The Jazz have always played this way, a tribute to Jerry Sloan's coaching for sure.... BUT, they have never won. Ask me if I'd rather have Jerry Sloan as my coach or Greg Popovich and I'd have a hard time answering. It comes down to the players, for sure, but Stockton+Malone isn't exactly chopped liver. Interestingly, Sloan's biggest mistake as a coach may have been his developement and treatment of Greg Ostertag. Ostertag is certainly no all-star player, but his relationship with Sloan was so love/hate, I think it hurt his game, and a more steady center could have been the difference a couple of those years. I agree that Memphis is likely last year's success story. This year should be the Suns, mainly because Steve Nash can make any team successful offensively. But they still won't be able to defend effectively in the half-court, which will be their downfall.
There is one big difference between Pop's Championship Spurs and the Sloan's NBA Finals Jazz. MICHAEL JORDAN! C'mon, if MJ wasn't in the league in both 1997 and 1998 the Jazz probably would have been back to back NBA Champions, a lot like the Rockets were in the mid 90s. The Spurs never had to go up against MJ, they hit their stride when he retired. Utah began its fall when MJ retired. Also the reason Sloan and Ostertag never got along wasn't because of Sloan, rather it was because Tag had no love for the game. Sloan's the type of coach that won't deal with players that are paid an unbelievable amount of cash, yet sit and play horrible ball. Ostertag has said MANY of times that he lacks passion for the game, so why is he even playing it? Sloan is all about work ethic. You don't have to be the best player in the league, but if you bring your game night in and night out and play hard ball, you're going to earn his respect. Why do you think Raja Bell, not a superstar, is one of Sloan's favorite players? Because he works his ass off. Ostertag NEVER did and it put him in Sloan's doghouse.
The Rockets actually matched up very well against the Jordan Bulls, so there is no reason to think that they would have lost to the Bulls in '94. Michael was back in '95 and and his team did not make it to the finals. The Jazz, like the Barkley Suns, did not match up well with the Bulls, because they did not have a center to create problems against the Donuit team of the Bulls. The Spurs, on the other hand, had Robinson and Duncan. I think they had an excellent chance to beat the Jordan led Bulls, because they have the players to create matchup problems. They could have put Bowen on Jordan to limit his scoring, and the Bulls would have no answer for the twin towers. I agree with the main thrust of your point, that it was not a failing on Jerry Sloan's part that led to the Jazz losing, but I disagree that the Spurs could not win, and I disagree that the Rockets only won because of Jordan's absence, especially considering the fact that he was not absent for the title defense, just eliminated (by another team with a dominant center, the O'Neal Magic).
I never once said the Rockets would have lost to the Bulls. What I meant was that the Rockets were the only team to win the NBA title back to back outside of the Bulls run. I don't agree at all. Hell Utah beat the Spurs in the second round of the NBA Playoffs back in 1998, so if they couldn't stop Utah -- who probably weren't better than the Bulls -- I don't see how they'd of stopped the Bulls. The problem here however is that we're comparing two different seasons. It's not fair to speculate because it's impossible to know the out come. In reality we can only go by what we've seen. Utah probably matched up the best with the Bulls out of any of the teams they played during their championship run. With that said, Utah obviously matched up better against the Spurs in the western semi-finals. Sloan is obviously one of the greatest coaches in NBA history. Granted he could never win the championship, but that was no fault of his own, as you've stated. The reality is that Sloan was denied a championship shot because of Malone's unbelievable ability to choke when it counted most.
