[New York Times] N.B.A. Says Van Gundy Went Over the Line

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/sports/basketball/04rockets.html

N.B.A. Says Van Gundy Went Over the Line
By LIZ ROBBINS

Published: May 4, 2005


ALLAS, May 3 - Psychology aside, the game within the game took a day off, and the Van Gundy uproar will have to wait.

The Rockets did not practice in Houston on Tuesday, and their baggy-eyed coach, Jeff Van Gundy, was not available to further discuss his claims of an N.B.A. conspiracy against Yao Ming or rally his players around him.

Mavericks Coach Avery Johnson did not want to address the $100,000 fine that the N.B.A. levied against Van Gundy, preferring to stay focused on Dallas's chance to close out the series Thursday in Houston.

Commissioner David Stern, back in New York, was also quiet, having declared before the Mavericks' victory Monday night that Van Gundy's future could be in doubt. Stern was visibly angry over Van Gundy's claim that the N.B.A. had directed its officials to call more fouls on Yao. Stern was even more upset with Van Gundy's claim that "an official not working the playoffs" had called Van Gundy to tell him about a league directive toward a specific player. Van Gundy refused to name the referee.

Stern called Van Gundy's comments beyond the usual playoff gamesmanship and gave him a fine that was double what any other N.B.A. coach had received. Les Alexander, the Rockets' owner, said Monday night that he did not think that Van Gundy's job would be in jeopardy. Alexander said he spoke with Stern a few times Monday.

"I support Jeff fully and I know he was not trying to impugn the integrity of the league," Alexander said in an interview. "He was just frustrated by the level of respect Yao got in the playoffs. I'm sure that when David cools off he will realize that Jeff wasn't doing anything to harm the league."

Stern called Van Gundy a perpetrator and said that the N.B.A.'s director of security, Bernard A. Tolbert, would be running an investigation. Tolbert was once a special agent in charge of the F.B.I. office in Buffalo. Stern said the investigation would resume after Houston's season ends.

"If he's going to say things like that, he's not going to continue in this league," Stern said.

Rod Thorn, the former N.B.A. vice president for basketball operations, said the issue was a larger one.

"What does the league have?" Thorn said Tuesday. "The league has its integrity - everybody has to know that the game's on the up and up. I'm sure Jeff didn't mean it the way it came out."

Thorn, now the Nets' president, also acknowledged, "I'm sure that the league will attempt to find out who the official was."

According to N.B.A. bylaws, Van Gundy must reveal his source and cooperate with an investigation. Van Gundy said that he did not want to reveal his source, who was not working during the playoffs.

"You can't question if anything's fixed or that there is favoritism going on," the Mavericks assistant coach Del Harris said. "The deeper issue is, if some referee called and tipped him off, then that is severe."

The controversy began Sunday when Van Gundy gave Mark Cuban, the Mavericks' owner, "credit" for protesting how the games in the series were called.

"What Jeff said is an insult to officials," Cuban wrote in an e-mail message Sunday. "They don't officiate individual players differently."

Cuban added that he had sent 28 examples to the league involving Yao and Dikembe Mutombo, in which he thought fouls were not called on screens off high pick-and-rolls. The league replied that eight instances were indeed fouls, but they were not called.

"He's worked the N.B.A. about officiating and calls," Van Gundy said Sunday. "When another official calls you out of the blue, we're up, 2-0, that we're targeting him more. It's on their Web site. There's nothing you can do about it. It has had an impact. That's not to detract from our bad play."

Cuban was shooting baskets with his players Tuesday at practice and, with a smile, declined to comment.

Van Gundy insisted after the Rockets lost their third straight game Monday that he would only be focused on getting his team prepared for Game 6.

For a coach who played at Division III Nazareth College, Van Gundy was obsessed with details, and preparation was the way he could get ahead and earn the respect of his players. He did so with his meticulous preparation and fighting spirit. Van Gundy is remembered for running on to the court in the 1998 playoffs to break up a fight between Alonzo Mourning of the Heat and Larry Johnson of the Knicks. Van Gundy ended up clinging to Mourning's leg during the melee.

Harris, a veteran of more than 200 playoff games, cautioned to put the incident in perspective.

"If you've ever coached this game, at the playoff level in particular, the pressure mounts," he said. "You ought to give Coach a little slack. When you see the average tenure of coaches going down from four to two years and sliding, you have to be a little forgiving if the guy steps out of bounds occasionally."