Chicago Bulls: Tandem of Jerry Sloan and Bob Love has always gone unappreciated

Jerry Sloan

By all accounts Sloan is Mr. Chicago Bull. He spent all but one of his eleven seasons in the NBA right in downtown Chicago. He was on the first Bulls team and left the Bulls in 1976. Sloan’s efforts have gotten him a retired jersey and a somewhat unknown legacy in Chicago.

Sloan started his career with the Baltimore Bullets and was mostly a backup shooting guard for Kevin Loughery. The 6-foot-5 guard saw action in 59 games and averaged 5.7 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 41.5 percent from the field.

Baltimore looked like it had its backup guard for the future, but as the league expanded the next year, they were forced to give Sloan up. He was subsequently selected by the Bulls in the 1966 expansion draft.

Sloan’s first year in Chicago was arguably his best as he was second I the team in scoring, first in scoring, and arguably their best defender as many dubbed him the original Bull. He helped lead the Bulls to their first playoff appearance in their first season, which would be a sweep to the St. Louis Hawks.

Sloan was rewarded an All-Star appearance for his sophomore season efforts and would add another two seasons later. The “Original Bull” would never lead the team in scoring hut was always the life flow of the team and was always garnered high field goal percentages, with an emphasis on rebounds.

Sloan would unfortunately have a series of knee injuries that would eventually cause him to retire in 1976 at the age of 34.

Sloan would gain even further notoriety as the coach of the Utah Jazz from 1988-2011, where he would garner enough to be named a member of the Hall of Fame. Sloan did a lot for the franchise but as many know it takes more than one star to make it the distance and Sloan’s running mate was as good as they got.