I've been waiting for Jerry Sloan to step down for years. I remember when I came back from my mission, seeing Jerry Sloan and thinking it was his frozen corpse hauled out into the coach's seat. Then I saw him explode on a referee in the third quarter and get T'd up, at which point I realized that he was not actually dead. He made a great run with the Jazz, and was an NBA legend (despite never winning a championship). In fact, if it weren't for Michael Jordan he might have been the greatest Chicago Bulls player of all time and have two rings with the Jazz (probably just one, though, I don't see them beating Bird's Pacers in 1998-that team was awesome). He was a great coach, in fact I highlight the season after Stockton and Malone left when he just about coached his team led by Andrei Kirilenko and Matt Harpring to the playoffs as his greatest accomplishment, and had a great run, but he ran out of gas and couldn't handle it anymore. He was there for 22 years and only had one losing season. The only other coach in the NBA with more than 10 years with his current team is Greg Popavich (in his 15th). Pop's been there since the second half of 1996, and in his first draft acquired Tim Duncan, who he's ridden to four championships and a career .678 win percentage. Pop's ability to adjust to changes is a subject for another post (his ability to coach the Spurs, with their stars in decline, to an amazing 44-8 start this season is incredible), right now let's just focus on this: long tenured coaches with a single team are not the norm. Not in the NBA, not in other professional sports. Sloane resigning , like Bobby Cox retiring after 20 years at the helm of the Atlanta Braves, marks the end of a great run filled with winning seasons, hall of fame players and lost championships. It is the end of an era.
Today I was driving back from a doctor's appointment and heard the cheers of 
Egyptians ringing out on NPR celebrating the resignation of their
leader. Hosni Mubarak did not plan on being a dictator, but did an excellent job at it for 30 years. After weeks of
quiet, civil disobedience by the Egyptian people, yesterday Mubarak tried to convince his people that it was a good idea for him to stay in power, while delegating powers to the Vice President. This is what Joe Paterno has done for years, and it has served him well, as he has been the head coach at Penn State for 44 years, and lucid for 38 of them (Just kidding! Long live JoPa!). Well, unfortunately for Mubarak, the people didn't take to that idea well, so he went the way of Bobby Bowden, who was forced to retire from his position at Florida State after 35 years.
And so Mubarak is at a Red Sea resort contemplating the future, looking back on the fantastic run he made as the 'democratically elected' president of Egypt. I'm not sure where Jerry Sloan is, but he's probably going through the same contemplative practice. I wonder if he sees what I see. I wonder if he sees a president at his home in Cairo watching Sportscenter and seeing an aging man give a speech about his stunning career, announcing its end, and repeatedly stating how much he has been blessed. He thinks to himself, "I have been blessed. I have done much good for this country. We are better now than we were 30 years ago. Maybe it's time." And he calls the vice president and tells him to announce his resignation. That's what I see.
And there you have it, Jerry Sloan influences Hosni Mubarak to step down as president of Egypt. Just think about it, it's not that much of a stretch.
