The votes are in, and Toronto’s Sam Mitchell has walked away with the 2006-2007 Coach of the Yeah Award. Jerry Sloan finished second in the voting, a good 90 points behind Mitchell. I suppose Mitchell deserves it for his team’s worst-to-first turnaround (though I think he owes a lot more to Chris Bosh, T.J. Ford and the Leastern Conference), but it’s unfortunate that after a 50-win season when most national media-types thought the Jazz wouldn’t even make the playoffs, Sloan STILL can’t get the award he deserves. Although, considering the recent play of the Jazz, and Sloan’s reluctance to make certain personnel changes, like playing Ronnie Brewer more and not playing Derek Fisher quite so much (see also: IJSPD), maybe there’s a reason he ended up second again.
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Layton Shumway is the copy chief for Brigham Young University’s Daily Universe. You can reach him at lss83@byu.net.