Who'll coach LeBron? Jeff Van Gundy could be the first coach LeBron James has in the NBA. Or he could be the man who succeeds the ultimate Rocket Man in Houston. If Van Gundy has a preference, he isn't saying. Van Gundy repeatedly refused to comment about either job opening before working Game 3 of the Western Conference finals for TNT. The sudden resignation of Rockets icon Rudy Tomjanovich adds more intrigue to Van Gundy's future, since coaching James in Cleveland is no longer his only high-profile option. Van Gundy told ESPN reporter Jim Gray that he did speak to the Cavs briefly Friday but has not been offered the job. When asked if he was interested in coaching the Cavs he said yes, but he needs more information before he would consider taking the job. Van Gundy and Paul Silas remain the leading candidates to become the Cavaliers' next coach, general manager Jim Paxson said Friday. However, Van Gundy is denying reports from 1050 ESPN Radio in New York that he has reached a deal with the Cavaliers. Van Gundy said that the Cavs are still deciding on their next head coach. According to 1050 ESPN Radio, the official announcement naming Van Gundy would likely not be made until next week. Cavs president Len Komoroski, speaking on ESPN Radio's national network, said he could not comment on the report. With Tomjanovich agreeing to announce his departure Friday -- almost a month before the biopsy scheduled to assess his recovery from cancer treatments -- the Rockets can immediately thrust themselves into the Van Gundy sweepstakes, to see if the former Knicks coach would prefer to mentor Yao Ming and Steve Francis. -- Marc Stein, ESPN.com http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2003/0523/1558402.html
This is getting a bit rediculous. I like Van Gundy and all and think that he is a decent coach but he isn't that great. Just to think when we all saw Van Gundy hanging onto Alonzo's leg like that Taco Bell dog a few years ago, how would you have felt if someone told you that one day this man would be the coach of the Rockets?
JVG rode out the last of Riley's mess. That was why he one games. Thats why he lost games. Let Cleveland him, please...
I guess we will know soon. Just read the NY Post tommorrow under Vecsey's column. I'm sure he will have some comments. If it comes from Vecsey, then it must be true. By the way, does Vecsey still cover the NBA playoffs like he did during the NBC days? He always seemed like a slimye guy but was nevertheless entertaining in the sense that you were glad that you weren't him. Was it him that beat up some guy in a toy store in Seattle because the guy standing in front of him in line happened to get the last toy of some kind that was in stock?
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.
This is a reprint of one of my post on another thread but it applies here also. JVG is an exceptionaly coach, just look at the record. ***** W - L 95-96 13-10 96-97 57-25 97-98 43-39 98-99 27-23 99-00 50-32 00-01 48-34 01-02 10-9 Without Van Gundy: ***** W - L 01-02 20-53 02-03 37-45 See a pattern. A good article on Van Gundy and his stint with the Knicks. Coach Can't Fix Sick Knicks Jeff Van Gundy had a talent for coaching. He just didn't have any talent. By Hugo Lindgren Posted Monday, December 10, 2001, at 12:49 PM PT Watching Jeff Van Gundy coach the Knicks over the last six years was like watching a defenseless boxer get pummeled in the late rounds. Every errant pass was another keen one in the gut, every missed defensive assignment a brain-throttling blow. You wished a ref would step in and halt the carnage. The victories, when they came, seemed to offer no salve, no relief. So thank God Van Gundy threw in the towel last Friday and resigned. Van Gundy has been an excellent coach, as savvy and effective as any in the league. He was the NBA's last true believer in coaching, in the idea that preparation and practice could compensate for inferior talent. And over the years, it was this faith that wore him down, that gave him the droopy face and the sunken eyes. Never once in the Van Gundy era did the Knicks have the talent to match up with the elite teams in the league. When Patrick Ewing was playing for them, there was that little Michael Jordan roadblock. When Jordan was on the way out, management made a critical bet. They signed Allan Houston and designated him as their post-Ewing savior, their Jordan. Houston has struggled to pay back their confidence ever since. Latrell Sprewell, brought in for reinforcement, added some pep. But neither he nor Houston has the skills to carry the Knicks. So it was left to Van Gundy to carry the Knicks, and he actually thought he could do it. This is why he suffered. Wins, in his view, were bought with hard work. If a string of 15-hour days culminated in an overtime loss to Sacramento, he'd go to 16-hour days to prepare for lowly Golden State. It made no difference who the opponent was or what point in the season it was—a team with insufficient talent could never afford to let up. Every practice was critical, every game do-or-die. Van Gundy's obsessive approach paid off in lots of ways, particularly in the postseason, as the Knicks routinely went deeper into the playoffs than they should have (last year's loss to Toronto being a notable exception). Their run to the finals three years ago, as the eighth seed in the East, was one of the most extraordinary underdog performances in NBA history. And with certain players, like Kurt Thomas, Van Gundy's relentless style clearly paid dividends. Before coming to the Knicks, Thomas was a wayward, injury-prone underachiever. Over the last three seasons, he became a reliable inside force and the Knicks' most consistent player. He faithfully supplies the dozen points and 10 boards a night they need from him. The problem is that a team full of Kurt Thomases, which is what the post-Ewing Knicks have morphed into, will never win a championship. The Knicks lack two essential skills—power in the middle and quickness in the backcourt. Their main assets are Houston and Sprewell, Thomas, and, from time to time, Marcus Camby. The rest of the squad could have been plucked from the waiver wire. Is it any wonder Van Gundy opted out of putting this team on the floor 60 more times? In fact, in the short run, the Knicks will probably play better without him. At the start of this season, Van Gundy's relentless pressure, applied day in and day out for six years, simply wore down this group; they could no longer overachieve. Perhaps they'll fare better with the milder Don Chaney at the helm. Van Gundy, meanwhile, will follow the path of his arch-nemesis Phil Jackson—an extended mellow-out period, possibly conducted in Montana, followed by a new job with a team that has the goods in place to win it all. When Jackson was plotting his comeback, he could have had any job in the league, including Van Gundy's. But he brushed them all off until the Lakers called, with Shaq and Kobe. That's the kind of situation—i.e., superstars already in place—that Van Gundy should look for. Go some place where you'll be able to win right away—and look back and laugh about how you once believed in the perfectibility of Allan Houston. http://slate.msn.com/id/2059596
