John Stockton News

The longest tenured coach in American professional sports isn't going anywhere. The Utah Jazz announced Wednesday night that Jerry Sloan has signed a contract extension that will keep him with the team through 2010-11. It will be Sloan's 23rd season after taking over as head coach of the Jazz on Dec.

The Jazz practiced with just eight healthy players Sunday, and that could be all they have available for tonight's game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Karl Malone and Scottie Pippen, superstar forwards of NBA in the 1990s, headed the list of candidates for the 2010 Basketball Hall of Fame.

Paul Millsap of the Utah Jazz dunks over Brandon Roy of the Portland Trail Blazers during NBA action Saturday, November 28 2009 at EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City.

Now in his seventh year, Korver never has missed more than eight games in a season before this one.

On Wednesday, Allen Iverson supposedly was retiring. By Thursday, the backpedaling already had begun.

In eight games as a starter this season, Jazz small forward Andrei Kirilenko averaged 13.5 points and 4.6 rebounds.

Few things put a hop in my step like seeing Jerry Sloan playing two rookies in crunch time of must-win games.

They still aren't whole, and they certainly didn't put together a complete game Wednesday night.

Even with the Jazz down to a scant nine available healthy players for their last two games, young bigs Kosta Koufos and Kyrylo Fesenko played sparingly in Friday night's win at Philadelphia and Saturday night's loss at Cleveland.

Eric Maynor tormented the University of Delaware men's basketball team throughout his college career at Virginia Commonwealth.

Eric Maynor and Jrue Holiday had been here before. Virginia Commonwealth vs. UCLA. "Ended my college career," said Maynor, the Utah Jazz rookie from VCU who made his first start last night, filling in against the 76ers for Deron Williams, who left the team to attend to a personal family matter.

Neither starting point guard Deron Williams nor backup point Ronnie Price practiced when the Jazz worked out this afternoon at Suffolk University here.

If he keeps it up, Wesley Matthews might need to bump up his cell-phone minutes and text-messaging plan.

Because doing predictions before the season tips off is just so, well, cliche' I held mine for this week.

With 3:38 to go in last night's game and the Celtics starters enjoying another fourth-quarter siesta, the announcement was made at the end of a timeout.

What are we waiting for? As Max said in "Where the Wild Things Are": "Let the wild rumpus start!" The Jazz 's 82-game rumpus begins tonight in Denver, and if there's one thing you can say about them, it's that they're as familiar as a beloved kids' book.

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The bangs and biceps are new. The guy who's sporting them this year certainly isn't. Even with an altered appearance, Andrei Kirilenko - loaded guns, non-spiky hair and all - is the player Utah Jazz fans are most used to seeing on the team after all these years.

It is expensive, it is partly accidental and it is only temporary. In an unusual convergence of factors, the Jazz have kept their team together for another year.