Bobby Cox was an old balls and clearly was ready to call it quits after an amazing career as one of MLB's greatest baseball minds. The Atlanta Braves handled it with class and allowed him to walk on his own terms, giving him a final farewell tour. He lost his last game, not surprising for anyone who followed The Braves and he walked off the field with tears in his eyes and a heavy heart. He was clearly willing to leave on his own terms and turn over the top step duties to his protege Freddy Gonzalez.
Jeff Fisher was known as a no nonsense coach, a players coach and a great game manager. He managed to last sixteen season in the National Football League(the average tenure in the NFL is 4.3 for head coaches) four times the average tenure of a head coach. He went to a Superbowl and lost, made the playoffs a few times and clearly was respected by everyone around the league. Well, everyone but his quarterback and his owner. What drives me insane is that Bud Adams, owner of The Titans, was willing to fire his head coach and give the job to a career offensive line coach because he had his tongue so far up his QB's ass! I'm not old by any means, but I grew up on San Francisco and Bill Walsh was the coach of my football team. He had rules and they were really simple. Do it my way, do it perfect or get the fuck out! Clearly that mentality has been lost in the new age of professional sports and that's a damn shame.
Jerry Sloan was one of the fiercest competitors the NBA ever saw. He would be the first guy off the bench to defend a teammate in a fight, he would throw punches with guys twice his size and he would get his ass kicked quite often. What he would never did was back down from a fight. The man was successful before Karl Malone and John Stockton lost to the almighty Jordan in two finals (in 1997 and 1998) and he was successful well after those two guys retired. He was old school and had a very similar coaching style as Bill Walsh. Do it my way, shut your mouth or get the hell off the court. End of story. Well, that worked for twenty-three years but clearly it doesn't work anymore. Rumor has it that Sloan resigned (again, let's get real, he was fired) because he and star point guard Deron Williams didn't see eye to eye, had a few heated battles after a tough loss in Chicago earlier in the week and Williams and the players were sick of the drill sergeant coaching style of their head coach. Part of the problem is a matter of fact. Larry Miller, long time owner of The Jazz, died in February of 2009 after complications from diabetes. If Mr. Miller were still alive, this would never have happened, but the current ownership group allowed the star player to become more important than their head coach and that's a disgrace. I'm a firm believer that a team centers around the coach and not around one player, but I also sit behind a desk and don't own a professional sports franchise.
Clearly sports has become a revolving door for players and coaches alike and if you don't win you are expendable. Utah was never on top of the sports world while Sloan was head coach but more importantly they were never on the bottom of the barrel either. They never endured the longest losing steak in the history of professional sports the way The Cleveland Cavs are right now, they haven't been forced to send a "pretty face" to New York every season for the lottery draft and they always had a chance to make the playoffs and win games once they made it there. Whoever takes over (it will likely be assistant coach Tyrone Corbin because Sloan's longtime assistant Phil Johnson will also resign) for this team has giants shoes to fill and a huge task. I highly doubt this team will be as respectable tomorrow as they were yesterday and we might start seeing Utah Jazz reps in New York watching ping pong balls spin hoping they get the number one pick in the draft.
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