Looks like our coach Jeff Van Gundy is in a big trouble http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=2051994&type=story Stern backs Van Gundy into a corner -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Marc Stein ESPN.com DALLAS -- Yao Ming's initial response to the record fine assessed to his coach was to offer to pay half of it. If only this tale, our first major flap of these playoffs, had such a tidy solution. Turns out that it's not going to be terribly easy to make Jeff Van Gundy's troubles vanish, and that has nothing to do with the 3-2 deficit that suddenly confronts Van Gundy's Houston Rockets in their first-round series against Dallas. Van Gundy is looking at a serious quandary even if the Rockets win the next two games, and even if they win 12 more after that. For starters, league rules prevent Yao from legally paying one cent of the $100,000 punishment assessed Monday to Van Gundy. The fine stems from Van Gundy's statements Sunday night that he was recently told by an unnamed referee that playoff refs are "looking harder at Yao" because of complaints to the league office from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Then there's the scary part. On top of the six figures that will be subtracted from a future paycheck, Van Gundy faces further sanctions from the man in charge of the rulebook as soon as Houston's season ends. NBA commissioner David Stern, coincidentally making a scheduled stop in Dallas on the same day he levied the steepest fine on a coach in league history, made it clear that the docked pay is just "an intermediate step." The league's investigation into Van Gundy's comments will resume as soon as the Rockets' season ends. "I just want to announce that it's not over," Stern said. Uh-oh. Apprised of the depth of Stern's dismay after the loss, Van Gundy said: "It is what it is. I'll let everyone evaluate it, what I said. And if it's that bad, I guess it's up to [Stern] and [NBA vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson] to determine. I don't see anything wrong with what I said … [Stern] obviously differs." Stern also called Van Gundy the first NBA "perpetrator" he could ever remember who did not cooperate with a league investigation, and he likewise put no boundaries on the next round of penalties Van Gundy could face if he doesn't answer the league's questions. Long-term suspension? Something longer? "I don't want to restrict any options that I have," Stern said. So … So much for the notion that a Rockets victory -- or at least Yao getting to the fourth quarter without foul trouble -- could make Van Gundy's expensive outburst worth it. Houston wound up getting only half of that recipe. Yao was effective and even forceful in Game 5, throwing down a follow dunk with particular vigor in the final minute of regulation as the Rockets came within another Tracy McGrady triple of forcing overtime. Yao made it to the final buzzer with only four fouls and would have been the Rockets' hero if not for his six misses in 16 attempts at the line, spoiling a 30-point outburst. The game details, though, are fairly irrelevant in terms of Van Gundy Gate. The mess wouldn't have been worth this much trouble even if the Rockets had won. Knowing Stern, and knowing how livid he is at what Le Commish described as coach manipulation of referees through the media hitting "a new low," Yao's boss is likely facing one of three outcomes. Van Gundy reveals the name of the referee who allegedly told him of a league directive to its playoff referees to be stricter when assessing Yao's movements. In that case, Van Gundy would probably avoid further punishment … but might cost his source his day job as an NBA ref. Van Gundy tells league officials that he made up the story. If that's what's happened, or if that's simply what Van Gundy admits to, bet on him getting hit with a suspension of some severity to start next season. Stern dropped enough hints Monday to suggest that he isn't going to stop at a hefty fine if Van Gundy concocted (or says he concocted) the tale. Van Gundy maintains his refusal to tell Stern's investigators anything. He joked before Monday's tipoff that he "felt like I was in Watergate or something" when pressed to reveal his sources, but you can surmise that the penalty stemming from this scenario wouldn't generate much laughter from the Rockets. In this What Next Series, predictions haven't been good. Dallas' 103-100 triumph in Game 5 marked the first time that the home team has won. So we'll pass on predicting which of those three courses Van Gundy is apt to follow. Here's what we do know for sure: • All teams complain to the league about the way games are officiated, not just Cuban's Mavs. Especially in the playoffs. • Cuban's chief complaint to the league is that Yao is guilty of moving screens. Screen-setting, moving or otherwise, is not what has saddled Yao with crippling foul trouble in three of the five games so far. So Van Gundy's accusations don't line up with what really bothers him -- his belief that Yao is "not refereed appropriately." He attributes that in this series to Cuban "calling and calling" the league, but that has actually been a season-long complaint from the Rockets. • Yao was legitimately touched by Van Gundy trying to stand up for him and was sincere when he said: "Coach did everything he could. Now we've got to do something for him." Problem is, only Van Gundy can extricate himself now from this spill of Texas crude.
Really, I think JVG is the best coach for this team. So, if his job is being threatened if he doesn't give up his source, then he should give it up.
