Did you notice how quickly Reebok got the new shoes to Yao? I think he did the right thing in demanding quicker service. Van Gundy is sour, its true, but like many have said before, he's honest. Besides, he even stated "It's 18, 19 days away from making a decision and I don't think either (Spanoulis or Lucas) made a case. I don't think they played the way they're capable of." How is this negative? As pointed out in the article, this is actually praise. He KNOWS they can do better, and he expects it out of them. That is why they got the contract. Though I respect your previous experience as a coach, wouldn't the two situations a bit different? I think an NBA coach would have more of a right to be demanding since the team is paying the player to play well. For example, at work, if my manager were to tell me I was not doing as well as I should be doing, I wouldn't sulk in a corner. I would realize I am getting paid to do work, and the company I work for reserves the right to push me to get as much as they're paying me for.
If any of you guys have ever played organized ball in your life then you know when a coach continuously screams and yells at the things you do wrong and doesnt praise you at at all, you begin to lose confidence in your ability. Become hesitant. The idea is praise the good things but bring out the bad things to light to improve on.
I can't resist responding to this. If the CEO of a company worth 100s of millions of dollars told the shareholders, "heypartner is trying to become a main player in this company, but with that first project he's not helping his cause. But I know he can do better," first off, I would be thrilled he knew my name as was giving me an opportunity. Secondly, I'd consider that a positive quote he just gave the shareholders considering how poorly I performed on my first project. lol. so, can we cut this crap about workplace comparison. We are not talking about a cubicle job with a glass ceiling and an Office Space middle manager giving you crap. The comparison would be the main honcho of a huge company critiquing your performance in front of shareholders.
The guy said the younger players played poorly and its true. What was he supposed to do? Praise VSpan for being a turnover machine? He said they can play better but dont fault Van Gundy for stating the obvious. Im sure you consider Greg Popovich as a good coach....have you seen him yelling at Manu before? I know I have and I know he has given Manu praise and criticism through the media. He is trying to shape up the younger players, not BABYSIT them.
jeez. all he said was they needed to play with a little more fight. run the plays. get to the spots your supposed to get to. he said himself he wouldn't care about the poor fg% if they just ran the plays.
This article wasn't Van Gundy's communication with the players. The communication with the players was done in the film session already. The article indicates there was plenty of analysis of what each player did right or wrong on each play during the flim session. We don't know if he encouraged players, screamed at them, both, or neither. This article was Van Gundy responding to Feigan's questions asked after the film session about the 2nd half performance last night. He admitted it stunk and plenty of mental mistakes were made. However he also expressed belief that the players are capable of better. He also basically re-iterated playing time and roster spots are available for those who step up their game and grab them. Some of you seriously are reading the context and the tone of his comments incorrectly. As for the shoe deal, who knows how many times Keith Jones, Yao, or Van Gundy talked privately to the Reebok folks already? It might well be that the private talks have not produced results and a kick in the pants is required to get things moving. Reebok folks can throw a tantrum like OMR does with his ornery customers, but with huge amount of money at stake, I'm sure somebody on top of that organization will demand that they do the rational thing and limit negative publicity. Operating a big well-known corporation is different from operating a business at a much smaller scale.
You know, there are many things I love about Van Grumpy and HOLDING players ACCOUNTABLE for their action is my favorite thing. I've been a player on many teams and the coaches that wanted/demanded the most from me got the most from me. I know he seems negative, but it's really just blatant honesty. He doesn't paint pretty pictures for the media or fans....he doesn't let bad basketball slide through the cracks with his players at all. He let's them know about it and anyone else who would like to ask him about bad play. How do we condemn someone for telling the truth? We all saw the 2nd half of that basketball game and know it was terrible.......it's not time to ring the alarm because we know it was just a preseason game with subs playing the 2nd half. But let's be realistic and start appreciating someone who doesn't belittle our intelligence and try to make us believe we didn't see what we KNOW we saw. I appreciate him for telling the truth and the truth hurts sometimes...it's the way it is. The Rockets were horrible last season.....because of injuries, but nevertheless, still horrible........Van Gundy said so. They played bad the 2nd half of Tuesday nights game....Van Gundy said so. It's just a nice tall glass of the truth and I will swallow that any day because I know what I’m getting.
JVG should know better.....those younger players would look a LOT better if they were playing with Yao, Tmac, Battier & Bonzi....... DD
Van Gundy has no patience for young players. IMO, his comments are nothing. If you think that is bad and Van Gundy turns negative again, wait until the real season begins.
I agree with you to a certain extent, my high school basketball coach was probably worse than JVG and I hated him to some point, but I always new where I stood with him. Now that I look back at it, he was really trying to make me a better player and prepare me for the next level. My college coach was much more business like and I really never new where I stood, I didn't trust everything that was told and promised to me. So that is probably the main reason so many players like playing for the JVG, he doesn't sugarcoat things and you really don't have to second guess what he's thinking about you as a player or where you stand.
The overreaction to what JVG said is just amazing! Some of you guys need to take a couple of steps back and calm down. The "filters" that you put on when reading or listening to JVG's public comments have tainted your perspective of what he says. Sure the guy is grumpy and most here would like him to show a sunnier attitude but (do yourself a favor and) get over it.
