This was from last year before he started coaching again: SI: You famously got in the middle of a fight between Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning and then a fight between Marcus Camby and Danny Ferry. Why not break up a fight between Muggsy Bogues and Spud Webb? Van Gundy: I'd be afraid of where they would hit me. SI: What's it like when 20,000 people scream "JEFF VAN GUNDY", as Knicks fans did during the 1999 playoffs? Van Gundy: There are very few things from any job -- and I was with the Knicks for 12 years -- that you never forget. And on the list of things that I'll never forget, that's No. 1. SI: As a coach, you were an obsessive Diet Coke drinker. How many cans did you go through then? How many now? Van Gundy: On the day of a game, I was good for a six pack. Now I'm down to four, but don't try to sneak a Diet Pepsi in there. SI: What's the best team you've seen so far this year? Van Gundy: The Kings. They've played through so many injuries, so much distraction and still they're right up there. SI: What's harder: Getting Lee Nailon to play defense or getting airtime while working with The Czar, Mike Fratello? Van Gundy: The Czar's stranglehold on airtime is air tight. It's impenetrable. SI: Is it really a compliment when people say you look 10 years younger since you've been out of coaching? Van Gundy: When people say I look good, I say that's impossible. I may look 10 years younger, but as I said on my 39th birthday: I'm 39, I look 49 and I feel 59. Now I can play around with those numbers. SI: How did you try to defend Charles Barkley when he was playing? Van Gundy: I wish that five-second rule had come in a few years earlier. We wanted him to shoot over size. We didn't want him to be a passer. He really was one of the best low-post passers of all time. SI: Best celebrity exchange you had as a coach? Van Gundy: None of them knew who I was, so I never had one. They wouldn't recognize me even when they walked right by me, if that's an exchange in itself. SI: Do you still consider yourself a Knicks fan? Van Gundy: Yes. A huge fan. SI: Can you actually watch a game without getting that tense feeling that all coaches get? Van Gundy: I think you still try to coach the game along with the coach of the team you're watching. But I still get a nervous pit in my stomach when a Knicks game comes down to the end. SI: Have you called Phil Jackson "Big Chief Triangle" on the air? Van Gundy: No. And I never will. I'm not proud of my exchanges with him over the years. SI: Do you miss your 1995 Honda Civic that was destroyed at Westchester County Airport by a blast of exhaust from the jet engines of the Knicks' team plane? Van Gundy: That car was so good to me. The way it was taken was tragic, especially after a loss. If it had been after a win, I would have easily sacrificed it. But that was two losses in one night and that's more than any one man should have to bear. SI: Could your brother Stan (an assistant coach with the Miami Heat) ever be your assistant? Van Gundy: No, but I could be his. SI: What was your most satisfying moment in coaching at any level? Van Gundy: I don't know if it's satisfying but, I'll give you a most humbling: my first year as a high school coach. Coaches' sons by nature think they're smarter than they are and I was no exception. What I learned after coaching my first five or six years in high school [in Rochester, N.Y.] was that not only did I not know all the answers, but I also didn't know what the questions were. That was a humbling, humbling time for me. Unfortunately, coaches can very rarely remember the good things. They only remember the bad. SI: Which coaching job would appeal to you more: A team with young players that is a couple of years away from being good, or a team comprised of veterans with a shot at the title? Van Gundy: Unfortunately, you don't get to pick and choose, but those situations and any scenario other than working for a team that wants to constantly have cap space for decades are appealing. SI: As a freshman at Yale, you and 12 guys in your dorm each tossed $100 into a pool during a contest to see who would ask out classmate Jodie Foster. You had a chance, but famously choked when you saw her at a movie. Let's say you had worked up the courage, how would that have gone? Van Gundy: I don't know, but in the end I would have been $1200 richer, so it would have been all good. SI: Among Pat Riley, Don Nelson and Stu Jackson, which head coach gave the most fiery halftime speeches? Van Gundy: Pat certainly gave memorable pregame, halftime and postgame speeches, so I would say he was a speaker without much competition in the NBA. SI: Looking three years down the line, which team has the best upside? Van Gundy: I think Indiana is extremely well constructed for -- and this is difficult to do -- success now and success later. As long as the Pacers can get their guys signed along the way, I think they're a team that could win the East and the championship -- and also be in position to win it five years down the road, as well. SI: How nervous were you, at the age of 34, to take over as Knicks head coach? Van Gundy: I was extremely nervous, but Pat Riley called me into his office once when I was his assistant and said to me, 'You can be a head coach in this league', which I had never even thought about. He said I was confident, sincere, reliable and trustworthy and that I had to start viewing myself as someone who could coach in this league. He gave me the confidence that being a head coach was something I could at least dream about. If he had never said something like that to me, I would have been much more unprepared when I took over. SI: You live in the same town as the Clintons. Can you officially rule yourself out of the 2004 presidential election? Van Gundy: Yeah, I think that's pretty safe to assume. SI: How do I get into the Nazareth College Hall of Fame, as you did in 1996? Van Gundy: With my being inducted, the standards have been lowered to being on the team, still being able to breathe, or making enough money that you can contribute back to the college.
