Saturday Slam: Remembering Jerry Sloan

                                         (Credit: Bob Leverone/Getty Images) 

On Friday, the basketball world lost a legend in 78 year-old Jerry Sloan, who averaged 14.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 2.2 steals per game during his 11-year NBA playing career, 10 of which were spent with the Chicago Bulls. Sloan was drafted 4th overall in the 1965 NBA draft by the Baltimore Bullets before getting selected by the Bulls in the 1966 NBA expansion draft one year later. As a result of being selected by the Bulls in their first season, Sloan received the nickname "The Original Bull." Sloan would go on to make two All-Star teams and six All-Defensive teams with the Bulls, becoming one of the franchise's most iconic players and the first to have his jersey retired (#4).

Known for his toughness and grit, Sloan epitomized what it means to come from the Midwest (McLeansboro, Illinois). He did all the things that a lot of today's players don't want to do: He played defense, he rebounded, he fouled hard, and he never backed down to anyone. Players like Jerry Sloan are a rare breed nowadays and with him no longer with us, it feels like the end of an era.

After a stellar playing career, Sloan took a shot at coaching. After three bumpy seasons as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1979-1982, Sloan joined the Utah Jazz as an assistant under then head coach Frank Layden. After spending four seasons on Layden's staff, Sloan took over the reins in the 1988-89 season. From then on, the rest was history as they say.

During his 23 years as head coach of the Utah Jazz, Sloan had a coaching career that earned him a spot in the Basketball Hall of Fame alongside his two best players, John Stockton and Karl Malone. Together, the trio would take the Utah franchise to new heights, culminating in back-to-back trips to the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998 where they lost to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, Sloan's former team. Sloan finished his career with 1221 wins, 1127 of which came with the Jazz. Sloan is the 4th winningest coach in NBA history and without a doubt the greatest coach to never win an NBA championship.

The loss of Sloan is dear to my heart because I grew up as a fan of the Utah Jazz. I have fond memories watching Sloan's teams battle in the playoffs. I remember the shot that John Stockton hit to send the Jazz to the NBA Finals in Houston and the look of sheer jubilation on Sloan's face. Those were the teams that first got me interested in basketball.

What stood out to me the most about Sloan during those days was his competitiveness and how much he backed his players. Getting ejected from games felt like a regular occurrence for him as he would loosen his tie and blow up at the refs for a call that they missed or for no reason other than that he just felt like popping off. At the same time, he was always classy in defeat and knew how to connect with his fellow man.

In the end, Jerry Sloan became much more than a great basketball coach. He became an icon in the state of Utah for the way he connected with the state and the passionate Jazz fan base. He gave it his all and demanded the same from his players. He will truly be missed.

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Wednesday Windmill: Should we be comparing LeBron James to Michael Jordan?

                                         (For The Win-USA TODAY Sports)

After putting up 35 points, 15 rebounds, and 9 assists in Sunday's 87-79 Game 7 win in Boston, LeBron James has now reached the NBA Finals in eight consecutive seasons. The first four seasons were with the Miami Heat while the last four have been with the Cleveland Cavaliers. During the first seven appearances, James has gone 3-4 in the NBA Finals, guiding the Heat to two titles and the Cavaliers to their first title in franchise history. As a result of his iron clad grip over the Eastern Conference, James is starting to evoke memories of Michael Jordan and the dominance that he had during his prime.

When comparing a player to Michael Jordan, one must be very careful. His Royal Airness won six NBA championships, six NBA Finals MVP awards, five NBA MVP awards, one Defensive Player of the Year award, and also Rookie of the Year honors in 1985 . On top of that, he's a 14x All-Star, 11x All-NBA Team member, 10x scoring champion, 9x All-Defensive Team member, and 3x steal champion, averaging 30.1 points (#1 all-time), 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 2.3 steals per game for his career.

King James in comparison has won three NBA championships, three NBA Finals MVP awards, four NBA MVP awards, and Rookie of the Year honors in 2004. On top of that, he's a 14x All-Star, 13x All-NBA Team member, 6x All-Defensive Team member, and 2007-08 scoring champion (30.0 points per game), averaging 27.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, 7.2 assists, and 1.6 steals per game for his career.

While James' career is not yet over, if the goal is to have a resume that closely mirrors that of Jordan, he has some catching up to do. For starters, he's only halfway to having the same amount of championship rings. Even if the Cavaliers win the title this year, James will still need to win two more titles to have six championship rings. Given that championship rings are the primary measuring stick for basketball greatness, it will be hard for James to be considered the greatest of all-time if he falls short of six rings.

As far as the other accolades are concerned, Jordan also possesses three more NBA Finals MVP awards, one more regular season MVP award, nine more scoring titles, and three more All-Defensive Team honors. Jordan also led the league in steals three times, a category that James has never led the league in. So, in the accolades department, Jordan has James beat as well. Especially on the defensive end.

