Gordon and Sloan seem to have cleared the air.
The morning after Jazz coach Jerry Sloan briefly benched shooting guard Gordan Giricek following their short sideline exchange of words Wednesday, the two had a lengthy prepractice chat.
Afterward, each sounded content with agreeing to disagree.
"I don't know that we got everything totally ironed out," Sloan said. "I think he's a little bit frustrated and obviously has a little different opinion, maybe, about what's going on than what we do. We'll have to keep working at it."
"I'm the kind of guy, whenever I fight with somebody, or even (have) an argument or something, it never influences on me during the game — because when I step on the court, I put everything aside," Giricek said. "I just play. I just want to help team. That's it, you know? And I know I can help team."
Individual vs. team play seems be at the root of Sloan's conflict with the Croatian guard.
Asked if he and Sloan were on the same page, Giricek said, "I don't know. We'll see next game. ... We have our own opinions. Whatever minutes he'll give me, I'll try to play hard."
Sloan sat Giricek after pulling him early in the opening quarter of Wednesday's loss to Denver but went back to him in the third quarter.
The Jazz coach suggested he is willing to play Giricek tonight vs. Golden State, too.
"He's got terrific talent. There's no question about his talent," Sloan said. "But we're trying to understand where that fits in with what we're trying to do from a team standpoint.
"I don't have a problem if a guy's talented. But I've got to be in charge of five guys out there on the floor, and the guys that are sitting on the bench, in order to try to put them together. ... A lot of guys will do things maybe on their own and play that way, but I haven't seen that that gives us the best opportunity to win."
Sloan suggested Giricek sees things differently: "He has, sometimes, a little bit different opinion of what we're doing than what we have."
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