Sloan, who is the longest-tenured coach in pro sports and is in his 21st season with the Jazz, hints that he knows the reason for all that uncertainty.

"I'm concerned about what the owners are thinking," Sloan said before his team lost to the Milwaukee Bucks , 94-86, Tuesday night at the Bradley Center. "Are they letting the players run the team or the agents run the team or what? I've seen this for a number of years, and it's really frustrating.

"Coaches who are a lot better than I will ever be have been fired, and some of them two or three different times. Patience is something that's worthwhile. I know there's tremendous pressure on players, coaches and owners. We've been lucky. Our owner has stuck by us. You lose 56 games and still have a job, you're pretty lucky."

Sloan referred to the 2004-'05 season, when the Jazz went 26-56. But that was an aberration in Sloan's time in Utah, and Jazz owner Larry Miller knew it.

So Miller stuck with Sloan, and the Jazz improved to 41-41 the next year, when a rookie named Deron Williams was the team's first-round pick and third overall in the 2005 draft. Utah won division championships the next two years, with 51 and 54 victories, respectively.

On Tuesday, the Bucks got a taste of how Sloan's team nearly always plays, as it erased all of a 19-point, second-half deficit before falling short. The Jazz rallied despite missing injured forwards Mehmet Okur and Carlos Boozer.

"They out-hustle you," Bucks center Andrew Bogut said. "That's Jerry Sloan's system. Everything they do, they're always moving."

From the era of Karl Malone and John Stockton to the emergence of Williams and Boozer, the Jazz has remained one of the league's elite franchises.

Earlier this season, Sloan won his 1,000th game with the Jazz. His 1,012 victories with one franchise puts him far ahead of Gregg Popovich, who ranks second in that category among active coaches with 650 victories with the San Antonio Spurs.

The late Red Auerbach won 795 games with the Boston Celtics from 1950-'66.

"A couple things are amazing," Bucks coach Scott Skiles said of Sloan, who played a hard-nosed brand of Basketball with the Chicago Bulls in the 1960s and '70s and later coached Chicago for three seasons. "Obviously, he's an outstanding coach, and his teams always play the right way. They share the ball and they play defense.

"The other thing is, they've made decisions along the way to stick with him, because they knew he was a good coach.

"I know records are made to be broken and all that, but it may be one of those things that's never duplicated."

Sloan twice coached the Jazz to the NBA Finals, only to be denied by Michael Jordan and the Bulls. And the Jazz coach has never been named the league's coach of the year despite ranking behind only Lenny Wilkens, Don Nelson and Pat Riley on the all-time victory list.

Asked about his longevity as a coach, Sloan responded simply with a statement about his playing career.

"I never thought I'd play a year," said Sloan, who played 11 seasons with Chicago and Baltimore. "A lot of people told me I would never play in this league. You just do the best you can while you're there."

Every season brings its own challenges. Williams, who played with Bucks star Michael Redd on the Olympic team this summer, has been hampered by an ankle injury. Boozer is still out with an injured left knee.

Paul Millsap, who has replaced Boozer in the starting lineup, went down in the first quarter with an injury but was able to return in the second half against the Bucks.

"I'm very disappointed," Sloan said of the Jazz's 2-3 trip, which included losses to Boston, Chicago and Milwaukee. "When you go out on the road, you've got to come with a full package, ready to compete. We had some moments where we fought back, and some moments where I didn't think we did."

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