With this all being said, that doesn't mean we can't compare James to Jordan or that Jordan is automatically the better player. There are things that James has going for him in this debate.

The first thing that really stands out is the raw number of NBA Finals appearances that James has, which is nine. While Jordan went a perfect 6-0 in the NBA Finals, he has three fewer NBA Finals appearances under his belt. It would be silly to say that in order for James to be considered the greatest of all-time, he'd have to be 9-0 in the NBA Finals. The fact that James has led his team to more NBA Finals appearances than Jordan is not something to ignore. Especially if he keeps finding ways to do it for the next couple of seasons.

The second thing that James has going for him is his raw consistency. Jordan won three straight NBA titles, retired from basketball for almost two seasons, and then won three straight NBA titles again, giving him six titles in eight seasons. While it's utterly phenomenal that Jordan came back and won three more titles, it's perhaps even more remarkable that James has reached the NBA Finals in eight consecutive seasons without taking a break or going on a hiatus of any kind. Night in and night out, James has shown up for the last eight years and found himself playing into June in each of those years. James' ability to take that beating and get back to the NBA Finals each time is astounding. Jordan may have six rings in eight seasons, but he can't say that he reached the NBA Finals more than three times in a row.

                                          (Getty Images) 

The third thing that James has going for him is the fact that he's had to deal with more pressure over the course of his career and he has pretty much lived up to the expectations that were set for him. When he was a junior in high school, James was already getting compared to Jordan and by the time he was drafted out of high school as the #1 overall pick to his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, he was proclaimed to be the seconding coming of Jordan. Most human beings would fold under such pressure, but James instead thrived and embraced those expectations. Jordan in contrast played three years in college and got to grow into his status as the greatest of all-time. He had much more time to slowly develop while James was thrust into the spotlight before he even finished high school.

The last thing and perhaps the most important thing that James has going for him is that when watching him play, it's hard to say there's anyone in NBA history you would rather have on your team. As a 6'8", 250 pound small forward, James has the size and athleticism of Karl Malone coupled with the quickness and court vision of John Stockton. That's a frightening combination. Considering that he can play every position on the floor and do virtually everything on the court at an elite level, it's hard to automatically pick Jordan over him.

When looking at the full scope of everything, it's really difficult for me to pick who the greatest of all-time is between Michael Jordan and LeBron James. Both guys have incredible resumes and if there is anyone who seriously challenges Air Jordan for the top spot on the all-time list, it would be King James.

That all said, if I have to pick between the two, I'm going to go with Michael Jordan. The reason why is he was a better defensive player and he channeled his killer instinct with much more regularity. As good as Jordan's offense was, his defense was just as good. He could shut down the best players in the game, doing a phenomenal job of reading passing lanes and getting steals. If you want to know the real secret to Jordan's championship success, look at his defense. That's where it all started.

The iconic moment of Jordan's career is the shot he hit to beat Utah in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals. Everyone remembers how he pushed off of Bryon Russell to nail that shot and while that was a crafty move, nobody seems to talk about the steal he had on the other end of the floor in which he stripped the ball out of the hands of Karl Malone. It was the steal that was just as important as the shot and yet it's only the shot that we remember.

                                          (Thefrontofficenews.com) 
                     
As for the killer instinct, this is what separated Jordan from the rest of the pack. Nobody has been more of an assassin on the court than him. While James is starting to channel that same instinct now, he had to learn how to do it as opposed to Jordan, who had it caked into his DNA. Jordan wanted to rip out the throat of his opponents each and every time he stepped on the court, possessing an almost demon-like viciousness.

That mentality is why Michael Jordan never lost in the NBA Finals and why he was never even taken to a Game 7. Once Jordan figured it out, I don't think anyone, not even LeBron James, could stop him. That's why he'll always be the greatest of all time. Truth be told, if there's anyone who can give Jordan a run for his money in the GOAT department, it's Tiger Woods, but that's a topic for a different day.

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Saturday Slam: Here are some really cool dunk videos

When I am bored and have nothing to do, I frequently hop on YouTube and watch videos of amazing slam dunks. I thought it would be fun to share with all of you some of my all-time favorite dunking videos. Enjoy!


















