The Chicago Bulls legend with the steely defense and the hard-nosed reputation walked into Frank Layden’s office, hoping the Utah Jazz head coach would hire him for a scouting job. Layden didn’t know it at the time, but the two would become attached at the hip and lifelong friends and lead a team together that would become one of the standards of small-market NBA franchises.
Layden, already legendary in Salt Lake City for the work he had done with the Jazz to that point, could feel Jerry Sloan’s presence. It didn’t take more than a few minutes for Layden to know exactly what he was dealing with.
He liked him immediately.
“When I first met him, heck, I was intimidated,” Layden told The Athletic on Friday morning. “He was the ultimate pro. He loved professional basketball. And he was completely self-effacing.
“We lost a titan today.”
Jerry Sloan, one of the best coaches in NBA history, died…
