Legendary Utah Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan, who led the team from 1988 until 2011, passed away Friday due to complications from Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia. He was 78 years old.
Sloan ranks fourth on the NBA’s all-time coaching list with 1,221 regular-season wins, and sixth in the playoff history with 98 wins. He’s one of only two coaches in league history to record 1,000 wins with one club.
Sloan coached for one team longer than anyone in NBA history, and he led the Jazz to 15 straight playoff appearances from 1989 through 2003 (including two Western Conference titles in 1997 and 1998). He’s one of only four coaches in history with 15-plus consecutive seasons with a winning record, joining Gregg Popovich, Pat Riley, and Phil Jackson.
The Jazz and Rockets have long been rivals, and six of Sloan’s postseason trips (1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2007, and 2008) featured playoff series between Utah and Houston. None ended in sweeps, and in five of the six series, the losing team still won at least two games.
Houston defeated Utah on its way to a pair of NBA championships in 1994 and 1995, and the Jazz returned the favor on their way to the first NBA Finals trips in franchise history in 1997 and 1998.
Though the playoff battles were intense, Sloan clearly earned the respect of Houston’s players, as he did throughout the NBA. Here’s a sampling of Friday’s reactions from the Rockets organization, both past and present.
