Jerry Sloan, as you know, is the longest tenured coach in the NBA. He's been coaching the Utah Jazz for 20 years, which when you stop and think about it is utterly ridiculous. Most normal people don't stay in one job for 20 years, let alone one with as high a turnover rate as that of NBA coaches.

Now, while Sloan fits the M.O. of a pro NBA coach, as in he played in the NBA himself (back in 1874), I'm starting to think it's time for Sloan to put down the reigns. Why? Because he's just getting ridiculous at this point in time. Apparently Sloan is anti-dyed hair, as he lit into second-year center Kyrylo Fesenko for doing the unholy to his hair.

"He's got a long way to go to make himself a better player," Sloan said. "He has skills, but sometimes the outside things will take you right out of this game. If those things are more important than basketball, that's where you get in trouble."

"A lot of people have skills," Sloan added. "A lot of them are sitting on the sidewalk wondering what happened 20 years ago when they had a chance. He's got to figure out what he wants to do and play basketball or be a clown."

So apparently getting your hair dyed makes you a clown, and not a serious basketball player. I guess that makes some sense, if Darko Milicic is the only guy you've ever watched play.

But seriously, almost every year we hear Utah is going to get a new coach and then they don't. It's sort of like how Utah almost drafts a talented player every year but instead drafts a big white stiff. Although there are other reasons for that.

Obviously Sloan's forgotten more basketball than most people will ever know, but I can't be the only one who thinks that Sloan's excessively grating and crotchety attitude is something that's kept him from ever winning an NBA Championship. There are guys in the league that could've obviously helped the Jazz in the past, but Sloan would have pushed them out the door with his "my way or the high way" approach.

It also shouldn't be any shock that the Jazz were beaten in the NBA Finals a couple of time by the Bulls, a team that had the ultimate NBA crazyman Dennis Rodman. Phil Jackson is in no way shape or form a better X's and O's guy than Sloan, but what Jackson is able to do is get fiery and difficult personalities to work in harmony with a team concept.

I've never gotten the sense Sloan can, or more importantly WOULD, ever do that.

So as long as Sloan's around, calling people who dye their hair clowns and stubbornly acting as a one man dictator, this team will never win an NBA championship. Sure, they'll be competitive. But sometimes you have to take a risk on volatile player - like a Ron Artest - to push you over the top. And that's never going to happen in Utah as long as Sloan's still patrolling the sidelines.

[HT: True Hoop]