Zen and the Art of Tractor Maintenance

"Such is time: everything passes, it alone remains; everything remains, it alone passes."
  from Vassily Grossman's Life and Fate

This season Jerry Sloan will return for his four hundred and twenty-third year as the head coach of the Utah Jazz. For some Jazz fans this is a prospect which brings great comfort. Like seeing the sun rise, seeing Jerry swearing at referees is a reasurrance that the world continues on as it should be. For other fans, Coach Sloan's ongoing presence suggests that the Jazz organization has never heard of the law of diminishing marginal utility. Like Joe Dumars, these fans think that a team should change coaches frequently (or at least periodically) in order to introduce fresh ideas and to keep the attention of the MTV-generation of NBA players. Alas, like Isaiah Thomas, these fans are simply mistaken.

Though one might be misled by the team's off-season roster overhaul, in fact the Jazz organization values stability the way a librarian values peace and quiet. To some, it might have seemed like madness not to give up on the Stockon and Malone combination after 10 straight years without a finals appearance. Still, like Andy DuFresne in Shawshenk Redemption the team persevered through sheer persistence. Even though (except for Andrei Kirilenko) the players have changed, Coach Sloan is still running the same plays- calling them by the same names- since he's been running since the Eisenhower administration. Is it stubborn? Yes. Is it old-fashioned? Undoubtedly. Is it foolhardy? Probably not. Probably not, because the system works. It's the Lombardi sweep of the NBA: everyone knows it's coming but that doesn't make it any easier to stop.

Still, all these are easy answers. The question isn't whether Sloan is a good coach or a bad one. I think we'd be near unanimous in declaring him to be a good one. (Hall of Fame caliber, even.) The question isn't whether the system works or not. Again, we know the system has produced season after season of playoff teams. The question is whether Sloan in any way stands between the team and the promised land.

But this too is a silly question. Perhaps Sloan isn't the single best coach in the league. The thing is... Phil Jackson isn't going to get measurably better results from this team than Jerry is. The Zen Master is probably the best coach in the history of the NBA. But the Tractor Fixer is not far behind. Good coaches can get players and teams to meet their reasonable potential. Great coaches can get players and teams to exceed their reasonable potential. But no coach on earth could lead the Indiana Pacers as presently constituted to the NBA title because they don't posess that much potential. And pretty much nobody could squeeze more out of the 2010-2011 Jazz than Sloan can, because he already consistently gets his teams to overachieve.

The thing that stands between the Jazz and the Larry O'Brien trophy is talent. The Lakers have more of it, the Heat have more of it, and the Magic and Celtics may well also have more of it. But the future looks as sunny as ever. The Lakers and Celtics won their recent titles thanks to hopelessly lopsided trades (Kwame Brown for Pau Gasol and young Al Jefferson for Kevin Garnett, respectively). Now that the Jazz have pulled off a heist of their own (Kosta Koufos for a seasoned Al Jefferson)... who knows what might happen. But if there's one person I trust to lead us through an uncertain tomorrow, it's Jerry Sloan. Seriously, the man has met every challenge the franchise has presented to him and passed every test with flying colors. I see no indication that the game has passed him by or that the time has come when the Jazz might simply be better off without him.

If the Jazz win a title, it will be because of Jerry Sloan, not in spite of him. Times may have changed, but Jerry has not. That's not a lament, that's the best news we could possibly hear. The Jazz are in good exceptionally good hands. We would do well not to take him for granted.