It's one thing to let a player know where he is lacking and I am all for that and it's another to cry to the media. You don't have to cry to the media about every negative thing. And as far as the Media overhyping Vspan, they didn't start it. We started it. We started when we watched his games and saw some positive things about this. When we saw him make Chris paul look like his b**** and jump out in front of Wade and make him charge and blow past Bosh and Battier on a break away. And now the media is just trying to give us more of what we want. We saw he is a talent but I never thought Vspan would come in immediately and be a star. As for being honest I see Van Gundy as being a glass half empty kind of guy. How can he say we don't have any depth. Yeah we are lacking in some areas but in other areas we are so much better than last year. At the 2 we have Bonzi, Snyder and Head... at the 3 we have Tmac, Bonzi, Battier and Novak at the 4 we have Battier, Hayes, Novak and Howard. Yeah we have 2 rookies backing up Alston but one of those rookies as so much potential that it would be hard to see him not eventually contribute.. and Yeah Deke is old but overall we have so much more depth than last year. Why not sing that song out instead of crying about lack of depth. It's old and it's negative and it's vintage Van Grumpy not the new and improved version he promised.
Although it's true that we have 18 or 19 days left to prepare. Jeff was just commenting on that game. How positive can you be about how the rookies played? If your saying positive things about Billy's 5 turnovers or Lucas' 2-11 shooting...then you have a problem. He actually stated that those two gaurds have a shot if they play disciplined basketball...Thats the truth. I respect his honesty. And Jeff doesn't chastize his team for no reason. Its called good sportsmenship. You don't wanna say "Hahaha Dallas got their butts kicked by Luther."
maybe for a high school coach in a very pc environment. these guys are playing in the nba, time to be a man.
You guys are funny. Some of the league's greatest coaches (Riley, Auerbach, Brown, etc) ripped the holy hell out of their players in the media, during games, you name it. Ditto for college coaches and coaches of every sport and virtually every level. If you can't handle the criticism, you don't belong in the game. And this HARDLY constitutes as JVG ripping anyone. This is damn mild even for him. And, let's be honest, he's completely right! It would be one thing if the guy was just kicking ass to do it, but he's telling the truth and not allowing his players to get away with poor play. Accountibility is a big deal to great players and great coaches. Michael Jordan, the best player the game has ever seen, was notorious for brutalizing teammates. Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlin, Larry Bird...some of the all-time greats were demanding of absolute perfection just as their coaches were. Look, I wouldn't want a boss that did that, but it has been the time honored tradition of sports that hardcore coaches are very often successful, sometimes where guys less disciplined simply aren't.
Oh yeah and I dont see it as him crying to the media at all. He's stating the truth. Thats what happened in that game. But I do agree with you that he shouldn't have played so many new players at the same time. That made me angry too.
I understand your frustration...I truly do. I just think that he's a straight shooter period. He's going to telling the media the truth a good majority of the time. I can see where a person is overly negative all the time because they can always say "I told you so", but I just don't think that's the case with him. When he said that we didn't have any depth, I personally didn't take it as WE DONT HAVE DEPTH (even though that's what was said) I just took it as they have to prove that they are the DEPTH that we hyped them up to be and I believe that this team has plenty of depth. They will look at film....listen to coach grumpy, learn from mistakes, make adjustments and starting playing like championship caliber backups lol. Until then, we do not have depth....depth is just a word until then. He and his team will be held accountable for underachieving and I love that….couldn’t ask for anything more.
Man, does Old Man Rock hate Van Gundy or what? I think he's written like 12 long paragraphs already and it seems we haven't even scratched the surface of the resentment there... Come on people -- did you even watch the game? If as a (typically over-optimistic) fan I found very little positive in the second half, what do you expect the coach to do? Hide his head in the sand, and just tell everyone they tried their best? Puh-lease. There was very little that went right in that second half, and Jeff is absolutely right. They are *all* capable of so much more than what we saw. You know what's funny? Old Man Rock is still bitter about JVG putting down Luther last year. Guess who isn't bitter? Luther Head himself. In fact, he's smiling down the bench, probably laughing at the rookies. Why do you think he didn't play when probably every other sophomore in the nation was playing in their first preseason game? Take a pill and relax man. Let the coach do his job. His job isn't to make YOU feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Geez, so many paragraphs, so much anger.
I think you just contradicted yourself. Yes, we have more depth than last year, but, as you said, our depth is either coming off injury, very young and unproven or very old and wearing out. So, when everyone comes in asking about how great our depth is, JVG isn't thinking about last year. He's comparing our depth to that of Miami or Detroit or Phoenix or Dallas. He is comparing us to the best teams in the league because that is where we want to be. Saying we are better than last year is like saying the Texans will win more games this year than last year. Even without the added players, we should be better if we stay healthy. But, that isn't good enough in a league where winning is all that matters. Depth is pointless if it doesn't match up with the depth of the best teams in NBA because it isn't going to win you a title.
You do for sure! If you are a sissy boy, that is. You are not a real man and that's why you don't play in the NBA. A real man like Chuck Hayes gets negative feedbak and says **** that and tries to improve himself by getting in better shape, playing, smarter and working on getting his ass even bigger and stronger and more beautiful than before. A sissy boy loses confidence and gives up. (Just teasing... but as has been pointed out before, this isn't your local middle school girls soccer team, it's the pro league with adults, guys their age are facing life and death situations in Iraq every day so don't tell me you can't expect them to take a little criticism )
