Players only respect coaches who played? This is all you need to know about that, Shaq for years praised Lenny Wilkens as a great coach, when told that Wilkens was a former player and one of the 50 greatest players Shaq turned to Lenny and asked "You used to play"? Shaq was dead serious, not at all joking. Having played doesn't have an effect on today's players.
van gundy played point guard in college. in fact, he was recruited at yale, but when he was cut by the new coach freshman year he transferred from yale to go play ball at nazareth college, a tiny d3 school. the guy lives and breaths basketball
Too much crack guys. Jeff Van Gundy will get this team to actually play defense, something Rudy apparently hasn't grasped yet. He'll also get the team not to dribble around the perimeter with their thumbs in their asses. He knows how to work a finesse big man like Yao. The guy is a basketball junkie. He's always tired because he's up late at night finding ways to shut down his next opponent. And yes, he did have playing days, at a small school in NYC.
Count me in on the NO TO VAN GUMBY bandwagon. The three possible candidates that come to my mind that I would like are: 1. Larry Brown – he is the Dean Smith of the pro-game and our team could sure use some fundamental. 2. Donnie Nelson – few people in the NBA understand the passing game and running game like Big Whistle and no one has worked closer to Nellie than Little Whistle Donnie. Once again our team really needs to learn how to pass and run. 3. Paul Silas – Derrick Coleman, Eddie Jones and Jamaal Mashburn all played their best basketball under Silas. Few coaches in the NBA has done a better job of getting the max out of his players than Paul Silas.
Lots and Lots of D ... miles of D with no Offense, and that comb over... I'm still fuming they didn't give RT another year...
anyone see the Ewing retirement presentation at MSG a few months back. i have never seen players and the NY crowd give someone as much love, and applause as they did for JVG, so don't say he doesn't get respect those NYers and the players especially love that guy.
Drewdog shall not worry no more!!!!! Mr JVG has joined the Cavs. UGH. Even though I wanted him..... GET LARRY BROWN!
Congrats to you, JVG has been settled in other team. I have to say, Silas is much worse then JVG, dunt even think about him.
NO I'm NOT overestimating this factor. This is serious biz, after all we talking about OUR TEAM here. We WANT & DESERVE the BEST not no scrub. Look at LA, they held out for the best. Why shouldn't WE be selective??
Listen up, King James LeBron should push for Silas as Cavs coach Posted: Friday May 23, 2003 2:16 PM Updated: Friday May 23, 2003 5:35 PM LeBron James already is talkin' the talk. If you listened closely on Thursday night after the Cleveland Cavaliers won the LeBron Lottery, you heard the 18-year-old object of affection use the words we and my quite a bit. As in my team. Sure, he talked about his teammates and said all the politically savvy things. But make no mistake, James is fully aware that the woebegone Cavs are now his team. Go ahead, name another current Cav. Point made. That said, LeBron, show me what you got: Tell Cavs owner Gordon Gund that the best decision he can make for the future of the franchise is to hire Paul Silas as the team's next coach. Jeff Van Gundy? Sure, he's the consensus front-runner. A "great" coach and teacher, according to his colleagues. And he has spent the last year-plus selling himself while wearing a headset on TNT. But one thing makes me curious: Why has Van Gundy received a pass on deserting the Knicks? I mean, he flat-out quit. He walked out the door 19 games into the 2001-02 season with no explanation -- at least no viable one, except, "I'm tired." Cynics would say he was also smart, knowing that the Knicks were tumbling toward mediocrity and worse. For the Cavs, who have averaged only 27 wins over the last four seasons (with just 17 last year), mediocrity would be a blessing. Is Van Gundy clearly the best guy for the tough times the Cleveland franchise will face? People forget that the year after they won (wink, wink) the Patrick Ewing lottery in 1985, the Knicks stunk, going 23-59. It took that team years to become contenders. Will Van Gundy high-tail it out of town again, when a team built around a teenaged wunderkind struggles, as it inevitably will, to live up to expectations? Nothing in Van Gundy's résumé tells me he's the guy. And yet he has been anointed as The Chosen Coach for The Chosen One. Following the lottery, James said he'd have to "feel comfortable with our coach." That's a clear signal to Gund that he'd best let his new franchise player in on the decision-making process. Silas should be given more than a token look; he should get the job. (Cavs GM Jim Paxson was quoted as calling Silas, "Lenny Wilkens 10 years ago." Uh, what exactly does that mean, Jim?) During six seasons as the head coach of the New Orleans (né Charlotte) Hornets, Silas guided his team through more drama than any coach should have to endure, including the tragic death of guard Bobby Phills in a car crash in January 2000. This season, the Hornets reached the playoffs for the fifth straight season under Silas, and yet he was unceremoniously fired by ownership, which still hasn't told anyone why it let Silas go. James might be criticized in some circles for inserting himself into the hiring process even before he signs with the team, which he cannot do before the June draft. (Remember when a rookie Magic Johnson was trashed for daring to state that he could no longer play for then Lakers coach Paul Westhead, which led to Westhead's firing and the hiring of a yet untested bench boss named Pat Riley?) But before he is run through a gauntlet of NBA veterans eager to test him, pound him and introduce him to a game played by men rather than pimple-faced boys; before he discovers what three-games-in-four-nights-in-three-time-zones does to even his young body; before he learns that despite his obvious and wondrous skills he'll have to get even better in many facets of the game -- this is exactly where he needs to be. In the room. In the mix. In the midst of the decisions that will affect his future. The Cleveland Cavaliers are LeBron James' franchise now. Gordon Gund knows it. And LeBron knows it. Neither man can afford to wait too long to begin acting on it. Roy S. Johnson is an assistant managing editor for Sports Illustrated. His "Pass the Word" column appears on SI.com every Friday. Catch Johnson on CNN Headline News every Thursday at 3:40 p.m. ET.
Van Gundy is a scrub? The same Van Gundy that took a couple of lower seeded Knicks teams to the playoffs, including an 8th seeded Knicks team to the Finals? That guy is a scrub? His teams are always fundamentally sound, and play outstanding defense. This team might have been in the Top 5 in field goal defense but this team wasn't a great defensive team. They didn't get stops on a consistent enough basis, and Van Gundy will utilize Yao Ming. By the way Van Gundy just said during the Spurs/Mavs game that there is no agreement with the Cavs.
Id be willing to bet that JVG was headed to the Cavs BEFORE he learned about the Rockets vacancy. Now that he does know, he put himself out there for the possible taking. Mourning, Van Gumby, leg grabbing..... I cant get it out of my mind.....
JVG rode the efforts of Riley's disaster with the Knicks. That's why he one, and why he inevitably lost. I don't recall that he ever gave the knicks an identity other than getting dragged around the court like a damned impotent fool...