---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord for NBA news 

Wednesday Windmill: Why Karl Malone is the Greatest Power Forward of All-Time

                                          (credit: JazzFanatical) 

     Karl Malone is the greatest power forward of all time. Not Tim Duncan, Charles Barkley, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin McHale, James Worthy, or Moses Malone. All of those players deserve to be in the discussion, no doubt, but upon analyzing all of their career accomplishments and statistics, it seems pretty obvious to me at least, that Karl Malone is the greatest power forward to ever play the game of basketball.
     He once averaged 31.0 points and 11.1 rebounds per game during just his 5th season in the NBA. He won two NBA MVP awards and went to the NBA Finals in back-to-back seasons. He is a 14x NBA All-Star, 11x All-NBA First Team, 3x All-Defensive First Team, a member of the NBA's 50th Anniversary Top 50 Greatest Players of All-Time Team, the NBA's #2 all-time leading scorer, a member of the original 1992 Dream Team, and posted career averages of 25.0 points, 10.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.4 steals, and .8 blocks per game. Those are mighty impressive accomplishments. Accomplishments which I believe in totality make him the greatest power forward to every play the game of basketball.

     However, not everybody is convinced that he is the greatest power forward of all-time. As a matter of fact, few people today call "The Mailman" the greatest power forward of all time and instead say it's Tim Duncan a.k.a. "Mr. Fundamental". The argument for Tim Duncan is a pretty straight forward argument: He is a 5x NBA Champion, 3x NBA Finals MVP, 2x NBA MVP, 10x NBA All-First Team, 8x All-Defensive First Team,  and the 1998 NBA Rookie of the Year. What makes many put Duncan ahead of Malone is the fact that Duncan has won five NBA championships and Malone has won zero. As a matter of fact, that seems to be the only reason.

     I don't think it's wrong to factor in team accomplishments into the equation of who is the better of two players, but I do think it's a mistake to make it the only criteria. If rings are the only criteria, then Bill Russell is hands down the greatest basketball player of all-time, and Dennis Rodman is a better power forward than Karl Malone and Charles Barkley. But clearly, it feels wrong to make these statements, since obviously, we all know there is more to comparing players than just rings. It's one area to take into consideration, but not the only area.

     In addition to rings, here are some other areas to take into consideration when comparing players: Who has the better statistics both in career average and in their best seasons? Who did the player compete against? Who did the player have on his teams? How long was the player successful for (i.e. longevity)? Who would you rather start with to build a team around?

     Upon looking at these other factors, Karl Malone I think takes the cake over Duncan and over everybody else I mentioned above. However, for the sake of time, I will just compare Karl Malone to Tim Duncan, though I may reference another one of those players as I see fit. The reason I am choosing Duncan is because he is considered the greatest power forward of all-time by most basketball experts and so if I can convince you that Karl Malone is greater than Tim Duncan, I thus have a strong case for why he is the greatest power forward ever.

                                          (Via Bleacher Report: Rocky Widner/Getty Images) 

     Let me start off by addressing each additional category that I've asked us to consider. But before I do, let me re-establish that Tim Duncan does have Karl Malone beaten in the championships department and that I think it is one of the categories or areas that we have to look into when determining who the greatest power forward is.

     The first area to look at is who had the better statistics both in career average and in their best seasons? During the entire course of his career, Karl Malone averaged 25.0 points, 10.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.4 steals, and .8  blocks per game. As for Tim Duncan, he has averaged 19.8 points, 11.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, .7 steals, and 2.2 blocks per game. I think upon analyzing both of their career stats, Karl Malone is the better overall player, though Tim Duncan is the better post defender given the advantage in shot-blocking.
   
      As for best individual season, Karl Malone averaged 31.0 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.5 steals, and .6 blocks per game in the 1989-90 season, his fifth season in the NBA. Tim Duncan's best season came in the 2001-02 season in which he averaged 25.5 points, 12.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 0.7 steals, and 2.5 blocks per game. He won MVP that season.
   
     Once again, I think that Karl Malone's best individual season is better, given the amount of points he scored, though I give Tim Duncan the edge in defense due to the blocks. However, it should be noted that Karl Malone got twice as many steals as Tim Duncan, which may also point to how both players played defense differently. Duncan I grant was the better defender, but Karl Malone was a great defender in his own right, too.
   
     The next area of consideration is who did these guys play against? For Karl Malone it would be Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon. As for Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant both would be considered the best players he ever faced, along with LeBron James. In this department, I think Karl Malone had a tougher hill to climb than Tim Duncan because Hakeem Olajuwon is arguably the greatest center to ever play the game of basketball and Michael Jordan is hands down the greatest player of all time.

    However, what people want to quickly point out is that Malone still ended up ringless and Duncan walked away with five rings (and counting). The issue I take with this, is that Tim Duncan never actually defeated Shaquille O'Neal in his prime. That's right. Shaquille O'Neal won three straight championships as the leader of the Lakers in 2000, 2001, and 2002 and Duncan didn't stop him. Duncan did get the better of Shaq and the Lakers in 2003, but one could argue that Shaq and the Lakers were no longer in their prime at that point.

