After Years Of Feuding, We Have People Burying The Hatchet

[UtahJazz.com] - Williams often thinks about his time in a Jazz uniform. During those six seasons in Utah, he enjoyed the best moments of his NBA career. Perhaps his worst, too. The way his time with the team ended hung over him, but he couldn’t find the right time to make amends.

“It’s something I’ve wanted to do for years,” he said. “Just kind of stubbornness and nerves and all that played a part in why I never reached out. He doesn’t forget a lot of things, instances where I pissed him off, things I did to upset him,” Williams said. “He definitely told me about that—and rightfully so. He was great about some other things. It was kind of typical Coach Sloan, really. If you know him, he’s never been one to shy away from telling you the truth and how he feels.”

Finally, they shook hands.

“Eventually, I think Jerry came around,” Miller said. “He never really said, ‘Let’s put it behind us’ or anything, but maybe in Sloan speak he did. Two strong men said what they needed to say, shook hands and are now moving forward,” Starks said.

Well, would you look at that. After years of feuding. Years of yelling at each other. Years of stories changing. Years of what seemed like pure hatred, we’re burying the hatchet. I’ll be honest it’s a bit refreshing from yesterday’s days of feud and shockingly I’m talking about the Utah Jazz here.

Deron Williams and Jerry Sloan are finally on speaking terms again, which is a great thing. Sloan is 76 years old and battling Parkinson’s with rumors of him not being in the best of health right now too, it’s good to see Deron Williams reach out and work on fixing the relationship.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that people were debating if Deron Williams was the best point guard in the league. It was always him vs Chris Paul and the 1v1 matchups they had were must-watch. Williams, the bigger of the two guards, was an excellent passer who used his size to his advantage. He was a 2x All-NBA player in Utah and a 3x All-Star, where he consistently averaged about 17 points and 10 assists per game.

Then the fight happened. February 9, 2011. Sloan calls a play ‘4-down’ to start the game and Williams switches is to ‘4-up.’ It’s essentially the same play, but instead of catching the ball on the right block, it’s caught on the left block. Eventually at halftime, Sloan and Williams get into it which then had Williams meet with the owner during halftime. This eventually led to the resignation of Sloan, who coached the Jazz for 22 years. He had a 60% winning percentage and got to the NBA Finals twice, losing to the Jordan led Bulls both times. Just after Sloan resigned, Williams was traded to the Brooklyn Nets, eventually leading to the Nets trading for Garnett and Pierce.

So today we’re squashing beefs and burying hatchet’s It’s Always Sunny style – preferably without the apartment fire. Hopefully we see Sloan and Williams back in Utah at some point together, they were great.