General

#Stan Van Gundy talks Tom Thibodeau, Knicks and history with Dwight Howard

#Stan Van Gundy talks Tom Thibodeau, Knicks and history with Dwight Howard

With the NBA’s coronavirus-altered playoffs getting set to tip off, NBA analyst and former coach Stan Van Gundy takes a timeout for some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.

Q: What do you think of Tom Thibodeau as Knicks coach?

A: I think it’s a great hire because they need to bring a real stability to that organization, No. 1, and a structure, and Tom will bring great structure to that organization. Everyone will know exactly what’s expected on a daily basis. He will develop their young players as professionals, because they’ll know what’s expected. He’ll set high standards, he’ll enforce them. He will show guys what they need to do to become successful NBA players. And Tom’s teams have always played with a toughness about ’em, with an edge. Tom has an edge to him, and I think New York teams, at their best, have an edge to them, and Tom will bring that to the Knicks, and I think he’ll be very successful there. Now, if we’re gonna talk very successful in terms of wins and losses, their roster still has a long way to go. Tom’s a great coach, but their roster’s not ready to be highly successful right now. But Tom will maximize the talent that he’s given.

Q: Leon Rose?

A: Everything I know of Leon Rose is good. When he was an agent, he was widely respected among general managers and player personnel people as a straight shooter. He was respected among players because he worked hard for them and had their best interests at heart. He seems to me, from all I know of him, to be a person of high integrity.

Q: William Wesley, aka World Wide Wes?

A: I’ve only met Wes on a couple of occasions. A very personable guy that knows everyone.

Q: Has Jacque Vaughn done enough to be in consideration for the Nets head coaching job?

A: Well I hope so, because Jacque’s a really good guy. And they’ve done very well here in the bubble. The only thing is, is what he’s doing here in the bubble is totally different than what the job description will be there with the Nets next year. So taking a bunch of young guys and getting them to overachieve, especially for a relatively short period of time, it’s not easy, but it’s a very different job than coaching star players with high expectations. So I don’t know how [GM] Sean Marks and [owner] Joe Tsai look at Jacque in terms of those things. Look, I was shocked, and I think a lot of people were, when Kenny Atkinson was out. I don’t think there were very many people over the last few years in the NBA who had done a better job coaching than Kenny Atkinson. Totally revived the Nets franchise, and did an unbelievable job developing the young players that they had and making them better. I would love to see Jacque get a second chance, because he came into Orlando and took a team really in flux and didn’t have a great roster, and didn’t have a great record. I always pull for those guys to get a second chance.

Stan Van Gundy
Stan Van GundyAP

Q: Could Caris LeVert be the third spoke in the wheel with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving?

A: Kyrie and Kevin Durant are clearly your stars, and I look at Caris LeVert and probably Spencer Dinwiddie as your second-unit guys, your bench scorers, and then put more shooting around Kyrie and Kevin Durant to space the floor. Joe Harris to me is a really good fit for them in the starting lineup if they bring him back. Both are certainly good enough not only to be starters but to be good starters in the NBA. The problem to me, and I’m not saying you can’t overcome it, but the tough part if Spencer and/or Caris LeVert are in the starting lineup with Kyrie and Kevin Durant is Caris LeVert and Spencer Dinwiddie both need the ball in their hands. They are put-the-ball-in-my-hands, let me go one-on-one or let me run pick-and-roll, and in your first unit, the ball’s gonna be in Kyrie and Kevin Durant’s hands all the time.

Q: What are your thoughts on Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard?

A: Of all the players in the league that I don’t have any personal relationship with and I’ve never coached and I’m judging from the outside, I don’t know if there’s anybody in the league I have more respect for than Damian Lillard. No. 1, he never tried to get out of Portland. Never criticized his teammates. Never publicly comes out and says that he needs more help. He’s extremely supportive of his coach and his general manager. He’s a total team guy and a total organization guy that has an overwhelming desire to get it done right where he is in Portland. And he concentrates on doing his job. Any team would be lucky to have a guy like that. Milwaukee is hoping that Giannis [Antetokounmpo] is gonna be that guy in Milwaukee.

Q: What is the best piece of advice your brother Jeff gave you about this television gig?