$100,000 is ubelievable. Stern has completely loss every ounce of respect I had for him. On one hand, you have the owner of a team that acts like a 10 year old. He says whatever he wants and you fine him, you know it's nothing to him and it has become a joke. You use him for ratings and guess what, he does have some power behind the scenes. On the other hand, you have a storied NBA coach who has been nothing but a good coach. He never said much, cared about the team, cared about the game, and he says something (not all that bad by the way) and you slap him with a 100K fine and a threat to be banned? Go away David Stern. You are a jackass and this little power struggle you are having is a complete joke. Ratings are lower than they have ever been and on top of that, you are trying to ban the same kids that saved your butt.
And what if he made it up to emphasize his point about Yao being treated unfairly? I think JVG should stick to his guns. Screw Stern. Operation: Deep Throat.
This outburst by JVG is equivalent to his hanging on Zo's leg. No city could NOT love a coach who consistently puts his neck out there for his team. If we don't win this year, I guarantee tnext year's team will destory the league. I'll tale being jobbed out of this series if it gives Yao the motivation to develop a serious attitude problem that will carry us to 5 titles in the next 8 years
Damn this is pathetic, PJ and Cuban said things that are alot worse(altough mentioning a ref might not be the smartest thing Jeff could have done). I would be very mad if the nba suspended Van Gundy. Stern is a joke.
What is AWESOME is that JVG is right. Look at the CRAP CALLs , plus that Michael Finley call ranks amongs the best of the worst calls against the Rockets. JVG is a Rocket hero today.
Wow and I mean wow - the balls that Van Gundy showed here are incredible. This guy has become my all-time favorite coach. Anyone who says to fire him should be banned from this site - seriously.
Hello. Long time lurker, first time poster. I thought of a way to get Yao officiated fairly. It will never happen for the obvious reasons, but here goes. I image an exchange where a reported asks Yao if he is frustrated with the way he's officiated. His reply would be along the following lines: Yao: "Yeah, it's very frustrating. I feel like I am playing with one hand tied behind my back. It's almost like they don't want me in the league. But hey, if they don't want any Chinese players in the league, I guess I could always go back home to China and play there year-round." If David Stern thought there was a possibility he might lose some of the Chinese $$, I think we can safely assume the officials would start calling Yao MUCH better.
I really can't believe this board doesn't understand the severity of these comments. I understand this is a fan board but I'm watching all the sports analysts this morning and the seriousness of what Van Gundy accused refs of isn't even being debated. His comments were ludicrous. You guys are confusing balls with insanity.
Non-Rocket fans don't think the comments were that bad either. Right now on the ESPN poll Does JVG deserve a $100,000 fine for his comments? 11% Yes 89% No
If what JVG said (about the ref calling him and telling him that the NBA refs were told to look harder at Yao) is true, do you still think he shouldn't have made those comments? Should he have stayed quiet about it?
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/3165011 Van Gundy was not backing down from any of his original charges. "I'll talk on the record," he said Monday morning after the team shootaround but before receiving word of the fine. "I challenge them to say Yao is refereed appropriately. "If Yao was a ( ... ), if Yao was kicking the ball into the stands, if Yao was threatening to go back to China (and) if Yao wasn't such a nice guy who was so easy to ( ... ) over, you would see a totally different level of refereeing. "Nobody wants to use the word 'bias.' It sets people off. You have to be careful. But they have acknowledged that and told me that it was going to change. But it hasn't changed. The ( ... ) has only gotten worse. That's how I feel. "See, what they want to do is they want to quash it. They want you to be open to the media and when asked a question by the media, they want you to spout out their line. Which is, the officials get 94 percent of the calls right. Which is bull( ... )." Van Gundy emphasized that his problem is with the so-called "points of emphasis" that are given to the officiating crew by a supervisor in a pregame meeting, not the game officials themselves. He claims the league is responding to Cuban's complaints about Yao. "It's not an integrity attack," he said. "I could say, 'Why don't you focus on the post defense against Yao?' ... But they've chosen to present it as, 'This is what you should be looking for.' And I say it's bull( ... )." as good of a coach JVG is, as a man he's 100 times that. honesty and being right and feeling it and not being afraid to say it, you know it's becoming a rare thing in todays world so much so that it is percieved as being insane. these are the days, the age of power and corruption. in every part of the globe it reigns so why wouldn't it reign in sports. baseball has its steroids, nba has its courrupt officials. this has now become a game where the winners lose and the losers win.
