Plus, Nellie is smarter than Jerry Sloan, as Van Gundy was. Right?

Well, since Sloan beat Van Gundy, I guess we have to admit Sloan was better in the series. I take it you think Sloan is a better coach.

Still, I don't know how much I can say that either Sloan or Van Gundy outcoached each other in that series; it really was a very close series, and I think the difference was the players - Boozer and Williams stepped up for the Jazz, big time. So did AK47 later in the series. T-Mac did his best, but Yao seemed to get smaller and clumsier as the series moved along. He missed rebounds, couldn't stop Boozer, and just in general became less and less of a star. If anything, that's the difference in the series to me.

Unless you attribute Ming's sloppiness to some stellar plan by Sloan; if so, that's cool, but I didn't really see it. I'm not saying Sloan didn't outcoach Van Gundy, just that I didn't really see it that way, but I could be wrong. And I definitely admit that Van Gundy didn't impress me, either. I expected more from him.

Coaches definitely made a difference in other series - Sam Mitchell got served by Lawrence Frank; Avery got the treatment from Nellie; Phil Jackson plain out sucked; so did Mike Brown, but he was bailed out because Eddie Jordan was terrible (I really thought the Wizards should have won gamess 3 and 4, if they had kept going to Jamison in the 4th), on and on...

But I'm not sure Sloan made that much of a difference, that's all....

You're just blinded by your NYcentric allegiance to JVG. When the Jazz beat the Warriors, you'll also say it was because of the players, not because Sloan served Nellie. I thought coaching was about putting players in a position to succeed.