The Jazz plan to contact legendary point guard John Stockton to see if he’s interested in filling the team’s head coaching vacancy, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The 52-year-old is just one of perhaps 20 or so candidates the Jazz are considering in a wide-ranging search. Stockton helped the Jazz scout some players while he was at the Portsmouth Invitational last month to watch his son, and he wants some level of involvement, but it’s unclear whether he wants to coach, according to Jody Genessy of the Deseret News (Twitter links).
Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey told Genessy this week that the team is “getting closer to moving to the part where we’ll reach out” to coaching candidates. Stein hears that the team is likely to conduct a few introductory interviews with potential coaches at the Chicago draft combine this week. Spurs assistant Jim Boylen emerged as the front-runner in the immediate wake of the team’s decision not to renew Tyrone Corbin‘s deal. The Jazz are reportedly interested in Steve Kerr, but it doesn’t appear as though that feeling is mutual. Other rumored candidates include European coaching great Ettore Messina, Bulls assistant Adrian Griffin, Jazz assistant Brad Jones and Hawks assistant Quin Snyder. Lindsey cautioned in his interview with Genessy that “all the speculation is very premature” regarding the team’s search.
Many around the league that believe Stockton would be reticent to coach, given his desire for privacy, but others think the Hall-of-Fame point guard would be a natural on the bench, Stein writes. Stockton has largely remained away from the game since his retirement as a player following the 2002/03 season.