Burn the bridge? Ha, this is more like how The Bridge over the River Kwai ended up.
Which is going to be an interesting discussion in Van Gundy’s next job interview.
Stan Van Gundy has been doing media interviews lately and has started just carpet-bombing is former employers, the Orlando Magic. He was fired from the Magic last year (along with GM Otis Smith) as the Magic tried to appease Dwight Howard (the Magic deny that was the reason) but in the end the Dwightmare just got worse for everyone.
Van Gundy was on 740 The Game in Orlando Monday and just fire shots, specifically at Orlando CEO Tony Martins. Via the Orlando Sentinel (hat tip to The Hangtime Blog).“It’s a typical lack of understanding from someone who has no sports knowledge, who has never coached or played, who has never been in a lockeroom….it’s a naivete,” Van Gundy said of Martins Monday morning on Mike Bianchi’s show on 740 AM….
“….I’ll stand on the relationships with players based on the results we got.
“I’ll take my share of the blame and management needs to take theirs,” he said…
“The Dwight thing was so big….in an effort, I guess, to make Dwight happy and everything else, we compromised a lot of the culture and values we had before that. It’s always a mistake when you compromise those things…everything goes South. It was no longer a team-first thing,” he said. “It was inevitable things would not go as well.”
Well, I think it is safe to say nobody in Orlando handled this well — not the Magic, not Van Gundy, certainly not Howard. Mitch Kupchak handled it well for the Lakers, I think Philly and Denver did well, but Orlando… Rob Hennigan, you need to nail some draft picks.
But is Van Gundy hurting his chances at another job with this? If I were an owner looking at a coach and Van Gundy was on the list, I’d have to wonder what he would say after the inevitable parting. Might not keep me from hiring him — the guy can coach, he wins — but it would make me pause.