And while the subject is on Jerry Sloan and his time served in Utah, it’s interesting to note all of the men who coached the 76ers.
Check it out:
Poor Matty Guokas had the misfortune of taking over the Sixers when former owner, Harold Katz decided to tear the team apart. Stepping up when Billy Cunningham stepped down, Guokas was on the sidelines when he took the Sixers to the Eastern Conference Finals with the last vestiges of the 1983 championship club and a youthful Charles Barkley.
However, during the off-season where the Sixers had the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, Katz dealt the selection, which was Brad Daugherty to Cleveland for Roy Hinson. If that wasn’t bad enough, Katz then sent Moses and Terry Catledge to Washington for Cliff Robinson (the non-headbanded one) and Jeff Ruland.
/shakes head/
Trust me, those deals made even less sense then than they do now.
Could you imagine a frontcourt with Daugherty, Moses, young Sir Chuck with Catledge as the sixth man and Mo Cheeks and Hersey Hawkins in the backcourt?
Sigh!
Poor Matty Guokas never had a chance.
Before he was the man on Sixers’ Post-Game Live, Lynam was one of a hanful of men to win an Atlantic Division title for the Sixers. In fact, since Lynam took the 1989-90 club to the Atlantic crown, the team has won the division just one time.
Mulligan!
Not only was Mad Dog a member of the historic 1972 Sixers, he also was on hand to witness the beginning of theShawn Bradley Era.
The Sixers, amazingly, took a step backwards during Lucas’ reign. However, thanks to Lucas’ deft touch, the Sixers were in position to draft Jerry Stackhouse and Allen Iverson.
Davis’ claim to fame in his only season with the club was that he was in the backcourt for Portland when they beat the Sixers in the 1977 NBA Finals. Oh, and he also allowed rookie Iverson to shoot the ball as much as he wanted.
The Hall-of-Famer has coached 13 different teams since 1972, yet managed to stay the longest in Philadelphia. He also figured out how to coax an Eastern Conference title after facing two Game 7s in the playoffs. Fun and crazy times…
Mulligan! You get two of those, right?
Ford was just the interim coach, but he quickly butted heads with Iverson. Apparently Iverson was not impressed that Ford made the very first three-pointer in NBA history.
O’Brien has been fired by the Celtics, Sixers and Pacers. He got the axe in Boston because he clashed with GM Danny Ainge and wanted to keep Tony Battie and Eric Williams instead of rebuilding the roster with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. He got fired in Philly because he wasn’t Mo Cheeks and then he got fired in Indiana because he didn’t win.
Cheeks was around for the rise and fall of the great Sixers’ teams of the 1970s and ‘80s, and was there for the end of the Iverson Era. He’s the greatest point guard in franchise history and maybe even the most well-liked guy, too.
DiLeo came down from the front office when Cheeks was fired, pushed the team back into the playoffs and then went back to his old gig when the season was over. Went out with a winning record…
Wait… we’re out of mulligans? OK, fore!
Let’s see where this goes…
So that’s 14 coaches and one Finals appearance in the time Sloan spent in Utah. Interestingly, Utah has had just three coaches since moving from New Orleans.