They have never won an NBA championship, a fact that at least one does not overlook.
But Karl Malone and Jerry Sloan share something that may mean more than any ring can represent.It is called respect, and it is an integral part of a rather unique relationship that has overcome an occasional pothole in the road to stand as a testament to the fact that a player and his coach really can get along.
One is the employee. The other is the boss. One calls the shots, the other makes them.
There is no question as to whom is which, but that doesn't get in the way of the two working together so well for so long, a point Malone, the Jazz's two-time NBA MVP, went out of his way to make on the occasion of Utah's ongoing first-round Western Conference playoff series with the Seattle Sonics.
"This guy here has played at every level, and he played at every level like he was out to prove something. And he's coached the same way," Malone said of Sloan, who was an assistant coach when Malone joined the Jazz in 1985, and has been their head coaching since Dec. 9, 1988. "You know, we talk about (retiring Jazz guard) Jeff Hornacek, and 'Enjoy it while you can.' . . . But, coaching-wise, they're going to miss (Sloan) when he leaves, also."
No one knows for certain when that will be, and Sloan himself is giving no hints.
But Malone, who at 36 has three seasons after this one remaining on his current contract, said he hopes it is long enough that he wouldn't have to play for someone else.
It is simply not something he can imagine doing, either on the floor, where Malone is the Jazz's go-to guy, or off, where Sloan -- whether it's sitting and shooting the breeze while flying to an away game, or it's heading out to work out a some out-of-town gym -- is someone to whom Malone can go to share the passing of idle time.
"I just hope that he don't leave before I leave," Malone said, "because - unless it is one of these guys (current Jazz assistants Phil Johnson, Gordie Chiesa and Kenny Natt) that's here (who becomes the Jazz's new head coach), and I don't see that -- it's going to be tough for me finishing my career out with some other coach, because I'm used to what he (does), and he's used to what I do.
"That's just one of those things. It's the way I feel. Me and Coach, you know, we bump heads some times, but so do you and your boss. So do you and your wife. People want to want a big deal out of it."
Malone does not.
"It's one of those things that I respect and he respects me, as men and as a player and a coach," he said.
Malone and Sloan did have one of those head-knocking sessions earlier this season, during a late-March game between Utah and the Philadelphia 76ers.
Malone went down to the floor after turning an ankle under the boards, but he nevertheless intended to continue playing. Instead, he was taken out the game. Malone didn't want to leave, Sloan didn't like it, and the two exchanged words on the sideline before Malone finally took a seat on the bench.
The bickering apparently continued in the Jazz locker room at halftime, and afterward Sloan left the Delta Center without comment. Malone immediately said he had already put the incident behind him. Sloan went silent for another full day before finally agreeing that he, too, was over it.
If the relationship between the two was adversely affected by that blip on the 12-plus-year radar screen, it is impossible to tell that now.
Sloan, in fact, said on Tuesday that he is blessed to be coaching a
team led by the likes of Malone and fellow vet John Stockton.
"There are a lot of great coaches in this business," Sloan said, "and it's really a sad part of it that so many coaches don't get the opportunity to coach players like that, and they have to go through all the turmoil that some of these (other) guys present to them.
"I knew when I worked with Frank (Layden, Malone's and Stockton's only other NBA coach) that these guys were special players, because of their approach to the game. It was fun for me to watch them. It's been fun for me to watch them grow and watch them have success. It's not been fun to have them go through the failure part of it, because we're all failures in that regard."
More than a dozen years and two runner-up showings in the NBA Finals later, Sloan, Malone, and Stockton, too, continue their quest for what has alluded them. Whether they win it or not before time runs out is an issue that -- in Sloan's eyes, at least -- takes a side seat to the journey getting there.
"They've taken some tough shots over the years because of the way they haven't won a championship, and that will continue until they die, (or) until they win one," Sloan said. "If they don't, then they'll always hear that. It's just part of the business.
"But, you know, they feel within themselves, and I know within myself, that I don't think anybody in this league works any harder than them to try to put all they've put into it," he added. "That's all you can ask for. And if that's not good enough, you go on about your business. That's how it is in this business. It's just a day-to-day thing. Nobody cares about what you've done, anyway."
Malone, though, said he does care about the man for whom he has been doing it for all these years.
"First of all, he played the game," Malone said of Sloan, an overachieving defensive specialist who spent most of his 11 NBA seasons with the Chicago Bulls.
That, as Malone sees it, is a mandatory starting point for anyone who intends to coach as long as Sloan has.
"That's why it just blows my mind sometimes when you see the people who get head coaching jobs," he said. "They haven't paid their price to get head coaching jobs, (but) they've probably kissed enough rear ends to get to where they're at."
However . . .
"When you've played the game of basketball the number of years he's played, it's a respect thing, from your best player on the team -- and should be -- to your 12th player on the team," Malone said. "Because he played the game.
"He understands four games in five nights. He understands injuries and stuff like that. And I think he's a 'players' kind of coach. Now I understand that he'll get on your butt, and, game's over with, will come shake your hand, or whatever. To me, those are intangible things.
"But I think, as players, you have a respect for him because of what he's done. . . . He's been here all this while, he's doing something right."
You can reach Tim Buckley by e-mail at tbuckley@desnews.com