I posted this yesterday before the fine and the game- Like it or not the refs can decide a game- It happens. Whether intentially or not they have made the greatest impact in this series. If we win another game it will require beating the Mavs and the refs- here was my take: Contrary to all the political spin in the world the truth is (especially when teams are fairly evenly matched) that most times the difference in winning and losing can be a few critical calls by the refs. Reality is when a call goes against you it can hurt you more than a good play by the other team because... 1. It can effect momentum big time 2. It can affect the player(s) shafted (can disrupt what they are doing, rythmn, get in their head) 3. It can dictate to one team's strengths or weaknesses 4. It can push a team out of what they are trying to do. 5. It can cause players to back off of something they should be doing 6. It has residual effect on later possessions 7. Player foul trouble 8. Team fouls 9. Substitution patterns, combinations on the court 10. It can cause players to press and force things to compensate. This is a short list. Karl Malone is a prime example of a physical flopper who could play the refs and get to the free throw line and yet play dirty and physical and get away with it. (The biggest crier whenever he was called for anything) Michael Jordan- went from great player to god when he started getting the Jordan rule. If he drives to the rim he will score or it is a foul. Then the rule was expanded to if he misses the shot he must have been fouled. These guys were a nightmare to guard because the refs could take them away from you. Now I am not saying that the Rockets have the refs to blame for the last two losses, but it is true that the refs have alot of control over who wins. The fact that we must overcome the Mavs and the Refs cannot be overlooked. The fouls being called are not about the Mavs driving the lane. TMac has been fouled repeatedly driving the lane and he isn't even getting the calls. The biggest problem is with Yao, Why is Mark Cuban all over this?? Answer that. Because he doesn't believe the Mavs can stop the Rockets if Yao isn't called for those moving screens. He thinks they were shafted in the first two games. If there is anything to argue here it should be were the Mavs beaten the first two games because of Yao's moving screens. Cause that is the reason Cuban is ranting to the league.
With all due respect pgagabriel, his comments were not ludicrous. And the media is pulling the whole incident out of context and making the focus of the incident the fact that there are a lot of fans that believe that the league conspires as to who wins. Stern fined Van Gundy because he felt that Van Gundy was trying to manipulate the officials through the media and he is tired of it. Van Gundy made his comments because he has evidence which leads him to believe that the officials are being affected by things that they should not be affected by and the fact that the league has told him for a long time now that they were going to change the way that the officials officiate Yao and it hasn't happened. This has been going on all season. And it is plain to most of us that the officiating is not fair to Yao. We're not talking about showing favoritism to Yao. I don't think Van Gundy wants to see that. Because it is bad for the league. Van Gundy just wants to see Yao get a fair shake with the officials and it hasn't happened. It hasn't happened all season. Now, we are in the post season, and he has evidence that Cuban has caused the officials to all of a sudden "wake up" and call moving screens after they haven't called the moving screens all season. That is Van Gundy' s complaint. If anybody watched the San Antonio game, you saw the same call go against Duncan. That is being inconsistent when you officiate it a certain way for the whole season and then during the post season after a number of complaints by Cuban, you decide to officiate it differently. It's not right, especially since the league has told Van Gundy all season that they are going to adjust the play calling on Yao and haven't done it. All Van Gundy is after is fair and consistent process of deciding how the game is to be officiated. That is not ludicrous. It's a very important point that needs to be made. Because the truth of the matter is, that when teams are so evenly matched as Houston and Dallas, the officiating can sway the series one way or the other. It can influence the results of games and series and already has. Case in point: last night's game. Now, everyone can say "We lost the game because we didn't hit the free throws". That's true. But if the officials had got the call right on Finley, if they had called the slap on Dirk that you could hear on the television, if they had called the foul on Dirk when he ran through Scottie on the 3 point shot, if they had called the foul on Dirk when he had 5 instead of giving the foul to Howard, etc. etc. etc. etc., the results of this game would have been a lot different. Whether we like to admit it or not, when the game is close and is being played to two, high caliber, evenly matched teams, the referees in too many cases decide the results of the game. If those calls would have been made and corrected, we wouldn't be sitting here talking about missed free throws. We would have been talking about the outstanding performance by Yao and TMac down the stretch. It is not fair to ask teams to adjust their play and style of play when they have spent the whole season adjusting to rules changes and officiating changes. That's the frustrating part with Yao. They call Yao for jumping up and taking contact, so he stays on the floor. They call that. Then he has to jump straight up to avoid being called for the fouls when the defender drives right into his lap. Then he gets killed on the offensive end, witness Alan Henderson, with the bumping, pushing, holding, etc. and it's not called. Then we go down to the other end, and every bit of incidental contact on Yao is called. Why is that? And what do you call it if it is not biased? Do you say the refs are blind, that they can't see 7'5" players, only the smaller players? What do you call it, if it isn't biased and poor officiating? What do you call it when the ref doesn't see the player go around behind him while he is standing on the baseline??????? It is poor, inconsistent officiating coupled with poor and inconsistent decision making on how the game is to be officiated.
This is total bull****!!! It's one thing to make a statement, but $100,000 is totally ridiculous...Then on top of that, the potential ban, give me a break...I'm glad JVG is sticking to his story and screw David Stern... The fact of the matter is that what JVG is saying is true, period, end of story...
i was listening to 610 last night around 6 and van gundy was on the cell doing an interview. he made a comment along the lines of "i'll grab onto someone's ankles if i have to." i love JVG too!! i support him all the way! i don't think he should back down and i hope les and the whole team is behind him all the way!
