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Raja Bell details Jerry Sloan/Deron Williams breakup with Jazz

cowhide said:
Jerry was never that patient but as he aged I am sure it became a bigger issue. Deron is just as stubborn and was a ****y young player who probably was harboring some resent because he "earn" his starting position. It takes two to fight and there is blame on both sides. I agree both had to go and both deserve criticism.
This is old news and just think it helped shape the Jazz we have today.
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True I wouldn’t change a thing, I’m happy where it led us.
 
oneye said:
True I wouldn’t change a thing, I’m happy where it led us.
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People forget that Phil Johnson also resigned as a show of loyalty to Sloan. Phil won NBA coach of the year with the Kings and turned his back on millions of dollars by walking away. That left us with Ty as head coach.
 
Deron's always been a whiny little bitch, I always felt as if Sloan should've retired a couple years before, and Raja is breaking code here.
 
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Lol. The Deron Williams who wasn't **** after he left Utah? Just like Sharon Anderson. And others? I'm sure Sloan was as much to blame. But he demanded a lot out of his players. And it showed when they played for Utah. And why it didn't when they left. Deron wasn't **** outside of Utah. The system made him.
 
themanknownassting said:
Lol. The Deron Williams who wasn't **** after he left Utah? Just like Sharon Anderson. And others? I'm sure Sloan was as much to blame. But he demanded a lot out of his players. And it showed when they played for Utah. And why it didn't when they left. Deron wasn't **** outside of Utah. The system made him.
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Completely incorrect. Deron was an all star with the Nets and played well when he was healthy. Injuries derailed his career. They started appearing near the end of his time with the Jazz and never really went away.
 
Seems like two stubborn guys that wouldnt give in.

Id like to know the actual full story.

I recall reading somewhere that Deron had apologized and or patched things up with Jerry. It's all good now.
 
Jack Strop said:
Raja tells it a bit differently than what had been leaked by others. IIRC. Deron had been ignoring play calls for a long time. It wasnt just the Chicago game. And i read at the time Jerry wanted to discilpne Deron but was shot down by KOC and Greg. So the Chicago game was just the end of the road.
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He does start off by saying "A lot of this stuff had happened while I was still in Phoenix..." meaning the previous season(s), so he did actually say this had been brewing for a while. Bell is just offering his recollections/perceptions, right or wrong or in-between, on the events in that final game.
 
Nobody was "innocent" in the entire situation, but I would rank their involvement as:

#1 Deron - known whiny player who went from hungry to entitled

#2 FO - should have intervened sooner to avoid Sloan's immediate resignation

#3 Sloan - stubborn coach who could have caved a little but his track record and team history shouldn't dictate he had to

#4 Miller family - not much they could have done different unless the FO could have called on them as extra help in peacekeeping

Overall, it just pisses me off to this day that Sloan left under those circumstances. Part of it was his doing and personality, but he deserved a long, dignified send off. He will go down as the most underappreciated coach in the history of the NBA. No COY, rarely a mention unless Utah is playing, Spurs built their model on his template but rarely a mention, etc.

Sent from my VS995 using JazzFanz mobile app
 
I remember reading a story in a Chicago paper about that game and how Sloan and Johnson went and had dinner with the press in the arena before the game. Sloan said to one of the reporters that John Stockton ran the wrong play exactly once in his career when it was a road playoff game and it was loud in the gym and he ran the wrong play that time. The only time. DWill ran the wrong play seven times in the first half of the Chicago game. Afterwards is when Sloan blew his top.
 
Siro said:
Sloan's severely overrated as a coach. He was an inflexible dictator who took a team with two of the best players of all time no where (unless you're proud of first and second round exists 15 years in a row). And I'm not a fan of how he left. I'm on Deron's side as well.

/grabs popcorn
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this is on management, and not on Sloan. Look at the absolute trash after trash draft picks that Utah made after drafting Malone. They couldn't sign anyone, were consistently stingy, and managed to finally bring in a past-prime Jeff Hornacek through a trade before they started contending for finals. Compare the depth of those immaculately-constructed Bulls rosters (Pippen, Jordan, Harper, Kukoc, Kerr, etc. etc.) with Utahs. The Bulls lost Jordan in 94 and they only one *two* fewer games. Imagine if the Jazz lost Malone or Stockton for a full season in 94.

One of the best measures of a coach is seeing how they develop players-- the production they can turn out of a player, and watching what happens once they leave the Jazz system. We see this with Popovich a lot, *especially* this season.

We saw it with Sloan-- the long long list of player with forgotten careers once they left Utah (Ronnie Brewer anyone?). Leading a team expected to win 8 games to 40, nearly making the playoffs.

That season, coaches across the league voted Sloan and Johnson as running the best offence in the NBA, and voting Johnson as the best assistant coach in the NBA (if I recall correctly).
 
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