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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: JAZZ v SPURS

May 20, 2007

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Game One

Q. Pop was here for two minutes, can you beat that?
JERRY SLOAN: I wouldn't even be here if it were left up to me (smiling). What's your question?

Q. Can you just talk about the impact of a healthy Carlos Boozer and also how his ambidexterous talent has made him as strong as he has been this year?
JERRY SLOAN: I would say he has had a terrific year for us, and obviously when we first got him, we were disappointed he couldn't play because he was hurt. But those are things you have no control over. Just happy to have him.
He has been a wonderful guy to coach as far as his ambidexterous. I think he hurt his right hand and had to use his left hand. I think that's the main reason why he used his left hand so well. I am confused by it myself (smiling).

Q. Jerry, what's Dee Brown's status? How much can he do? Can he do everything? Is he clear to this day?
JERRY SLOAN: He is fine. He has practiced. Everything is fine. He is probably still a little bit stiff. He seems to be a little bit stiff in his shoulders but he's okay.

Q. Coach, when you hear Gregg Popovich say something like from the time I have been in the league I have always thought the Jazz was the best executing team on both ends of the court. I have tried to model my philosophy after theirs, how aware of you that and what does it mean to you?
JERRY SLOAN: I am flattered with that. I have had great players to coach. I am fortunate, I have had guys that seem to work hard. That's what we try to do, is to get people we think if they will work hard, they have a chance to get better. That's about all we try to do.

Q. As a followup, how do you think the Spurs have done in terms of emulating what you do?
JERRY SLOAN: They are better than we are. They have terrific -- in that situation, I think they have done a great job. I have nothing but admiration for the way they handle themselves with people, the way they conduct themselves on the floor for the most part. Like all of us, we always have a few things happen that we wish didn't happen sometimes and kind of throws it out of sync.
They are not about doing anything other than playing well and doing it intelligently so they can win every night and they have terrific players to work with.

Q. Since we always write and say that the system has been pretty consistent, has it -- what are we missing little things you may do? Not that you will tell us exactly.
JERRY SLOAN: Basically the stuff we do came from Coach Dick Motta. I played for him for eight years. I thought he was a terrific coach for the way he tried to do things. I have enjoyed playing in those situations. We had maybe not great players, we had good players that worked hard every day, and that's basically all I know. Phil Johnson has been my assistant coach ever since I have been in the league as a coach. He coached me when I played. And he has tremendous input to what we do, as well as our other coaches.
I don't think of myself as a coach as far as those guys and what they do. Scott Layden and Tyrone Corbin do a lot of work in the coaching part of it.
That's just kind of who we are --

Q. Did you ever have temptation one year to come in and blow stuff up or run something --
JERRY SLOAN: I had that situation. I will tell you a little quick story. I don't want to bore you with it. I had a little situation when I had pressure on me.
One year we came to camp and our players all wanted to run. I said I don't have any problem with running. Everybody was having a good time. Exhibition season, we were 6-2. And we were running, having fun and guys are taking shots. They are getting their numbers and everything.
And then we start the regular season, and we go 2-5. And we are supposed to have a pretty good team, but our guys were running. They were having fun running and everything. So I didn't do much about it. I just let them run. Finally, one of my players -- you probably know which one it was (smiling) came to me and said, "What about all this running?" I said, Nobody ever said anything to me about winning. I was under a lot of pressure to do that and I never really done too much in this business as far as coaching. I had been in it a little bit.
But I think -- he said we are going to play like you want to play. And then we went ahead and started winning games and they became more comfortable with winning than losing. That's the thing that I have always felt was the most important thing. Regardless what you do, you play to win. And this game goes on, if you lose you go home.

Q. That was something wasn't he?
JERRY SLOAN: Gregg and I didn't have too much problems. That's basically all it is.

Q. Pop was saying it was a misconception to say you guys don't run now?
JERRY SLOAN: We always had it the first day of training camp, we tell our players we want to run, we want to run for a layup on every possession but you have to give the other team some credit.
C running it can be deceiving sometimes. You can run and take shots, but I have always felt like as a player, I always wanted a chance to rebound when guys are shooting. And if you take shots when I don't have a chance to rebound, I'm useless.
And we ran into that a little bit in the series we had when we played Golden State. We started off and had a situation or two where when we lost the game. Boozer, we might as well not had him on the floor. If he doesn't get to touch the ball, then, you know, there is not much use to playing.
I was a little bit nervous today for some reason. You all are intimidating. That's about the only thing that does intimidate me, by the way.

Q. In striking that balance of running, knowing when to run, knowing when to --
JERRY SLOAN: That has a lot to do with the point guard. I have been blessed with two point guards with John Stockton, and Deron Williams has done a great job progressing with his career. Obviously he played a different style when he was at Illinois and he came here and a little bit more structured. They had -- not to mean they didn't have structure. They had great structure. It was a different appearance. They were very good at what they did.
But he has helped direct us a great deal and trying to get us into stuff we think we need to do. That's been important to us.

Q. Has he made a jump even from the start of the playoffs?
JERRY SLOAN: All young players, I have a young team to deal with on a daily basis. We have had their ups and downs. He has struggled here and there. There is a lot of great players. Every time you step out on the floor, you get in the playoffs, you have to play a great player. Those are the things, if you are going to get better, that is what makes you a better player. He has done that and gotten better.
Like all of us, we have all had some ups and down.

Q. Jerry, you've obviously had a veteran team to have a really good run. What's the gratification for you to get back here?
JERRY SLOAN: Not anything for me. It is not about me. It is about their players, and that's one of the things I said at the beginning of the season.
This team needed to get to the playoffs to have some nice young players. They needed to get to the playoffs in order to try to move on with their career to become better players. I coached a couple of guys after they have been in the league for 10 or 11 years and never got to play in the playoffs until they came to our team. They were so overjoyed by it, it was kind of refreshing. It is refreshing to me because these guys have worked hard. They stood together in some kind of tough times as far as playing and everything is concerned.
That's the only gratification I get out of it. It is not a matter -- I don't look at myself as that. This has always been a players game. We just hope we don't screw them up too much in the process in wondering what they are doing.
The team today will probably do that to us.

Q. Piggybacking off of that, compared to the veteran group of guys that you had before, what do you have to do differently as a coach maybe to get this group of guys -- young guys ready to play on the biggest stage that many of them have ever played on.
JERRY SLOAN: Number one, it has to start from the beginning, how willing are they to work. If they aren't willing to work and don't have a lot of excuses for not to work, then it is tough to get to any level because it still takes five guys to play this game out on the floor. I have been fortunate, I have a pretty good group of guys. They are young. Sometimes they think shaking hands is working too hard.
I think that's the thing that they've got to learn to overcome. If they want to get better -- to me, that's the most important thing, is that they get better and hopefully make more money playing this game.

End of FastScripts

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