YahooSports: It's about time Sloan got his due

看板UTAH-JAZZ (猶他爵士)作者RonnieBrewer (Reverse Layup)時間17年前 (2009/02/08 17:14)推噓8(8推 0噓 7→)

留言15則, 9人參與討論串1/1

It's about time Sloan got his due By Sean Deveney - SportingNews Feb 6, 11:45 am EST Anybody else stick around after the Lakers-Celtics overtime slugfest last night? Because there was a second nationally televised game. Anyone? Mavericks and Jazz? No? There are quite a few reasons behind the greatest running embarrassment for modern NBA journalists—the failure of us, as a group, to vote for Jerry Sloan as Coach of the Year at any point in his 20 years as Utah Jazz coach. The obvious reason behind Sloan's snubbing is that he had John Stockton and Karl Malone for most of his coaching career, and those of us in the keyboard fraternity long said to ourselves, “Anybody could win with those two.” That's probably part of the problem. But Stockton and Malone have been gone for more than five years now. That excuse is gone. Now, the reason Sloan does not get more attention is probably demonstrated by the fact that there were very few of us who stuck around for the second part of the national doubleheader last night. The Jazz just do not get much attention, the consequence of being in a small market and playing late games. If more folks had watched last night, they'd have seen the Jazz, still playing without Andrei Kirilenko, C.J. Miles and Carlos Boozer, wallop the Mavericks—winners of four straight—by 28 points. The Jazz have played 50 games. Point guard Deron Williams, the team's best player, has missed 14 games. The second-best player, Boozer, has missed 38 games. Kirilenko, arguably third-best, has missed 12. Take a stab at guessing how many times Utah has had its full starting five—Williams, Ronnie Brewer, Miles, Boozer and Mehmet Okur—healthy at the same time? Yep, zero. At various times this year, Sloan has been forced to start guys like Kyrylo Fesenko, Jarron Collins, Morris Almond, Ronnie Price and rookie Kosta Koufos. And yet, they're 28-22 and hanging in the West's playoff picture with the No. 8 seed. That's a credit to the coach, and just another sign that those of us who vote on these things need to undo an injustice that has been perpetrated for far too long. We love to give the award to the coach of the year's biggest surprise team, which very often has nothing to do with coaching. We have voted for Mike Schuler, Don Chaney, Del Harris, Sam Mitchell and Avery Johnson. None stuck around very long. Several of the Coaches of the Year we've chosen have gotten fired within the next couple of seasons. Enough, I say. It's time to put a stop to 20 years of absurdity. If you want to look at giving Sloan the Coach of the year as some kind of career achievement award, that's fine. But he deserves it for what's happened this year. The fact that the Jazz are able to withstand such a dizzying litany of injuries and remain in the playoff hunt is a credit to Sloan, a credit to the system he runs and the demands he makes on all his players to know that system. The Jazz win, year after year, because of their coach. http://tinyurl.com/b3hsaf -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 220.134.61.183 ※ 編輯: RonnieBrewer 來自: 220.134.61.183 (02/08 17:14)