Rumors

Carlos Boozer strode confidently through Zions Bank Basketball Center, the Utah Jazz training facility. Once upon a time, he walked this space as a player. Those were his All-Star days. His Olympian days. The days of Deron Williams, Andrei Kirilenko and the late, great Jerry Sloan. The days of Utah’s powder blue uniform. Today, Boozer is back with the organization, and, along with Avery Bradley, is a key cog in a front office tasked with selecting the fifth pick in Wednesday night’s NBA Draft. Utah’s war room will be different for Boozer, not only because he’s no longer a player, but also because the building has undergone renovations since his playing days. And we’re talking about a front office that has transitioned in general managers from Kevin O’Connor to Dennis Lindsey, to Justin Zanik, to Danny Ainge, and now to Austin Ainge.

New York Times

KC Johnson: Great stat from Bulls PR: Josh Giddey joins Michael Jordan, Jerry Sloan, Clem Haskins and Guy Rodgers as only Bulls with at least three straight 20-point double-doubles. Haskins and Rodgers are for the old school Bulls fans.

Twitter

Tim Reynolds: This is Erik Spoelstra's 886th win with the Heat, including playoffs (excluding play-in tournament games, which don't count). That's third-most by one coach with one team in NBA history, behind only Pop (1,582) and Jerry Sloan (1,223). Red Auerbach had 885 with the Celtics.

Twitter

Michael Scotto: The Chicago Bulls announce Derrick Rose will have his No. 1 jersey retired during the 2025-26 season. Rose is the fifth Bulls player to do so, joining Jerry Sloan (4), Bob Love (10), Michael Jordan (23), and Scottie Pippen (33). The NBA retired Bill Russell’s jersey (6) in 2022. pic.x.com/V9qC2aMrcm

Twitter

Erik Spoelstra quietly made history last week. He didn’t see a reason for celebration. Spoelstra is in his 17th season as coach of the Miami Heat, which is the third-longest uninterrupted tenure by one coach with one team in NBA history. Gregg Popovich is in his 29th year with San Antonio, and Jerry Sloan had a 23-year run in Utah. For most coaches in today’s NBA, the idea of such a run may seem impossible. Half of the league’s coaches — 15 of the 30 — are entering no more than their third year in their current job. There have been eight coaching changes in 2024 so far alone, and there’s still two more months for an owner or general manager to decide to add to that list.

Associated Press

Tim Reynolds: The only three coaches to win more games with one team than Erik Spoelstra has with the Heat: Gregg Popovich (Spurs), Jerry Sloan (Jazz), Red Auerbach (Celtics). That's it.

Twitter

The Chicago Bulls’ past is filled with greatness. On Jan. 12, that greatness will begin to be celebrated anew. The team announced on Tuesday the establishment of the organization’s new Ring of Honor, with 13 individuals and one team representing the inaugural 2024 class that will be honored on January 12 when the Golden State Warriors come to town.

nbcsportschicago.com

The 13 individuals in the inaugural class are: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Bob Love, Jerry Sloan, Artis Gilmore, coach Phil Jackson, coach and broadcaster and ambassador Johnny “Red” Kerr, original owner Dick Klein, general manager Jerry Krause, Toni Kukoc, Dennis Rodman, Chet Walker and assistant coach Tex Winter. Each of these individuals either is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame or had their banners raised at the United Center or both.

nbcsportschicago.com

Rick Rubin: What goes into a miraculous shot. Phil Jackson: Well, I think the impossibility of the situation. You know, the one that Michael made, finish out the last dance, that was all programmed. They scored with 40 seconds to go they were up by three points, I call the timeout. And I said, we're gonna do this and you're gonna have this opportunity. But I know the coach is not going to call a timeout for the other team. They'll do the same thing that you guys know, they'll run a post play inside cross pick by the guard. Michael, you'd come back and steal a ball from Malone right there. And we'll go down we're on the same situation. But whatever, you just make an adjustment on no timeouts. You won't see that ever in this day and age. After Michael scores this incredible shot— ‘I told him during the timer, you've been shooting the ball and you've got tired and now your hands are dropping. So when you shoot your shot, make sure you follow through with your hand’. So he follows through. The ball goes in. We are up by one point. Now they call a timeout. Now there's like I don't know less than whatever four seconds or whatever. Now they call it timeout. But you don't see plays like that anymore, where there's no timeouts, there’d be usually be like three timeouts. In this day and age coaches want to control.

Apple Podcasts

Carlos Boozer said there was no pressure replacing Karl Malone in Utah, because Andrei Kirilenko was already very good, he was joined in free agency by Mehmet Okur, and the team drafted Deron Williams a year later to form a talented core: “I had a blast here. I had a great time, man — this is one of the best teams I ever played on. We were like a family. Coach Sloan made sure of that, Larry Miller made sure of that. My kids would be running up and down the hallway, all our kids would be doing the same thing. We had a really unique team where everybody was an option.”

Salt Lake Tribune

Carlos Boozer: “There’s a couple coaches in my life that really stick out for me personally. Obviously my dad put the ball in my hands. My high school coach, who’s also here, really helped my development. Coach K gave me the foundation of the pro that I would be moving forward. And coach Sloan gave me a chance to be a star. He talked to me a lot — we talked on the phone maybe three or four times before I even got here, before I signed the contract. And then when I got here, [we had a conversation] where he felt like there were certain things I could bring to the table that no one else on the team had. So for me, he really took my career from here to here. I wouldn’t be sitting here now if it wasn’t for coach Sloan.”

Salt Lake Tribune

NBA PR: The NBA today unveiled the 15 Greatest Coaches in NBA History as part of the continuing celebration of the league’s 75th Anniversary Season. The list was selected by a panel of 43 current & former NBA head coaches in collaboration with the National Basketball Coaches Association.

Twitter

Wilkens took pride in his defense and said he drew the assignment of guarding the likes of Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Jerry Sloan and Walt Frazier — the opponent’s top guard. The NBA didn’t start tracking steals until 1973 when, at 36, Wilkens still managed 1.3 swipes per game for the Cavs. “I think that I would have led the league in steals if they had been keeping track early on,” Wilkens said. “I was a better player than a lot of people realize. I think that I contributed to the game. “When I was a player, I think that I worked hard at being as good as I could be. When I was a coach, it was the same thing. Each has its own reward, so to speak.”

The Athletic

Joining Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson’s ‘All the Smoke’, the three-time All-star talked about how things started when he was still up and coming into the league. “Our relationship was definitely strained at the end. I think I held onto that rookie year, not starting — how he didn’t really play me, and would play me a couple of minutes here. I think I took that personally for a while when I was younger and kind of held that grudge. So, I think that affected me a little bit.”

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