Van Gundy fires back at Mavericks' coach By FRANK ISOLA Copyright 2005 New York Daily News DALLAS � Jeff Van Gundy, never one to back down from a good fight, went after Avery Johnson today, one day after the Mavs coach said that Van Gundy only started complaining about the officiating after the Rockets lost Games 3 and 4 of their first-round series. ADVERTISEMENT "It is revisionist history," Van Gundy said on the eve of Game 7. "His words speak for themselves." Following Houston's Game 6 victory, Johnson criticized the media's coverage of the series for focusing too much attention on Van Gundy's fine and not giving Dallas credit for winning three straight games. Van Gundy was fined $100,000 before Game 5 for saying that an NBA official had informed him that the referees would be looking more closely at Yao Ming. "Maybe I need to go crazy," Johnson said during his rambling postgame tirade on Thursday. "Maybe that will help. We lost the game. The game was called fairly, pretty much. No excuses. No complaining." Johnson, of course, was fined $10,000 for berating referee Joey Crawford after Game 1. After losing Game 2, Mavs owner Mark Cuban complained to the league, saying that Yao was setting illegal screens. "I made a mistake and I've made some before," Van Gundy said. "All you can do is apologize. I shouldn't have used the word biased or brought somebody else into it. But I would think (Johnson), who just coached a little over half a year and had his own thing after Game 1, would realize that mistakes do happen. He had to be restrained from attacking a ref. But I understand what he's doing. He's doing what he thinks is right. But feel free to call me by my name. Don't beat around the bush." http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/3171299
i'm so pissed at dallas as a franchise and have lost all respect for them i really can't express it. avery is going to say he isn't going to go "crazy" or make "excuses" but who's owner was sending in game tape of ILLEGAL SCREENS for Pete's sake after getting down 2-0???? yeah that was cuban. jeff just spoke the truth about the situation and NEVER blamed officiating for losing games just said he received a call from an official. and you know what after watching games 3,4,&5 he was justified in his claim because the game was called differently. you can count all the "illegal screens" called in the first two games and then compare them to just the ones called in game 3 and see them double!!! i'm sorry but the mavericks franchise is b!tch. cuban complains about the officiating ALL THE TIME (officially to the league office) and then all of the sudden when JVG speeks the truth about the situation ONCE we're complaining...this is ridiculous. i hope we go into dallas and rip their f%ckin' hearts out and send them fishin'.
A moving screen is really hard to call, IMO should not be called lightly. If Yao did a lot of moving screens, the Mavs only did more.
You know with these guys its only a moving screen because it works so well. If that play wasn't so successfull we wouldn't hear a word from those guys. They couldn't stop it so.. 'oh moving screen... moving screen.. look look look." No. it's a pick... and roll. he sets a pick and rolls. just because he's 7'6 and 300 lbs and they can't get around him because of that doesnt mean its a moving screen.
exactly rvpals i don't how many times i've seen dampier and nowitzki set screens the exact same way. and if you wanted to get REALLY techinical you could call almost every screen an "illegal" screen. that's why i think the whole cuban game tape situation is ridiculous. and what's even more ridiculous is the league and the officials buying into cuban's demands.
I disagree with pretty much every rebuttal attempt. I suggest you use the search function since you're a contributing member. You'll see that people here did call for CD to send in tapes. And while you make a valid point that Cuban is arguing for his own team when he rants, the larger viewpoint could certainly be that it results in a league-wide look benefiting all teams. Unless you really believe in the NBA favoritism conspiracy theory.
