Utah Jazz notes: Pop passes Sloan on Wins list, injury curse

Legendary former Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan was passed on the all-time leaderboards by an old rival in Gregg Popovich. Also — the Jazz are banged-up once again.

After sitting in the No. 3 spot on the NBA’s all-time wins list for seven years, Utah Jazz legend Jerry Sloan has been bumped down a notch by another of the game’s best-ever coaches.

With his team’s crazy double-OT win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday (the final score of which was 154-147. Wow.), San Antonio Spurs headman Gregg Popovich moved ahead of Sloan to become the third winningest coach in the history of the league.

Even if you’re someone who’s not a fan of his antics with regards to media relations, one must concede that it’s fitting Popovich was the coach to knock Sloan out of his spot. When he passed the Jazz legend for most wins with a single team two years ago, he made clear the fact that he and the Spurs were able to do so by emulating Sloan and the Jazz.

Via ESPN —

"“We tried to do it similarly to them as far as how we conducted the program, what we expected, how to do it and how to keep it to yourself.”"

At the time, he also said that Sloan was in a league of his own. Now, it would seem that Popovich holds that distinction. His 1222 wins trail just Don Nelson (1335 wins) and Lenny Wilkins (1332) at the top of the record book.

Sloan previously usurped Pat Riley for the No. 3 spot in December of 2010, just a handful of weeks before he called it a career.

The Injury Curse is real

New season, same old injury problems, am I right?

If you’ve been following along, this has been an oft-discussed topic in Jazzland recently, but, man…after going through the first half of the 2018-19 season without any major problems, the Jazz are suddenly the most banged-up squad in the Association. Again.

With the schedule easing up, they may just survive, but the growing injured/inactive list is impressive in the worst possible way.

Ricky Rubio and Thabo Sefolosha are both down with hamstring injuries; both will be re-evaluated next week, but are expected to miss at least 10-12 days of action.

Meanwhile, Dante Exum is nursing a left ankle sprain that should keep him out for a couple of weeks and third-string point-man Raul Neto just joined the ailing with a groin injury. Like Sefolosha and Rubio, he’ll be re-evaluated next week. With Neto, Exum and Rubio all on the shelf, the Jazz have exactly zero healthy point guards on their roster.

Elsewhere, rookie Grayson Allen is battling a right ankle sprain and big man Tony Bradley will miss a month after undergoing a partial meniscectomy and debridement of his right knee.

Death, taxes, and Jazz injuries continue to be the only certainties in life.