Utah Jazz: Sloan Will Be Back

That the Jazz announced a contract extension for coach Jerry Sloan before Monday's game was hardly a surprise, with the two sides having agreed to the basics of the deal as far back as training camp.
That the extension added only one year to Sloan's contract, however, did come as a surprise, accompanied by questions about whether Sloan's 21st season in Utah possibly will be his last.
Past Sloan extensions typically have added two years to his contract. Jazz owner Larry Miller portrayed the 65-year-old Sloan as eager to continue as coach but more comfortable committing to one year rather than two.
"I just take it a year at a time, a day at a time and that's all I've ever done," said Sloan, who took over as Jazz coach in December 1988 and is the longest tenured coach in major pro sports. "The rest of it really isn't a big deal."
The prospect of this being his last contract is "the furthest thing from my mind," Sloan added.
Miller questioned in an October interview with the Tribune whether Sloan's priorities had changed since getting remarried and called it "really iffy" that Sloan would continue as coach past the 2008-09 season. Those issues have been addressed, Miller said Monday.
"What was interesting to me," Miller said, "was that he was more definitive than he'd been before about, 'Yeah I want to be here' and 'I know I want to be here
one more year' and I got the feeling that he finally relaxed and trusted us."
Miller made the analogy of Sloan in previous negotiations having the insecurity of a ninth-grader worried about being cut from the team. There's evidently still some of that in Sloan, judging from his comments about the new deal.
"I didn't want to put them in any bind," Sloan said. "Anytime they want to dispose of me, whatever they want to do, I hope it's an amicable situation. I never want to put anybody against a wall and tell 'em I want a 10-year contract or something like that.
"There are coaches in that locker room [that] are better coaches than I am. I think I've just been lucky."

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source : sltrib.com