A: The same advice he gave me in coaching, which is to be yourself. You can’t try to be someone else. You can learn from a lot of people and should, but your personality’s your personality and you should be yourself. I probably look at the numbers a lot more than he does and I’ll give some out. He thinks some of what I do in that regard is good, but he thinks I should focus more on why things happened on the floor and explain those things and not get to carried away with numbers … to just be quiet at times and let the game speak for itself. He’s the best in the business. I watch him every chance I get. Even when I was coaching, I would try to catch replays of his games. We’d fly into a hotel [at] 2 in the morning, I’d hop in bed and turn on his game. He’s got a great way of explaining what’s going on, and doing it clearly and concisely. I’m better at clear than I am on concise.

Jeff Van Gundy in 1998 when he was the Knicks coach.
Jeff Van Gundy in 1998 when he was the Knicks coach.New York Post

Q: What was your immediate reaction when you saw your brother clinging to Alonzo Mourning’s leg during that 1998 Knicks-Heat brawl?

A: I was in the middle of that in the sense that I was [an assistant] on the other bench. So at the time, my immediate reaction was to turn around and make sure all of our guys stayed on the bench. The next thought I had was, “We’re screwed,” because Alonzo’s gonna get suspended. I wasn’t really thinking, why did Jeff get in the middle of it, why did he do what he did, or anything else. That’s just who he is. If something’s out there, he’s gonna hop in and try to protect his players, especially from getting suspended and stuff. He’s always been tough and fearless, but I wasn’t thinking any of that at the time.

Q: Did you chuckle watching the replays over the years?

A: No, that’s not funny to us. We’re able to laugh at ourselves, and I think you hear it from him a lot on the air — he’s very self-deprecating. He might now be able to chuckle at that situation better than I can, but when I look at it now, and I hear people making fun of him and stuff, it hurts me, it’s not funny to me, I don’t like it at all. And from a competitive situation, that was a series that we lost. I probably see it once a year, and quite honestly, if I’m in a place with other people, I walk away. And if I watch TV by myself, I turn it off.

Q: What are your favorite Fordham memories from 1988?

A: Just working for [then-coach] Nick Macarchuk. Probably, other than my father and brother, he’s the coach I worked under [first at Canisius in 1987] that I learned the most from.

I remember being on a bus after a game coming back from LaSalle, those were the Lionel Simmons days and they had beaten us, and there were some of our guys laughing and joking in the back of the bus, and I was getting pissed off, like we lost! Nick Macarchuk’s one of the most intense guys that I’ve ever been around, one of the greatest competitors. But he looked at me and said: “What do you want to do now that could help us win that game tonight?” His point was players need to bounce back. … We were at Fordham, we were on a recruiting trip and I asked him, “What do you look for in an assistant?” He said, “Look, I can look at a résumé and tell what somebody’s background is. I can make some calls and find out if they know the game. But for me to have somebody on my staff in a business like this, I have to be able to ride in a car with him for four hours.”

I’ve always thought about that, not only in terms of my staff members, but even in terms of players, we’re together so long on a daily basis that part of the reason you have success or don’t [is], hopefully you’re liked, but definitely your respect for the people that you’re working with. Yeah, you want to achieve things, but you want to enjoy the journey along the way. And then the third thing I learned from Nick is I remember Nick saying that all coaching jobs are the same, except on payday. You’re putting a different amount of money in the bank, but once you put that money in the bank, all you care about is winning the next game — whether you’re Nick Macarchuk at Fordham or an NBA coach or a high school JV coach somewhere. All coaches are the same.

Q: What was the main thing that impressed you about your father, Bill, as a coach?

A: I can pick out a lot, but the No. 1 thing, was simply his passion for the game. He would say to us growing up, and then after we were grown up, that he never felt like he worked a day in his life. I think it was inevitable that Jeff and I would grow up and want to coach, because when you grow up around someone who loves to go to work every day and has that kind of enthusiasm for it, you say, “Wow, that looks like a lot of fun. I would love to do that.” Well over half, probably, of what I’ve picked up in coaching, certainly all of my foundational beliefs on how to go about the job, I learned from my dad.

Luka Doncic
Luka DoncicNBAE via Getty Images

Q: What are the traits of the ideal Stan Van Gundy basketball player?

