OT: Dwight Howard wants Van Gundy fired.
You may recall a couple weeks back that the Orlando Magic reportedely offered Dwight Howard the opportunity to help choose the next coach and GM if he chose to sign a new deal with them. This was something Howard denied, saying "no truth to that rumor, that is a responsibility that I neither asked for nor do I want." Well according to Stan Van Gundy, his current coach, Howard has told Magic management that he wants Van Gundy fired. Van Gundy stated that was told to him "at the very top" of Orlando's management. Howard has again denied this. You decide who is telling the truth.
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7778991/orlando-magic-stan-van-gundy-…
Van Gundy better dust off the old resume. He can't say he didn't see this coming.
I honestly can't blame Dwight for a lot of this mess. Most of you have no idea how dysfunctional the Orlando Magic orangization has been in recent years.
One example is team CEO Bob Vander Weide "retiring" earlier this year.
He was having some pretty severe personal problems, and drunk dialed Dwight Howard at 3 in the morning, begging him to stay.
He only had that job to begin with because he's married to a member of the DeVos clan.
This is the type of world class organization Dwight Howard is dealing with.
LeBron James says, "Thanks for taking me off the hook, buddy."
Howard says back to James, "Thanks for opening all the doors for me, buddy."
That is funny because in Simmons' latest column he listes SVG as one of his 5 picks for coach of the year.
This is oddly remenescent of what Lebron did in Cleveland a few years back. Making a lot of demands like he can be a player-GM. It doesn't work like that. Magic should've cut ties with the guy.
No matter what Howard does for the rest of his career, he will always be remembered for this. His legacy is already ruined.
He's by no means the first and only player to ask for his coach to be fired. I don't think this is big enough a deal to ruin his legacy. It happens all the time. If true.
Just like that Jordan kid's legacy was completely tarnished by demanding the Bulls fire Doug Collins.
Scratch this. Got my timing wrong.
This is clearly disputed too (by Howard), and Van Gundy went public with it, not Dwight Howard.
For helping getting Paul Westhead fired AFTER they won a championship....
best known for getting Paul Westhead fired.
I reside in Orlando. Dwight Howard constantly on 102 jams radio station. He clearly stated not true. Its not "like him" to say something especially towards Van Gundy or the organization. Now there seems to be some friction. He's frustrated that he has no help: which is why he was looking to be traded but ultimately decided to stay after they beat Miami Heat. In short, I believe Howard did not, and would not say anything negative. But I don't see him coming back to Orlando next season. Either Brooklyn or Dallas will get him.
Between the one and done in college and this kind of stuff, basketball is slowly but surely becoming a bigger and bigger joke among the pantheon of american sports...
Don't forget "The Decision"
Basketball was my favorite sport to watch growing up. However, between terrible officiating, one and done in college, little to no parity in the NBA, etc., I just can't get myself interested any longer.
When has the NBA ever had parity?
When the Celtics won 10 championships in 12 seasons?
When the 70s were dominated by a handful of teams (Lakers, Knicks, Bullets, Bucks, Sonics, and 76ers)
When the Lakers and Celtics dominated the 80s?
When the Bulls dominated the 90s?
When the Lakers and Spurs dominated the late 90s, early 00s?
Is it just me or does Van Gundy seem to be morphing into this generation's Larry Brown? He definitely gets results greater than the sum of the parts on the team. For awhile at least. Eventually it seems the players start to tune him out. But to me he seems an excellent coach with the right group of guys. As a Pacers fan, I certainly wouldn't mind seeing him as the coach if I didn't respect Vogel so much. As a fan of a Central Division team I certainly wouldn't enjoy seeing him go someplace like Detroit, Milwaukee or Cleveland.
But he is kind of a baby sometimes, isn't he?
My Wizards would love to have Van Gundy.
He's an immediate coaching upgrade for roughly half the league in my incredibly elementary opinion.
Van Gundy, Howard and the Magic are all morons. This entire saga needs to just die. Fire Van Gundy and trade Howard, then light your entire front office on fire. This is ridiculous. Absolute clown show down there in Orlando.
If this was my organization and this conversation actually happened and Van Gundy went public, he would have been fired immediately.
Also: You don't ever let a player have the leverage and right now Dwight has all of it.
Idiots.
You took the words right out of my mouth with the leverage. Watching Howard and Nelson sitting outside the team huddle during timeouts makes me want to go through the TV. I don't give a shit if you "think" you are better than the team, the coach or the organization, THIS IS A TEAM SPORT. Last time i checked, I've never seen one or two players win a 5 on 5 basketball on their own. Get your ass in the huddle with the rest of the team and be a good teammate. You make MILLIONS of dollars and you can't spend 30-60 seconds in the team huddle a few times a game. RIDICULOUS!
This crap would never happen in college, you think Bobby Knight would have allowed Chaney to chill at the end of the bench during a timeout?!?! Chairs would have been flying. NCAA > NBA
This crap would never happen in college? Really? Because Terrence Jones did it earlier this year and Kentucky still won a national championship.
There is only so much time players can buy into a yelling type coach like Van Gundy is. These type of coaches only get so much time to get their message across before players tune them out. Stan is a very good coach, and will be successful where he ends up next.
I think in the NBA this is true, given that players have all of the power in that league, but in other sports "yelling type" coaches, if they are good, are very successful.
They also get run out of town just as much (see; Ozzie Guillen).
So does anyone with a brain. I don't see the big deal. Players complain about coaches all the time. Sometimes it gets out into the press.
Today's gratuitiously pedantic and unsolicited history lesson:
In the 1981-82 season, Magic Johnson was booed at home by Laker fans. This is as mind-boggling as the thought of Red Wing fans booing Yzerman or OSU fans showering daily.
The Lakers started off that season with a meh 7-4 record and Magic wasn't happy with the slow-paced offense Coach Mike DeBo.... er, Paul Westhead was running and asked to be traded. Turns out that Laker owner Jerry Buss wasn't happy with Westhead's offense either. Magic's trade demand may or may not have been the tipping point, but Westhead was summarily fired and the perception - right or wrong - was certainly created that Magic had forced the coach out.
It certainly wasn't a high point in Magic's career, but considering the 4 titles he subsequently won with Westhead's replacement Pat Riley it certainly wasn't in retrospect a mistake to hire Riley.
This isn't one-for-one analguous with D12 vs. SVG, but it's certainly nothing new.
On an final, ironic, footnote, offensively challenged Paul Westhead went on to coach several high scoring teams including the run-and-gun LMU late 90's squads that outgunned several high seeded NCAA teams including the defending champion 1990 Michigan team.
I believe Jordan ran Doug Collins out in the late 80's as well.
the inmates are running the asylum.
This certainly isn't revolutionary, of course, that a player in the NBA is apparently trying to affect a change in team management. What I find interesting is that it seems the Magic front office felt at ease to mention it to him, definitely eroding further an already bad chemistry in that organization.
If anyone thought Van Gundy was less than effective before, it is certainly the case now, and I could definitely see Van Gundy losing the argument with regard to who stays and who goes if it came down to making money (and I imagine it will - how many people line up to see Stan coach?).
If I am a rank and file employee of the team, or indeed, on the team, something like that doesn't make me think much of the integrity of my employer, of course. Little things like that never fail to drive away talent.
NBA is a player's league now. Might as well get rid of all the coaches and let the players play. It's already come to that.
Can you imagine if a college athlete tried to fire their head coach?
Sometimes it's better if you let the players coach. Ever seen the Clips play a game? Chris Paul might as well coach that team. Vinny del Negro is awful.
The league has turned into a complete joke. This isn't news