Stan Van Gundy is a good basketball coach, and he’s as honest as it gets when it comes to coaches dealing with the media. Seriously, this guy sold Dwight Howard out in one of the most awkward videos of all time. He tells it like it is and doesn’t hold back.
When asked about the comments of ESPN’s Chris Broussard, who said last week that the Heat is not well coached and that Erik Spoelstra doesn’t have credibility, Van Gundy responded harshly.
“My first thought is that Chris Broussard has no knowledge of coaching and wouldn’t know it if he saw it,” the former Magic coach said on 790 The Ticket in Miami. “I’d like to get some specifics from Chris of what he thinks coaching is, and what’s not happening.
“My second thought is this: When [Broussard] says they need somebody of the ilk of Phil Jackson, Pat Riley and Gregg Popovich, two thoughts on that — there aren’t many guys of that ilk period … and second of all, if that’s the ilk they need, maybe they’re not any damn good anyway. And my third thing is in the game today there aren’t many guys as good as Erik Spoelstra. And I would rather cite a couple of things rather than just an opinion.
“[The Heat] is the best defensive team that I have ever seen that doesn’t have size. I’ve never seen an elite defensive team in the NBA, until this Miami team, that doesn’t have size. To me, there has to be a helluva lot of coaching in there. Obviously they have great quickness, but if you look at all the other best defensive teams in the league, they all have great size and Miami doesn’t. And yet they defend very well, and they do it because Erik has gotten the guys to buy into what they do.”
Van Gundy proceeded to knock the perception that Doc Rivers was overachieving with the Celtics by pointing out he has three first-ballot Hall of Famers in his lineup. He also cited Chris Bosh’s injury as the reason the Heat have fallen behind in their past two series, and he thinks that’s been overlooked by the media.
“To me, what’s confusing about this one is that it’s pretty easy. They have one of the 10 or 12 best offensive players in the league in Chris Bosh, who hasn’t been able to play.”
Van Gundy was disappointed with the thought that Rivers would get credit if the Celtics won while Spoelstra wouldn’t.
“People don’t really know what’s going on. You have guys like Chris Broussard analyzing coaching. I don’t even know how he would go about doing that. He has knowledge base.
“I don’t even understand how he would do it, but he does it.”
Van Gundy also pointed out one of the fallacies of sports analysis: Once someone wins a championship, they’re immune to criticism. He’s absolutely correct. Even though Dwyane Wade played poorly during the playoffs, he hardly was criticized.
Man, if Stan Van Gundy doesn’t find a coaching job, I would love to see him as an analyst. ESPN needs to hire him instantly to improve their terrible pregame show. He’ll at least bring them some accuracy with his analysis.
Full audio of the interview is here (57:30 mark)
Chest bump to I am a GM
