Sam Amick of USA Today reports that Jerry Sloan has not been contacted by the Lakers with regards to their head coaching vacancy. During a phone interview with USA Today, Sloan elaborated on how he fits into the coaching speculation and a few other Lakers related topics:
"I haven't talked to anybody (from the Lakers)…That's what's interesting is that I didn't talk to anybody because it looks like I'm just trying to take every job that comes up and I don't like that. So I'll just keep out of it."
On whether or not he planned to contact the team:
"My name gets thrown in there, and it's because of convenience sometimes…But I've never been that kind of person to campaign for a job. I wasn't going to call (the Lakers) because there wasn't anybody calling to ask about it."
On the possibility of Phil Jackson returning:
"I think that's probably a good choice for them…It doesn't matter what I think, but he would certainly know what's going on there. If somebody else comes in and sees what's going on, it might shock them to death."
The Lakers' offensive struggles with the Princeton offense:
"If you're going to run an offense, the thing that I see is that it's always difficult to do…It takes time. It's not an overnight thing. I think people found that out as good as Miami was, how they struggled a little bit (in 2010) and a lot of people were surprised. It takes time for guys to adapt to what's going on, especially if you're going to run an almost exclusively halfcourt game."
With that being said, Sloan still believes that the team can become something special:
"It takes a while for great players to come together and realize what they're playing for instead of just themselves…I don't think anyone can question the talent level that they have, it's just a matter of getting the players together and sometimes it takes longer than people think. It takes a lot of patience."