I CAN agree on some issues - maybe not politics.

To the Jerry Haters:
It isn't Jerry's fault that we don't have a ring! Its a combination of a lot of things. Michael Jordan the biggest, Shaq, the traveling Rockets, the Spurs, players not wanting to play in Utah... Sloan has done an amazing job here with what he's had. Most franchises have not even come close to the success that the Jazz have reached with him here and to say he can't coach or that he isn't good enough is pathetic. You people think you have all the answers and are complete idiots! Be grateful for the success that we've been able to enjoy as Jazz fans and have some respect for those that have made it possible.

Tired- You need more sleep. Try a C-PAP machine! Jerry Sloan is one of the finest coaches in the NBA. Don't pout and look for somebody to blame just because you didn't get your way. The reason the Jazz have never taken home the title is that they have not had sufficient talent and desire to get it done. They came close during the Stackton/Malone years but Michael wanted it more. The same thing happened to you this year. Kobe wanted it more. Don't try to pin it on Sloan.

Same Coach - Same Results: Try being a knowledgable fan before you profess to have any coaching ability. Stockton/Malone didn't get it done because they were competing against JORDAN. He was the best of that era just like Kobe is the best now. Just which "superstar" do you propose that Larry Miller bring in that is like Kobe? There isn't anyone else right now like Kobe. Be patient, I think the Williams kid has a chance to be that type of player. Until then take a deep breath and count yourself lucky that Jerry Sloan has chosen to continue coaching in your little backwater town.

In response to same coach-same results: wish I could see your face after coaching a few games. You have such great wisdom. Why not take over for the officials too--that would about take care of everything!

Congratulations Jerry! Do what you do best and get the ring you deserve.

No doubt with Jerry's salary that he's "bought the farm", so Jerry, it's time to stay on the farm. Jazz need new blood. Brother Miller probably teaches in his sunday school class that it's not always about winning!!

This will be Sloan's last season. Boozer is gone after next season when he opts out of his contract. D-Will may jet as well. Sloan is too old to go through a rebuilding process. Sadly, he will never win a Coach of the Year award, because that trophy never goes to coaches who are consistent. As a Jazz fan, I hope that I'm wrong.