CLEVELAND – Legendary former Utah Jazz Head Coach Jerry Sloan has been named a co- recipient of the 2016 Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award the National Basketball Coaches Association announced today. Sloan, along with former Boston coach K.C. Jones, will be honored at halftime of tonight’s NBA Finals Game 3 in Cleveland.
“It is a special treat for me to be attending Game 3 of this exciting NBA Finals and to accept the 2016 NBA Coaches Association Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, along with a fine gentleman and outstanding coach, K.C. Jones. Like Coach Daly, I loved coaching and did my best to approach the job with professionalism, the concept of team effort and always playing hard. I thank my fellow coaches and all of my friends from the bottom of my heart for this special honor,” said Coach Jerry Sloan.
The National Basketball Coaches Association Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award honors the memory of Hall of Famer Chuck Daly, who over an outstanding NBA coaching career set a standard of integrity, competitive excellence and tireless promotion of NBA basketball. This year’s award recognizes the extraordinary contributions K.C. Jones and Jerry Sloan have made to the sport throughout their NBA careers through building a body of work that has had a positive and powerful impact on the NBA coaching profession. Jones and Sloan have embodied the high standards and leadership philosophies that Coach Daly brought to the game.
“Jerry Sloan is a coaching icon because of his longevity, adaptability and creativity. Jerry’s run of 23 years in Utah is the longest in NBA history and a testament to his competitive greatness. K.C. Jones and Jerry Sloan embody what the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award is all about,” said Dallas Mavericks head coach and National Basketball Coaches Association president Rick Carlisle.
Over his 23 seasons at the helm of the Jazz from 1988-2011, Sloan guided Utah to 19 playoff appearances, two NBA Finals (1997, 1998), seven division titles, a streak of 16 consecutive winning seasons (1988-2004), 13 seasons with 50-plus wins and three with 60-plus wins, while suffering only one losing season.
Sloan is one of nine coaches in NBA history to have surpassed 1,000 regular season victories (1,221) and is one of only two coaches (Gregg Popovich is the other) to have won 1,000 games with one franchise. Sloan ranks third all-time in most wins by an NBA head coach, fourth all time in regular season games coached (2,024) and fourth all-time in playoff games coached (202).
The Jazz raised a banner with 1223 (combined number of regular season and playoff games won under Sloan) on Jan. 31, 2014. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
Sloan originally joined the Jazz as a scout during the 1983-84 season, then following a brief stint as a head coach in the Continental Basketball Association, re-joined the Jazz as an assistant coach to Frank
Layden on Nov. 19, 1984, where he remained until being promoted to become the sixth head coach in Jazz history following Layden’s resignation in December of 1988.
Prior to joining the Jazz, Sloan served as head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1979-82 following an 11- year playing career with Baltimore and Chicago, during which he was twice selected an NBA All-Star.