     As for who they faced in the NBA Finals, Karl Malone easily had the hardest task in taking down the great Chicago Bulls teams of the 90s lead by Michael Jordan. I don't think anybody would say that Tim Duncan had a task so hard as that. Duncan didn't have a cake walk in all of his trips to the NBA Finals, but he never faced a team as good as either of those Chicago Bulls teams.

     Luckily for Tim Duncan, he never had to deal with Michael Jordan as a threat to a championship. Instead, he had to face an 8th seeded New York Knicks team in 1999, a solid, but not intimidating New Jersey Nets team in 2003, a very sound and complete Detroit Pistons team in 2005, a Cleveland Cavaliers team that had LeBron James and a bunch of scrubs in 2007, and a Miami Heat team led by LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in 2013 and 2014,  losing only to the Heat in 2013.

     I would argue the toughest team that Duncan faced was that Pistons team in 2005. That team won the championship the year before in 2004 and was one of the most complete teams we've ever seen, led by Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Ben Wallace, and Rasheed Wallace. Those Pistons teams were great teams because they played together as a collective unit, something that the Spurs have mirrored over the course of their own championship runs.

     However, as I said above, the Michael Jordan led Chicago Bulls teams of the 1990s would have beaten those Detroit Pistons, and likely would have beaten any Spurs team that Tim Duncan was on. It's no knock on the Spurs or Tim Duncan. It's just pointing out how dominate those Chicago Bulls teams were. Those Utah Jazz teams with Karl Malone and John Stockton probably would have won an NBA championship or two if it weren't' for those Chicago Bulls teams, who similarly ended the title hopes of other great players like Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, and Reggie Miller.

     The next area of consideration is who did each player have on their teams. In this area, I think Karl Malone may have had more help around him given the fact that John Stockton is arguably the greatest point guard of all time. Tim Duncan has played with some great players like Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Bruce Bowen, but none of those players come close to being as great as John Stockton. John Stockton is a household name, which is why I think that Karl Malone probably had more help around him.
   
     However, Tim Duncan may have had more complete teams around him and also wasn't asked to deliver the amount of production that Karl Malone was asked to do. The Spurs championship teams  have been much more reliant on a community effort while the Jazz were essentially telling Karl Malone to get them 25-30 points every night while John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek took the pressure off by getting him the ball and knocking down open threes.
   
     As for the area of longevity, Karl Malone blows Tim Duncan out of the water. Karl Malone's career averages are 25 points, 10.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.4 steals, and .8 blocks per game. Tim Duncan's best season is 25.5 points, 12.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists, .7 steals, and 2.5 blocks per game. In essence, over an 18 year career Karl Malone was able to average numbers close to Tim Duncan's best career season!

     In addition, Karl Malone averaged 20.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in his last season with the Utah Jazz at the age of 39. Tim Duncan, who is 38 years old, hasn't averaged 20 points per game since he was 30 years old. Karl Malone arguably peaked when he was 33 and 34 during his two trips to the NBA Finals with the Utah Jazz in 1997 and 1998, whereas by that point of his life, Tim Duncan was on the decline, playing around 65 games per season. As for Karl Malone, he was still playing 80-82 games per season.
   
    Lastly, the final question we need to ask ourselves is who would we rather have on our team? Or who would we rather have to build a championship team around if we could only have one of the two players? To make this question more simple, assume that you are starting a franchise from scratch and have to draft one of these two players as your franchise player. Who would you pick?

     I would take Karl Malone over Tim Duncan. He produced more on average, he played more total games, got hurt less, and was more productive over the entire course of his career. He was "The Mailman". He delivered rain or shine every night. It's not to say that Tim Duncan didn't, but he wasn't the sturdy brick that Karl Malone was. As a matter of fact, nobody was the sturdy brick that Karl Malone was except for Michael Jordan, the very man who defeated Karl Malone in two straight NBA Finals.
   
     In addition, the Utah Jazz wouldn't have won two championships if Tim Duncan replaced Karl Malone, especially considering how Tim Duncan was producing when he was 33 and 34 years old. On the contrary, if the San Antonio Spurs had drafted Karl Malone in 1997, I think odds are good that under the guidance of Gregg Popovich the Spurs would have won 5 championships.
   
     In conclusion, my article isn't to undermine the great Tim Duncan or slurp Karl Malone. It's to analyze both players and compare them across multiple areas of consideration. I think very highly of both players and I have no problem with anybody saying that Tim Duncan is the greatest power forward of all time. He deserves to be mentioned in this discussion.

However, I personally think that Karl Malone is the greater player of the two and thus the greatest power forward of all-time with Tim Duncan as the #2 greatest power forward of all-time. Of course, some say that Tim Duncan is actually a center, but that is an interesting debate for another time.

---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord