Utah Jazz Notes

There’s been no shortage of criticism directed toward Don Nelson and the Golden State Warriors in the wake of this week’s Stephen Jackson fiasco. 

Jackson was suspended for two preseason games and relinquished his team captaincy. Nelson, meanwhile, has been accused of turning over most coaching duties to his assistants while hanging around to pass Lenny Wilkens as the NBA’s all-time winningest coach.

Nelson (1,309-1,007) will enter the season needing 24 victories to pass Wilkens (1,332-1,155). He’s under contract for the 2010-11 season and has volunteered to work for free in whatever capacity in the Warriors organization for the 2011-12 season.

Which brings us to Jerry Sloan. The Jazz coach already stands alone as the only coach in NBA history to win 1,000 games with a single team - - a record that won’t be broken for several generations, if not ever, given the rate at which coaches are currently fired.

On the all-time list, Sloan sits fourth behind Wilkens, Nelson and Pat Riley with a 1,137-751 record between his three seasons as Chicago Bulls coach and 21 seasons as Jazz coach.

Although Sloan would profess no interest in the all-time record, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he could someday claim it ahead of Wilkens and Nelson. He’ll enter the season 195 wins shy of Wilkens’ mark, which is no small number.

Then again, it’s also just four 50-win seasons, something the Jazz seem eminently capable of doing this season, if not the three after that. It would require Sloan to coach past his 71st birthday, which is not unheard of given that Nelson and Larry Brown will turn 70 in 2010.

You hear it every so often around the Jazz, the suggestion that while everyone else treats Sloan’s future as a year-to-year proposition, insiders believe he’s going to surprise people by how long he stays on the job.

I’d call it an outside chance that Sloan ends up with the all-time record, but it’s still something to consider, especially if this is Nelson’s final season.

If nothing else, Sloan is only 59 wins away from passing Riley for third on the all-time list. One can only imagine the celebration were the Jazz able to reach that number this season.

--Ross Siler