A: Tough, mentally and physically. Somebody who welcomes challenges and won’t back down from anything … and the not-backing-down part of it too is, won’t back down from the truth, can face up to failures and work to get better. … Certainly a commitment to his team and his teammates above himself. So it manifests itself in doing the little things on the court, things that may not show up in a stat sheet, setting screens, making the extra pass, cutting to open up space. … One of the biggest skills that any NBA player can develop is the ability to focus for long periods of time. A lot of people are smart and can answer all the questions when you ask them, but have a problem staying focused over the length of a 48-minute game and an 82-game season. … Highly conditioned. … I think if you’re highly-conditioned, tough and can focus, and you’re unselfish, whatever your potential is talent-wise, you’re gonna get as close to it as possible.

Q: If you were starting an NBA franchise, who would you start it with?

A: I have a tough choice right now between [Luka] Doncic and Giannis.

Q: What are coaches in other sports you admire?

A: [Orioles bench coach and former MLB manager] Freddie Gonzalez. Just sort of his even-keeled demeanor, the emphasis he had on using his entire roster. … He would attribute a lot from what he got working for [former Braves manager] Bobby Cox in terms of communicating with each player every day. Then I would throw Bobby Cox in there, too. I don’t know if you can give players confidence, but Bobby Cox always showed confidence in his players. He stuck with his guys as long as he felt guys were focused and playing hard. When I was at the University of Wisconsin, a guy who ended up coaching the Raiders to the Super Bowl, Bill Callahan. … The importance of little things, of details, of fundamentals. I admire guys who have success for long periods of time. … In our sport, Gregg Popovich, Jerry Sloan, guys like that I’ve had great respect for. … Football, Bill Belichick, Nick Saban in the college game.

Q: I read that you admired Joe Maddon, also.

A: What I liked about Joe Maddon was he was willing to do things differently … willing to step outside the box and try something that they think will help their team, and with Joe Maddon, it was some on the field ***** and ***** off of the field. Most days, even on the road, he would go for a bike ride, which he thought helped his mind and kept him thinking. It’s something that I didn’t do well enough, and I became so obsessive.

Q: Who are leaders you admire?

A: [Former NBA point guard] Jameer Nelson was probably, of all the players I’ve been around, the most tuned in to his teammates. He would know what a guy needed on any given day. … I thought Barack Obama was an unbelievable leader. A big part of leadership is being able to inspire other people. He always got to the heart of the issue, and he had a way of raising you and inspiring you to action, probably a lot like John F. Kennedy. I would certainly say if you look at what’s going on now and harken back to the ’60s, [late Congressman] John Lewis is somebody that inspired me because of the great personal sacrifice he made in pursuit of his ideals, which were equality and really manifested in voting rights and things. Over the last 6-8 years, probably Nancy Pelosi, who tends to be a divisive figure because the people on the right really don’t like her, but I think she is smart and practical and understands what can be done, and goes after those things. … Ruth Bader Ginsburg for her intellect and her courage, which manifests itself more and more every single day, because she knows what’s at stake and she just continues to go on and on.

Q: What are your favorite inspirational or motivational sayings?

A: The one that I’ve used is from Aristotle, that excellence is not an act but a habit. We are what we repeatedly do. … JJ Redick has continued to get better into his mid-30s because of the approach he takes, he’s trying to get better every day. He is, I think, the best-conditioned athlete in the NBA.

Q: Describe Pat Riley.

A: The thing that to me set him apart is he had an extremely strong will. He would stick to his beliefs and convictions all the time. He wasn’t somebody who was gonna change with the wind. He was gonna set the standards, he knew what he liked, he knew what he wanted, and you were gonna meet those standards.

Q: The young Dwyane Wade.

A: It was easy to see his greatness right away. He had great poise, was always under control, and he had an incredible ability to learn. He just picked things up so quickly it was just incredible.

Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy in 2012
Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy in 2012AP

Q: Dwight Howard.

A: Just an absolute force of nature. The most underrated thing about Dwight Howard when I coached him was his intelligence. He knew the strengths and weaknesses of every single other big guy in the league to the point of being able to mimic everybody’s moves. He knew game plans and our system, and you could make adjustments and changes on the fly. Put that physical ability together with an incredible intelligence, yeah that’s why he’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Q: Did you feel betrayed by him toward the end of your Magic tenure?

