http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=knight-vangundysmakebasketballaf&prov=knight&type=lgns Bill and Cindy Van Gundy don't really watch basketball games when their sons are coaching. Watching is much too passive a term for what the Van Gundys endure when Miami Heat coach Stan or Houston Rockets coach Jeff are on the sideline. In fact, Bill and Cindy might as well be down there on the court for all the agony they feel. It gets worse during the NBA playoffs. Bill was a coach for 41 years. Cindy, matriarch in a basketball-obsessed household, used to attend up to three games per day when her boys were playing and her husband was working. The Van Gundy family kept time by the scoreboard clock. After so many wins and so many losses, you might think, 'So what's another game?' But to the Van Gundys, there is no such thing. Each game is a drama that absorbs and drains them. "It's painful," Cindy said. "When they lose, it's devastating. When I lost, it was devastating," Bill said. "We just don't like losing." And when they win? "You never want to get too euphoric, even after this Heat sweep of the Nets," Bill said. Now we know where Stan and Jeff got that undertaker outlook: No matter how swell the eulogy was yesterday, the corpses keep coming. For the Houston-Dallas game Monday night, Bill and Cindy took up their usual positions at their Saga Bay condominium. DIFFERENT VIEWS Cindy watches the living room TV with the sound on. Bill watches the bedroom TV with the sound off. "This is going to sound arrogant, but I know as much about the game as the announcers do, and I can't stand to listen to some of their explanations because they are just plain wrong," Bill said. "I pace a lot," Cindy said. "She's louder than me," Bill said. "We both say and do things that we would not want our children or grandchildren to know about," Cindy said. "I'm watching it as if I'm on the bench, so sometimes I'm calling out a play or disagreeing with a decision," Bill said. "But Stan and Jeff are both so much better as coaches than I could ever hope to be." The Rockets lost their third in a row, to fall behind 2-3 in the series, and it was a pull-your-hair-out kind of loss -- missed free throws, a missed out-of-bounds call, a missed steal at the end. Tuesday was a gray day for the Van Gundys, made more sour by NBA commissioner David Stern's $100,000 fine of Jeff for his complaints about subjective officiating. Their disappointment runs as deep as their love and pride for their sons. NOT JUST A GAME Cindy learned long ago not to comfort her husband or boys with the old "It's just a game" line. To the Van Gundys, there is no such thing. "I tried that and realized the less said the better," she said. "They have to get themselves out of it." Jeff, 43, gets his sardonic sense of humor from his mother and his slender frame from his father. Stan, 45, gets his amiable off-court personality from his mother and his animated on-court personality from his father. Their parents met in Indianapolis, where Bill was stationed at an Army base and Cindy, a rabid basketball fan, was working for the phone company. The boys were born in California, where Bill was a high school coach before coaching at half a dozen small colleges. Cindy was a special education teacher. Stan and Jeff learned early that coaches are always one busted fast break from being fired. They were gym rats, playing pick-up games when they weren't helping out at practice. The highlight of the year was the annual family vacation to the NCAA Final Four. "We were a close family but also extremely competitive," Bill said. "Life was not idyllic." "We were the Bickersons," Cindy said. "Fight it out, say it bluntly, slam a few doors." In 1970, Bill had surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. While he was stuck in bed, Cindy drove the boys to a game to scout an opponent. They diagramed plays and took notes on the lineups. Stan was 11 and Jeff was eight. "They loved the game of basketball," Cindy said. "I don't recall them ever wanting to do anything else but coach." Both played for Bill at Brockport (N.Y.) State. Bill, 69, and Cindy, 65, retired to Miami, where they can dote on Stan's four children. They also tutor elementary school and migrant students. They suffer most when Stan and Jeff's teams play against each other, such as those bitter Heat-Knicks playoff series of the late 1990s. They fret about their sons' health, feel hurt when the media and fans make fun of Jeff's paleness or Stan's rumpled suits. Jeff's Rockets face elimination, which means there will be a lot of pacing and yelling tonight at Bill and Cindy's place. Stan's Heat coasted into the second round, which means there could be many more agonizing evenings to come. You could tell them to relax; it's just a game. But to the Van Gundys, there is no such thing.
