THREE POINTS

COACHING LONGEVITY

Off to a strong start this season, Utah’s Jerry Sloan is by far the longest-tenured coach in the NBA, having taken over the Jazz in December 1988.

For some perspective, the Clippers have had 11 coaches since then and the New York Knicks have had nine, leading irascible Jazz owner Larry Miller to offer one of the reasons -- beside only one losing season -- that Sloan has thrived.

“My basic feeling is, the wrong people keep getting fired,” Miller said. “The players should be the ones getting fired.”

A SOFT TOUCH

Though his career is young, Houston Rockets center Yao Ming is making a case for becoming the NBA’s best all-time free-throw-shooting big man.

Yao, an 81.4% free-throw shooter over his career, is making 86% of his free throws this season after making 85.3% of them last season.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, made 72.1% of his free throws.

FOREIGN INFLUENCE

The NBA began this season with a record 83 players from 37 countries, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, more than double the 32 that existed 10 years ago.

Last year’s rosters had 82. Twenty-eight of the 30 teams have at least one foreign player, led by Phoenix with seven. Serbia has the most players on this year’s rosters (8), followed by France (7) and Slovenia (6).

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-- PAUL NETTER