Marc Iavaroni certainly paid his dues before being given the reins as a head coach in the NBA.
The former Utah Jazz forward served as a graduate assistant at Virginia and spent two years as an assistant coach at Bowling Green. He got back into the NBA as an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1997 before being an assistant for the Miami Heat and, most recently, the Phoenix Suns.
But now Iavaroni has finally been given the opportunity to be a head coach — for the Memphis Grizzlies.
Maybe he should have waited even longer to take a head coaching job.
The Grizzlies have a proven star forward in Pau Gasol and a number of fine young players, but they figure to take some lumps this season in the the Western Conference. Memphis, which lost its fourth game in five tries on Saturday night to the Utah Jazz, 118-94, is in the brutal Southwest Division along with the San Antonio Spurs, the Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets.
"We've got to understand that we have new guys and we have young guys," said Iavaroni, whose young team turned the ball over 25 times, giving up 14 steals to the Jazz. "The effort has to be consistent. Our play has been inconsistent."
The early losing ways by the Grizzlies is new to Iavaroni this year after helping the Suns become one of the best teams in the NBA the past five seasons in Phoenix. The Suns, under Mike D'Antoni and Iavaroni, won better than 60 percent of their games.
Iavaroni will have to get used to losing a bit more often.
"Let's be honest," said Memphis guard Casey Jacobsen, "(the Jazz) are a good team and right now they're a better team than we are."
Meanwhile, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan isn't the least bit surprised that Iavaroni, who played for Utah from 1985-89, has become a head coach in the NBA.
"Iavaroni always played hard. He was a wonderful teammate, I thought, to be around," Sloan said. "He was always trying to learn more about basketball. I think as time went on you thought he'd be a head coach in this league, if the opportunity came around."
Iavaroni, for his part, knows it is never easy to play against a Sloan-coached team.
"They are a tough team," Iavaroni said of the Jazz. "They were in the Western Conference finals last year. They do a great job within their system and know what they are all about."
Still, the new Memphis coach didn't feel his team's numerous turnovers were all because of Utah's defense.
"You have to take care of the ball against them. (The Jazz) are aggressive, but you shouldn't cough it up that many times," said Iavaroni. "A lot of them were silly and unforced (turnovers)."
While the Jazz had the Grizzlies' number on Saturday night at EnergySolutions Arena, there will, no doubt, be a time when Iavaroni gets the better of his old coach. For now, the Jazz coach is pleased his former hard-working player has become a hard-working head coach.
"You've got to give the guy a lot of credit for starting all over and going back to college and taking the route he did," said Sloan.
Contributing: Tim Buckley
E-mail: lojo@desnews.com