This was Jerry Sloan's reaction the last time he had to coach in Milwaukee (Getty Images)

Depending on what the Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, and Los Angeles Clippers decide to do with their fluctuating situations over the next few weeks, there could be as many as ten NBA coaching openings to fill during the 2013 offseason. Despite walking away from a potential playoff team in Utah two years ago, a team he’d worked with as an assistant and then head coach for the previous 26 years, former Jazz coach Jerry Sloan has tossed his name into the mix of available candidates to fill one of those job openings.

Unless you’re the Milwaukee Bucks, an available team that is closest to Sloan’s home in rural Illinois. You can take that gig and stick it.

(I think that’s how the song goes.)

NBA.com’s David Aldridge was the first to report Sloan’s indifference, through quotes from Sloan’s agent Keith Glass. Glass, Aldridge relays, also represents former Bucks coach Scott Skiles:

"The bottom line is, Jerry doesn't really feel it's the right fit for him right now," Glass said Thursday.

Greg Oden at a Cavaliers game in March. Crutches -- not joking -- not pictured (Getty Images)

It’s the “news” that won’t go away, not that we’re complaining. Former top overall pick Greg Oden, who played just 82 NBA games between 2007 and Dec. of 2009, would like to make a comeback. He’s attempting to get his legs right after two microfracture surgeries and several other bad breaks, there was scuttle that he was going to sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers late in 2012-13 in a prospect-stashing move for Cleveland, and he’s now working out in his hometown of Indianapolis, prepping for one final shot at a pro career

Former Ohio State top scorer Deshaun Thomas, a potential second round pick despite his refusal to give up his cell phone number like some gallivantin’ hussy, has been working out in Indy with Greg Oden. And according to Bob Finnan at the News-Herald, Oden’s workouts have been something else; according to the young one. Here’s Thomas’ take:

"Man, he looks unbelievable," he said at the draft combine. "He's running. He's lifting weights. You might be seeing a comeback. He looks like he's ready to go. He's running, getting in shape. I'll tell you one thing. For a big 7-footer that's all he does, running and getting in shape. He's looking right."

Carmelo Anthony scored 28 points in the Knicks win (Getty Images)

The Indiana Pacers are a poor offensive team, and yet they sprang out to a strong 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinals matchup with the New York Knicks despite not setting the league ablaze with offensive know-how. New York managed to keep its season alive in Thursday’s Game 5 win, though, mainly by deciding team-wise to not let this poor Indiana offensive team have chance after chance to showcase those poor offensive skills. Indiana dominated the Knicks in the offensive rebound department in the team’s three previous wins, and yet the Pacers were not allowed to be their typical, glass-cleaning selves on Thursday, leading to an impressive Knicks win.

The entertainment value of this contest was less than impressive. Though things settled down after a chippy start, both teams managed to keep their physical brand of ball on the level (though anyone on the other end of Kenyon Martin’s three fouls may disagree), and no tempers flared despite an aggressive, grimacing style of play. That didn’t stop Raymond Felton’s ankle from going bust, though, or Lance Stephenson from taking several hard shots, or David West from nearly seeing his knee ligaments flash before his eyes after a fourth-quarter collapse. Bodies were flying, and yet an Indiana team known for its league-best defense wasn’t the beneficiary.

Kobe Bryant, daredevil (Getty Images)

Kobe Bryant has played through broken fingers, and a severe and painful knee condition that resulted in him having to undergo fluid draining procedures in-between playoff games. His final two points of the 2012-13 season, following a seven-game run that saw him average 45 minutes per game, came at the free throw line, directly after he badly tore his Achilles tendon. He’s a tough dude.

Possibly a crazy dude, too. Because he sometimes puts himself in a position to where he could be swimming with sharks. And not in the metaphorical, Hollywood-sense. In the, “giant boat and shark-infested waters of the Pacific ocean”-sense.

Daniel Buerge of Laker Nation was kind enough to find this photo that Nike rep Heidi Burgett tweeted out on Thursday. After the jump, you’ll see a large picture of Bryant, pre-injury, as taken and explained by Nike’s Eric Avar:

Kevin Durant during Oklahoma City's final game on Wednesday (Getty Images)

With every season that ends, for the playoff teams at least, we felt it right to take a look ahead. TNT already has the rights to "Gone Fishin'," and because we're sure that someone, somewhere, still likes that Wyclef song, we're going with "Gone Till November." And, yes, we know the season starts in October. Today? The Oklahoma City Thunder.

