Karl Malone on Paul Millsap

[erudite23]

Red's always been very anti-Sloan. Its inevitable, I think: when you have a team that has come so close to the prize, but never quite been able to get all the way to the top, people have to assess blame. I think that's Red's way of coping--blaming Jerry. Also, the man can be tough to take at times. There have been some very befuddling moves over the years, and he doesn't pander to the fans with rotations, timeouts or anything like that.

The big one, a few years back, was the way that Jerry handled Deron as a rookie. He brought him off the bench for much of the season behind the likes of Milt Palacio and Keith McLeod, played him at SG for long stretches, "ruined his confidence" according to lots of posters and generally *seemed* like he was more interested in showing Deron who was the boss than bringing him along. Of course, it ended up being that Sloan was right and the DWill just had to accept the fact that Jerry was the man in charge and get on board or get out. But none of the guys who ranted about it at the time have ever come back and admitted they were wrong.

Funny, that.

[RTG HD]

Fair enough, one could have reasons to be anti any coach I guess. As an outsider the fact that the Jazz have been so close so often makes me look at Sloan as a great or even hall of fame coach. One thing that I think is easy to forget is how few great coaches there really are.