Sloan, Van Lier Two of a Kind

In 1993, I was working on a profile on Jerry Sloan, and talked with his former teammate, Norm Van Lier, by phone.

Van Lier, who passed away last week, was asked if other teams feared the physical Chicago Bulls guard-line that included he and Sloan.

“I don’t know if it was fear,” said Van Lier,“but they were aware they had a game on their hands, win, lose or draw. I wouldn’t say fear as much as they knew they would have a tough, physical game. A hard game. And that we would hustle, hustle, hustle to get loose balls.”


Van Lier and Sloan were kindred spirits on the court.

“That’s the way we were,” said Van Lier. “We looked out for each other. If you popped someone on our team, you could expect to get popped back. You know, he knocks me down, I’ll knock you down. But we always did it within the framework of the game.”

The twosome was known to go into the bleachers on occasion, to contend with someone who had thrown something at them.

In the interview Van Lier said it’s hard for ultra competitive players like Sloan to understand those who don’t have the same drive.

“I don’t think you can give that concentration and competitiveness at all,” said Van Lier. “You have to have it. For a guy like Jerry, that can be very difficult. To expect everyone to work as hard as Jerry and I did is tough. I don’t think a great deal of the players today have that type of thinking. It’s tough for a person like Jerry to coach and expect that night after night. Because not everyone’s makeup is like Jerry’s.”

Not everyone’s makeup is like Van Lier’s, either.