Russell Westbrook’s knee injury may have cost his team an NBA title this season, but it could also go a long way towards saving coach and general manager Sam Presti a whole heck of a lot of criticism. To some Oklahoma City Thunder fans, that statement is just piling bad on top of bad.

Scorn for Brooks’ abilities date back two years at this point, and whether they come in the form of complaining about his limited mid-playoff adjustments or overreliance on certain vets, he’s taken quite a bit of heat following two straight five-game finishes to seasons in 2012 and now 2013. Presti, meanwhile, will receive tempered but certain criticism for his choices to ostensibly value contract extensions for Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka over one for Houston Rocket All-Star James Harden.

Both will be back next year, though. Brooks just finished the first year of a four year contract, and Presti has done so well in his first six years with the team that he’s earned several more years of goodwill. Both admirably and staunchly defended themselves (and by extension, the team’s owners) in the wake of the deal that sent James Harden to Houston, allowing for the team’s ownership to skate in the face of paying the luxury tax. On top of that, Westbrook’s season ending injury allows for most to consider the 2012-13 team a once-again championship contender that was just felled by bad luck at the worst possible time.

Cuttino Mobley gives his best 'GET ME OUT OF HERE!'-face (Getty Images)

Cuttino Mobley retired in 2008 at the too-early age of 32 years old. The former Houston Rockets standout was never an All-Star, but he was a solid starting-level shooting guard who mixed sound outside shooting with a point guard’s knowledge of spacing and timing. Mobley was being counted on in 2008 to act as a needed veteran buffer for a New York Knicks team in bad need of outside shooting, but an MRI revealed a heart condition (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) that encouraged the retirement.

At the time, Mobley said that the MRI “basically saved my life,” which flew in the face of a disappointing lawsuit Mobley brought up against the Knicks a few years later. In the suit, Cuttino alleged that the Knicks only asked Mobley to retire in order to realize luxury tax savings (for a roster that was already millions over the luxury tax) and to save money for the 2010 LeBron James-led offseason (completely incorrect in every way).

Years after that suit was sent away, the man they once called “Cat” is back to try and make one more NBA stab. It may be because his medical marijuana efforts have been smoked out, and it might be to spite the Knicks, but we’re guessing it’s mainly because Mobley still feels like he has something to contribute to an NBA team, and because he wants to go out on his own terms. Completely understandable.

Dwyane Wade somehow rose above in the deciding Game 5 (Getty Images)

Dwyane Wade may have entered the league less than a decade ago, and his youthful indiscretions may still making national news, but the man has been around for long enough to know how to drag a team to victory. The Miami Heat star worked his 158th playoff contest in Wednesday night’s Game 5, against a Chicago Bulls team he grew up rooting for. And despite a debilitating knee injury that forced him to hit the locker room to “re-adjust” (read: manually move his right kneecap back into place) during the third quarter, he still had enough to put his Heat over the top, and knock off the Bulls on Miami’s way to its fifth Eastern Conference final in the last nine years.

Wade dunked once in that pivotal fourth quarter, but the biggest damage he did to Chicago’s attack came by way of a loping, veteran style of misdirection movement, setting the Bulls’ defenders off course while raised for either in-between drives or long jumpers. Game 5 didn’t provide Wade the finest box score of his playoff career, but the setting and the stumbling blocks were enough to remind Heat fans of what a special player they’ve had the pleasure to have known since 2003.

Mike Conley fails to hold in a laugh (Getty Images)

A well-meaning cadre of NBA scribes probably has the notes for their “I told you so” columns regarding the Memphis Grizzlies already in place. If Memphis downs the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, taking to the Western Conference finals for the first time in the franchise’s history, the immediate instinct will be to point to the team’s 35-14 record (including a Game 5 win) since the supposedly franchise-crippling Rudy Gay trade, and to remind anyone reading that the Grizzlies knocked off the currently favored San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 2011 playoffs.

Such a crusade would probably be lead by this annoying mug, the only guy who picked Memphis over San Antonio in 2011, and one who routinely wears a Tony Allen T-shirt presumably outfitted with a pocket square and de rigueur protector for such pocket.

All those instincts should be tempered, though. Because exclaiming in that style after a potential Grizzlies second-round win would both over- and underestimate this team, all at once.