A: The whole situation there with the rumors [that Howard wanted out of Orlando during 2011-12 season], I thought it was becoming a distraction to our team, and whether I was right or wrong, I thought the best way to sort of get rid of the rumors and clear up the distraction was just to bring everything out in the open. He was asked a question by ownership, he gave his answer on what he wanted, and that’s the way it goes. One of the things I learned from Pat Riley, he would say all the time to our team, that a player-coach relationship is a business relationship designed to get a result. I’ve always thought if you want to know if a player-coach relationship is good, look at what happens on the court. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a better player-coach relationship than I had with Dwight. … I didn’t feel betrayed by Dwight, I do think Dwight felt betrayed by me. And I still regret that because I have great respect for Dwight.

Q: What is your single best basketball moment?

A: 1985, I was in my second year as a head coach at Castleton State College, I was 25 years old, and we beat St. Joseph’s of Maine to win the NAIA District 5 championship and go to the NAIA national tournament in Kansas City. I have never topped that in my career. My best NBA moment was winning Game 6 against Cleveland in 2009 to go the NBA Finals with a group of people I had great respect for, and that moment was probably just ahead of my first year in the NBA as a head coach, 2003-04 season, Game 7 against New Orleans at home with a bunch of young guys and two great veterans and blowing out New Orleans to win that playoff series.

Q: Describe NBA broadcast partner Ian Eagle.

A: He’s absolutely the best. He has really been willing to mentor me. Ian would make a great coach, a great teacher because he’s patient and he’ll be encouraging but he also will tell you things that help you. We talk about the great ones in basketball make their teammates better, well, that’s what Ian does as a broadcaster.

Q: Who are athletes in other sports you admire?

A: Mike Trout. My two things are guys who bring a great enthusiasm and passion to the game, and guys who have success for long periods of time. He plays the game like he’s a high school kid having fun. … Guys like Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera, who hit the ball so well for so long. … Tom Brady, the success he’s had year in and year out. … Larry Fitzgerald, same way. … [Roger] Federer, [Rafael] Nadal, [Novak] Djokovic. … Serena Williams is the best athlete of her generation, male or female.

Q: Three dinner guests?

A: Abraham Lincoln, John Lewis, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Q: Favorite movie?

A: “Shawshank Redemption.”

Q: Favorite actors?

A: Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks.

Q: Favorite actress?

A: Julia Roberts.

Q: Favorite singers/entertainers?

A: Earth, Wind and Fire, and Aretha Franklin.

Q: Favorite meal?

A: Mexican food — enchiladas, refried beans.

Q: Would you want to coach again?

A: I would like to coach again, I really would. In my mind I’m still young and I’ve certainly got the energy for it. I think I have a lot to offer. It would have to be a situation, a city, and even just going back to coaching that my wife would feel comfortable about, because my relationship with her is a lot more important to me than coaching is. It would have to be one where I was aligned with the vision of the front office and ownership, and we were all on the same page.

Q: Describe your coaching legacy as of now?

A: I think the only legacy we have in life is how we impact people around us and they impact the people around them and so on and so on down through the generations, and we’ll never know what that is. What I would feel best about is people would say about me at the end is he worked really hard, he gave a damn about our team, he gave a damn about us as people, like the dude cared and he tried and he was a decent guy.

Q: If you were a player in the bubble, what message would you have on the back of your jersey?

A: To me, it’s the simplest one, but we’re so far away from it — I’d put “Equality” on there. Until we can get to there, being a true equality of opportunity, to where people have equal rights and equal opportunity in this country — people of all colors, races, genders, sexual orientation … until we truly get to that, then nothing else matters.

We still haven’t been able to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, which is the simplest amendment there’s ever been, and something I don’t understand how anybody can be against. … Women have never been equal, what we’ve done to Native Americans is beyond belief, and now our answer is put ’em on the reservation and give ’em a casino. Until we pay for the crimes of the past … and this isn’t a vengeful thing … you can’t have equality of opportunity if we disregard our history, because one of the biggest advantages we as white people have is, wealth is generational.

I’ve heard a lot people say, “Well I’ve never encountered slavery, why should I pay?” Well, it’s not you paying directly, it’s our country paying. And I think people are short-sighted and they’re not thinking about the kind of country and the kind of world that they want to live in. And if you want to get really selfish about it, the demographics of our country are changing fairly rapidly, and some day you might be in the minority. How do you want to be treated at that point?

If you want to read more Sports News articles, you can visit our General category.

if you want to watch Movies or Tv Shows go to Dizi.BuradaBiliyorum.Com for forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com

Source

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button
Close

Please allow ads on our site

Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker!