Jerry Sloan withdraws from Portland Trail Blazers coaching candidacy - NBA Update
Former Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan has withdrawn his name from Portland Trail Blazers head coach candidacy. He was interviewed by Blazers GM Neil Olshey on Wednesday, but just a day after, Jerry called Neil an asked him to drop his name from the list.
“There’s nothing to talk about, really," Sloan said Thursday afternoon. "The Portland people are great people and were great to work with. It’s just one of those things that didn’t work out on my end."
Jerry, after a whole season away from the game, decided to return at the end of this regular season. The 70 -year-old coach took some time off due to his deteriorating health.
On his return, he was interviewed by Charlotte Bobcats and was shortlisted. He however backed off after a meeting with Michael Jordan, the franchise owner.
Sloan is legend when it comes to NBA coaching. His tenure with Jazz was over 2 decades and that makes him the longest serving head coach in US major league sports. He also holds the record of reaching 1000 victories with a single team.
When asked if he be would be interested in any similar future opening, Jerry said.
“I couldn’t speculate on that."
When Olshey joined the franchise as a GM nearly three weeks back, he vowed not let go of Kaleb Canales, their current coach who was previously serving under the capacity of assistant coach.
“He’s the in-house favourite… At the end of the day, I don’t see anyone bringing more to the table than Kaleb Canales but we’re going to undergo a process to figure that out.” Neil said. “I don’t think there’s any deadline for when we need to have someone in place [as head coach].”
However, with most of the off season sorted out, he seems to have stepped up the search for a strong head coach. It is believed that the Trail Blazers also tried to negotiate with former Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson, but it was to no avail.
There are still quite a few options available for the Trail Blazers. Brian Shaw, the Indiana Pacers assistant coach, has still not committed with any franchise, Stan Van Gundy is also available and Mike D’ Antoni can also be a reasonable option. The final decisions however rests with Portland and their GM.
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