Shocking news out of Salt Lake City where the longest tenured coach in US professional sports-Jerry Sloan of the Utah Jazz-is expected to resign effective immediately on Thursday afternoon. The team has scheduled a 2 PM Pacific press conference to address a flurry of media reports that Sloan, along with longtime assistant Phil Johnson, are calling it quits. Sloan agreed to a one year extension just a few days ago but since then confrontations with point guard Deron Williams and team president Kevin O\’Connor have apparently resulted in a change of heart.

Salt Lake TV station KSL first reported on the Sloan departure, with the rest of the Beehive State media soon following suit. The precise factor for Sloan\’s departure is not yet known, but a number of sources reported that the trainer and Jazz President Kevin O\’Connor had a heated conversation after Utah\’s loss to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night.

The two men spent 45 minutes immediately after the race hashing it out which immediately sent up a \’red flag\’ to the Jazz beat reporters who were used to Sloan making his postgame appearances like clockwork.

Expectedly, much of the issue seems to be Sloan\’s difficulties with the \’new breed\’ of NBA player. Known as one of the toughest, solid work of players in league history he helped from the presence of a couple of other all time NBA \’gladiators\’ during the early part of his career-John Stockton and Karl Malone. The last straw for Sloan may have been his increasingly contentious relationship with All Star point guard Deron Williams who, despite his firm general play, had a penchant for \”blaming things on everyone else\”.

Sloan was in his 23rd period as Jazz head coach and the numbers he\’s accumulated there are downright iconic. Two years ago he became the first NBA head coach to win 1,000 games with the same team as part of an overall record of 1221-803 — a .603 winning percentage — and a playoff record of 98-104. The 202 games he\’s coached in the postseason is equal to 2 normal season schedules. He was choosing to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009 based on his coaching resume. Before becoming a coach, he had a reputation as one of the NBA\’s toughest (some would say \’dirtiest\’) players. He played for 11 years in the league and was designated to the All Defensive team four times.

The Jazz had lost 8 of their last 12 games prior to Sloan\’s stunning departure. His final game at the helm of the team came on Wednesday night at the Energy Solutions Arena as Utah lost to the Chicago Bulls as a -1 point NBA betting preferred.