On May 22, the Utah Jazz officially announced that the team's meritorious coach Jerry Sloan died at the age of 78 due to complications of Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia.
Jerry Sloan is a former U.S. men's basketball player and coach, a Hall of Famer, and one of the NBA's Thousand Wins coaches.
Sloan's early years photos.
As a player, he had excellent defensive skills, and on February 17, 1978, his No. 4 jersey was retired by the Bulls, and after retiring he became a coach, coaching the Chicago Bulls and then the Utah Jazz.
Sloan served as Jazz head coach for 23 years from 1988 to 2011, leading the Jazz to 1,127 regular-season wins, the only coach in NBA history to lead a team to 1,000 wins and lead the team to the Finals twice.
Sloan's regular season coaching record of 1,221 wins and 803 losses is the third highest number of wins in NBA history.
In 2009, Sloan was inducted into the Nye-Smith Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach.
Sloan poses with the Jazz insignia.
On March 22, 2017, in Salt Lake City, USA, Sir Utah celebrated the 20th anniversary of winning the NBA Western Conference Championship, and the former heroes were present as before.
Malone warmly embraced his mentor.
Jazz wrote in a statement: "Jerry Sloan will always be with Jazz, he will always be a member of Jazz. We will join his family, friends and fans in mourning his departure. We are grateful for his achievements in Utah and his decades of dedication, loyalty and tenacity to the team. "Farewell to the great meritorious manager, salute!