Jerry Sloan is one tough dude

So, yesterday I read this story on Yahoo about Jerry Sloan almost getting in a fight with Chris Webber. In Webber's own words, this is how it went down:

"Man, one time I set a pick on (John) Stockton and I knocked Stockton to the ground and I gave him a shoulder. And I'm really cool with Stockton, but I was trying to show the rest of the team like I'm going to get the technical, you guys. I'll be the bad guy, come on. Well, Stockton kind of laughed. I laughed. I looked at the bench and Sloan looked at me.

"I said, 'You want some?' He was like, 'Damn right I want some.'

"He started walking toward me. So, you know, it's a good thing there was a ref there because, hey, he's one of the toughest guys in the league. I don't want to fight that guy. So, I'll tell you, when your team is led by one of the toughest guys in the league, your team is going to be tough."

Remember, at this time Chris Webber was like 26, and Jerry Sloan was around 60. That's a pretty fearless old man, especially since his gives up like 6 inches and 50 lbs to Webber. I looked for more stories about Jerry Sloan being a bad motha, and out of what I read this next one was my favorite. I guess many years ago when Sloan played for the Chicago Bulls(by the way, Sloan was the original Chicago Bull. Seriously, he was the first player they ever drafted.) it seems Wilt Chamberlain was physically beating the snot out of everybody on the Bulls team, when Sloan finally gets tired of it. He looks Chamberlain in the eye, utters some profanity at him and give him one hell of a shove. Chamberlain just stands there as Sloan starts to attack. Sloan is restrained, and is asked to leave the court.
In an interview later with Sloan about the incident a reporter asks him how silly it must feel to pick a fight with Chamberlain Sloan looks the reporter in the eye and says, "How do you know he even KNOWS how to fight, I do."
On top of Sloan being tough-as-nails, he's one of the best coaches ever. In fact, his only losing season in the 22 since he's coached the Jazz came the year his wife died of cancer and he had no Karl Malone or John Stockton. So on top of being a tough dude, he's a mighty fine coach too. That's the guy I want coaching my team, the man known as the human chainsaw.

Two things

Ok, the first thing I want to tell everyone is that I ate the new Double Down from KFC. It is delicious, lots of chicken, cheese and bacon(obviously), but the commercial makes it seem like it will be this HUGE thing. It was much, much smaller than I'd anticipated. They claim it has 590 calories with 31g of fat and 10g of saturated fat though, so maybe I've just become a fatso.

Secondly, I have to write something about the Jazz. Jerry Sloan is awesome. The Jazz roster is made up of ten players that were either drafted in the second round or undrafted. Talk about getting the most out of your roster. In fact, if you were to compare the starting 5 from the Jazz and the Nuggets(their current playoff opponent), you would see a huge disparity in their original draft position


JAZZ STARTERS

Deron Williams(3rd pick, 1st round)
Wesley Matthews(undrafted)
CJ Miles(34th pick overall, 2nd round)
Carlos Boozer(34th pick overall, 2nd round)
Kyrylo Fesenko(38th pick, 2nd round)

NUGGETS STARTERS

Chauncey Billups(3rd pick, 1st round)
Arron Afflalo(27th pick, 1st round)
Carmelo Anthony(3rd pick, 1st round)
Kenyon Martin(1st pick, 1st round)
Nene(7th pick, 1st round)

On top of this, the Jazz have two regular starters who were second round picks( Kirilenko, Okur) and their sixth man Paul Millsap is also a 2nd rounder. The Nuggets have Ty Lawson and JR Smith, two more 1st round pick who get significant minutes. In fact, the only player on the Nuggets that isn't a first round pick, and who gets regular playing time is Chris Andersen









Sweet!






So basically, the Jazz is a team filled with players that other teams didn't think too highly of, while the Nuggets team is filled with top draft picks. Just thought of that the other day.