Jerry Sloan - Playing Career

Playing Career

Born and raised in Gobbler's Knob, 15 miles south of McLeansboro, Illinois, Sloan was the youngest of 10 children and was raised by a single mother after his father died when Jerry was four years old. He would wake up at 4:30 am to do farm chores and then walk almost two miles to get to school in time for 7 am basketball practice. Sloan graduated an all-state player from McLeansboro High School in 1960.

Sloan spent five weeks at the University of Illinois then quit school due to homesickness. After working for a time at the oil fields, he moved to Evansville College (now University of Evansville). He played college basketball under Evansville coach Arad McCutchan even as he worked part-time making refrigerators for Whirlpool. Amassing 15.5 points per contest, Sloan was the leading scorer for the Purple Aces in each of his three seasons as a starter. He led Evansville twice to the NCAA College Division Championship (now known as the Division II Championship), which included a perfect 29–0 season in 1965, and was voted a first team Little All-America along with teammate Larry Humes during his senior season.

Sloan was originally selected as an eligible junior in the third round of the 1964 NBA Draft by the Baltimore Bullets. He decided to stay in college, and was then selected by the Bullets again in the 1965 NBA Draft with the fourth overall pick. He played just one season for the Bullets under coach Paul Seymour. He then went on to play for the Chicago Bulls under Johnny Kerr during the Bulls' formative years. He was the first player selected by the Bulls in the expansion draft, which earned him the nickname "The Original Bull." Sloan was known for his tenacity on defense, and led the expansion team to the playoffs in its first season.

Sloan played in two All-Star Games, being named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team four times and the All-Defensive Second team twice. He also led the Bulls to the playoffs on various occasions and helped them to win one division title, the only one the franchise had earned before the Michael Jordan era. Sloan averaged 9.1 rebounds per game in his second season, and his career rebounding average of 7.4 rebounds per game is unusually high for a guard. He is currently fourth on the Bulls' all-time scoring list. With an average of 2.15 steals per game (tabulated over his last three seasons), Sloan is ranked tenth in the NBA's all-time leaders category for steals per game, just behind John Stockton (2.17 SPG). Sloan recorded two triple-doubles during his career, and scored a career-high 43 points in a 1969 game versus the Milwaukee Bucks.

Of his playing days with the Bulls, Sloan would say, "If I had to choose one word for the Bulls of my time, it would be 'tough'. There simply wasn't a tougher team in the league."

Sloan's playing career was cut short by successive knee injuries, and he turned his attention to coaching. As of the beginning of the 2011–12 season, Sloan was ranked fourth in Chicago franchise history in seasons played (10), field goals made (3,996), total points (10,233) and rebounds (5,385), and third in games (696) and minutes played (24,798). Because of his influential career with the Bulls, the franchise retired Sloan's No. 4 jersey, the first jersey retired by the Bulls.