Jerry Sloan has signed a one-year contract extension that will likely have the legendary coach back on the Utah Jazz sidelines for a record 24th consecutive season, reports NBA.com's Scott Howard-Cooper. There had been no question the Jazz would officially extend an invite to Sloan. But that Sloan signed the deal signals that at least as of now he plans to be back.
Jerry Sloan Signs One-Year Extension, Signals He’ll Return For 24th Season With Jazz
Sloan told Howard-Cooper that, as always, he reserves the right to reverse course and retire.
It was a typical Sloan-Jazz deal in every way - without any announcement and certainly without fanfare, with another one-year addition on the contract, and with Sloan quick to remind that he could still walk away after this season or that he could be fired. The first may happen, per his now-annual tradition of waiting until summer to decide whether to return to the grind, but a dismissal will not.
Sloan has a 1,126-681 (.623) record at the helm of the Jazz, and is without question the greatest coach in league history to not win the NBA’s Coach of the Year award. He was an early favorite for this season’s trophy, but the Jazz have slumped through the New Year and might finish the season just quietly enough to let another awards season pass Sloan by.
Sloan is 68 years old. One of his current players, Gordon Hayward, wasn't yet born when Sloan took over the Jazz in 1988.
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