HOF Player/Coach Jerry Sloan Passes Away
Longtime Hall of Fame coach of the NBA's Utah Jazz, Jerry Sloan (pictured alongside Charles Barkley), has passed away at the age of 78, according to the team.
He had suffered from Parkinson's Disease and dementia in his later years after his retirement from the Jazz in 2011.
Sloan won 1,221 regular season games in 26 seasons as an NBA coach with the Chicago Bulls (three seasons) and the Utah Jazz (23 seasons). He led the Jazz to a pair of Western Conference titles in 1997 and 1998. They then lost to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls in the NBA Finals (losing both in six games).
Sloan was a great player for the Bulls in the 1970's, where he starred alongside Norm Van Lier and Bob Love. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.