Jerry Sloan's exit interview
By the time you read this, Jerry Sloan could be undergoing surgery to have his right knee replaced. Sloan has been battling pain almost since the start of the season and was hopeful he could have the surgery as early as Thursday after the Jazz were eliminated.
To close out the season, Sloan talked with reporters for more than 18 minutes after a final team meeting at EnergySolutions Arena. Here were the most interesting of his comments, as transcribed in three parts. (Sensing a theme these last two days?)
Opening statement: "From my standpoint, this is always a bitter time because there's only team that finishes up the season with a win and that's the championship team. We obviously didn't get to that point.
"There are some things that I thought we did well, we had a lot of injuries, but to be able to win 48 games in this league is quite an accomplishment when I look at the number of injuries we had.
"I'm proud of the fact that these guys tried to do the best they could. We ended up with the No.1 seed, obviously, out West, and that was very difficult for us to try to overcome.
"I thought we had our moments where we played well, we had some moments that were not very desirable, but life goes on, we move forward from here."
Q: What feeling does that give you going into the off-season?
A: "Well, it's one of disappointment. Any time you lose, it's always a disappointing thing you have to be faced with, but the challenges are still there to try to move this team forward and to try to make it better every time we discuss what we have going on here."
Q: You sound like you're looking forward to coming back and the challenge of next season?
A: "Right now, I haven't given a lot of thought to that. But I have tremendous respect for this organization, what they've been about, what they've tried to accomplish within certain parameters we have to work under; I don't have a problem with that. I just look forward to going a little bit a day at a time."
Q: Can this team get to the next level as presently constituted?
A: "You look at what transpired during the season, we lost Deron Williams and Andrei was out and Boozer was out. Those are huge losses, and then to overcome that while you're trying to fight to be alive in the season. Up until the end of the season, I thought we did a great job.
"We stumbled a little bit as we came down the stretch. The schedule was not totally in our favor. We played some terrific basketball and we played some that wasn't as good as we'd like. But we're looking at a young group of guys as a whole.
"And I think you see teams that usually get to playoff level, they have veteran players, guys that have been around. They've had to swallow that bitter pill, and that's what last night hopefully teaches us as we move forward.
"If nothing else, it teaches each individual that there's always a chance if you continue to play and make yourself better. But if you don't do your homework and take care of your body and do those things, then players don't get better. They stay the same.
"And we're hoping to find players, as we are in coaching all the time, that are willing to make themselves better through hard work."
Q: Did you ever pinpoint what you thought the underlying causes were for the slide at the end of the regular season that dropped you to eighth?
A: "Yeah, we were trying to play . . . Boozer's, I think, trying to struggle through his comeback. The expectations are when you have Deron out or Carlos Boozer out, you're still expected to win the same number of games as if they were there, but when the talent level's not there, it's tough to win.
"In the meantime, with those people, you're trying to get them back to top level to where they were and sometimes that didn't help us. Other guys, Paul had a great run and was playing well and then we come back and kind of screw things up time wise.
"That throws things out of sync. But when the playoffs started, obviously we had the Lakers, who are a terrific team. They played great all year long. I thought we'd play a little bit better than what we did, but have to take what we got."
--Ross Siler
To close out the season, Sloan talked with reporters for more than 18 minutes after a final team meeting at EnergySolutions Arena. Here were the most interesting of his comments, as transcribed in three parts. (Sensing a theme these last two days?)
Opening statement: "From my standpoint, this is always a bitter time because there's only team that finishes up the season with a win and that's the championship team. We obviously didn't get to that point.
"There are some things that I thought we did well, we had a lot of injuries, but to be able to win 48 games in this league is quite an accomplishment when I look at the number of injuries we had.
"I'm proud of the fact that these guys tried to do the best they could. We ended up with the No.1 seed, obviously, out West, and that was very difficult for us to try to overcome.
"I thought we had our moments where we played well, we had some moments that were not very desirable, but life goes on, we move forward from here."
Q: What feeling does that give you going into the off-season?
A: "Well, it's one of disappointment. Any time you lose, it's always a disappointing thing you have to be faced with, but the challenges are still there to try to move this team forward and to try to make it better every time we discuss what we have going on here."
Q: You sound like you're looking forward to coming back and the challenge of next season?
A: "Right now, I haven't given a lot of thought to that. But I have tremendous respect for this organization, what they've been about, what they've tried to accomplish within certain parameters we have to work under; I don't have a problem with that. I just look forward to going a little bit a day at a time."
Q: Can this team get to the next level as presently constituted?
A: "You look at what transpired during the season, we lost Deron Williams and Andrei was out and Boozer was out. Those are huge losses, and then to overcome that while you're trying to fight to be alive in the season. Up until the end of the season, I thought we did a great job.
"We stumbled a little bit as we came down the stretch. The schedule was not totally in our favor. We played some terrific basketball and we played some that wasn't as good as we'd like. But we're looking at a young group of guys as a whole.
"And I think you see teams that usually get to playoff level, they have veteran players, guys that have been around. They've had to swallow that bitter pill, and that's what last night hopefully teaches us as we move forward.
"If nothing else, it teaches each individual that there's always a chance if you continue to play and make yourself better. But if you don't do your homework and take care of your body and do those things, then players don't get better. They stay the same.
"And we're hoping to find players, as we are in coaching all the time, that are willing to make themselves better through hard work."
Q: Did you ever pinpoint what you thought the underlying causes were for the slide at the end of the regular season that dropped you to eighth?
A: "Yeah, we were trying to play . . . Boozer's, I think, trying to struggle through his comeback. The expectations are when you have Deron out or Carlos Boozer out, you're still expected to win the same number of games as if they were there, but when the talent level's not there, it's tough to win.
"In the meantime, with those people, you're trying to get them back to top level to where they were and sometimes that didn't help us. Other guys, Paul had a great run and was playing well and then we come back and kind of screw things up time wise.
"That throws things out of sync. But when the playoffs started, obviously we had the Lakers, who are a terrific team. They played great all year long. I thought we'd play a little bit better than what we did, but have to take what we got."
--Ross Siler
6:44 PM
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