“People who belong together don’t have to stick together” may be apropos
of Jerry Sloan, retiring after twenty two years as the coach of the NBA
Utah Jazz.
II
Our hungering eyes first gazed upon his heroics with the University of
Utah, playing in *Madison Square Garden. He was the epitome of a team player.
Unselfish, his deft passing to the open man, out of the weave or Tex Winter’s
triangle.
He was the ultimate Greek God, so humble in the arena of overrated egos and
self serving scorers preening for their own “cock a doodle doo”.
To put itt together...the serendipity and chemistry of complete players like John Stockton out of Gonzaga and the “Mailman” out of Louisiana.......
III
Surrogate father role model coach Sloan fought out his heroic dimensions in the
Salt Lake City cyberspace while calibrating the Mailman&Stockton quintets to championship gigs, to lose in the closing ticks of his “overtime”
IV
Therefore as hundreds of NBA coaches have come and gone, Jerry Sloan commands the dignity
and respect of other surrogate fathers...and those Utah dream teams and front office second guessers.
John Wooden Clair Bee Red Auerbach Red Holtzman Nat Holman Joe Lapchick Howard Cann Saint Anthony’s High School coach Hurley who earned his 1000th w several days ago.
Larger than life humans who make an ordinary one glad to be part of their fated syndrome.
V
A man among marching men, Gunga Din:.
George Mikan of DePaul, Bb Kurland of Phillips AAU Bill Russell Wilt Chamberlain
Jerry West Elgin Baylor Don Barksdale Wes Unsell and Dave Minor when he starred wioth Toledo ,his shooting arm in a plastic cast..
To say an immortal soul graced the pines as a father figure may be over stating
his lasting pace thru two gripping decades plus two in the role of a coach...beyond those
undergraduate years pounding the wood as a player, learning the calculus and
geometry into the futuro.
VI
May his divine presence be remembered as long as basketball is played...
China, the hard courts of Madrid and Barcelona Paris Germany the Soviet Serbia........
His day dreams emerged from the womb of Salt Lake City... pioneering his “idiom”
dribbling with either hand, his furtive eyes searching for the elusive “Mailman”
dancing or Stockton assisting thru the paint...a lob pass......
Jammed by the trailor’s abbreviation point...
May we dream of seeing the likes of Jerry Sloan again
“People who belong together don’t have to stick together”
*Madison Square Garden National Invitation Tournament,
..February 9,2011.
