Jerry Sloan is embarrassed, repentant and dreading the next two weeks. But his conscience is clear.
   
Referee Courtney Kirkland provoked the Jazz coach into shoving him during Tuesday's Jazz victory in Sacramento, Sloan said Thursday, a heat-of-the-moment action that resulted in a seven-game suspension.
   
As Sloan angrily protested an out-of-bounds call the coach felt Kirkland missed, "the official came up and said, 'I'm not going to take that from you tonight.' And that's why I pushed him," Sloan recounted after apologizing to the entire Jazz organization. "I shouldn't have done it, but . . . I was always taught when someone got in your face that way, somebody had to go in a different direction. I should have gone in a different direction myself, but I didn't do that."