Sloan to the Euroleague?

In his next go-round, perhaps Jerry Sloan will return as a basketball coach – in Europe.
Practice his team six hours a week. Play games twice a week, no more. Farm his vineyard in the offseason.
It would be right up Sloan’s alley.
And he’d probably be great at it, too, if the thoughts of Real Madrid head coach Ettore Messina are any indication.
After the Jazz beat Real Madrid by 22 in an exhibition game last Thursday that was part of the NBA’s EuropeLive 2009 tour, Messina – a highly regarded Italian coach who left CSKA of the Russian League to take over the Spanish League power this season – lauded Sloan for “… the way his teams have always played through the years, playing unselfishly, extremely solid basketball … ”
For Messina, who some think could some day be the first European to serve as an NBA head coach, it is “personally the kind of basketball that I prefer.”
Sloan, meanwhile, heaped lavish praise on Real Madrid for, even though it lost like it did, playing the kind of precise and by-the-book basketball he wishes his Jazz would.
A true mutual admiration club, in other words.

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It was a bit bizarre listening to Messina speak at least three different languages while coaching last Thursday’s game.
Sloan, after all, sometimes has trouble getting certain players to understand one.
And those just as often as not are the Americans.

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Much was made during the past week of the NBA’s hopes for some day expanding the league overseas, which franchises in major European cities including London.
Before it does, though, there is much more for the NBA to do to raise its profile in Great Britain – especially based on the experiences of a couple Chicago Bulls who were there early last week for a one-point preseason win over the Jazz.
“We had a few people notice me, like kids around my age. … But not too many people,” said Bulls guard Derrick Rose, the NBA’s Rookie of the Year last season. “Soccer rules everything over here, so I should have been a soccer player.”
“It (basketball) has definitely been growing, with all the European-born players in the NBA,” Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich said with reference to a league that has about 75 foreign-born players. “You know, obviously soccer is still – or football is still – the focus over here (in London). But it definitely has grown. I think the NBA has become more and more of a worldwide sport every day.”
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Back in Utah today, by the way, Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko, delivered a couple of pre-practice passes to rookie point Eric Maynor.
They were delivered by the Russian with his foot, soccer-style – and were struck with such force that a wise Maynor didn’t dare try to grab one, perhaps for fear of a certain broken finger if he would even have been able to react quickly enough to get his hand on one.
The point: Should Rose ever start a team, Kirilenko might not make a bad late first-round pick.

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And finally …
Too bad for the Jazz they didn’t spend more time in Madrid, and didn’t find time when they were there to do much more than merely practice, play and enjoy a good restaurant.
Granted, it’s tough to stuff culture down anyone’s throat – especially the disinterested and unwilling.
Still, there’s nothing better to round out a day than a tour of a royal palace; a short stop for local-flavor tapas (interestingly, they do the most incredible things with potatoes in Spain); a visit to one what’s got to be one of the top public squares in all of Europe; a not-to-be-missed call on one of the most incredible covered markets in the world, replete with separate stands for ham, and cheese, and olives, and fresh seafood, and the region’s best vino; and a tour of works of the masters at the Prada, one of the continent’s must-see museums, conveniently timed for free-admission hours.
All that, incidentally, crammed into about seven hours – allowing one to leave feeling as if little was missed, even on a day four stories were written.

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