"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.
That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk." —Al McGuire

Friday, May 18, 2007

Van Gundy Fired for Not Playing Novak

Hot off the AP Wire:

HOUSTON -- Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy was fired Friday, less than two weeks after Houston made yet another first-round playoff exit.

Jeff Van Gundy was ultimately done in by his inability to get the Rockets to be more than a first-round playoff team. Rockets owner, Les Alexander also added "The guy wouldn't play that Novak kid. I'm not paying him $600 g's a year to carry Ming's bags. I'm paying Novak to shoot the rock for 3. After Van Gundy screwed Steve out of some PT in front of his family in Milwaukee, I knew I had to fire him."

The Rockets went 52-30 this season but lost to Utah in seven games, raising the possibility Van Gundy was going to resign or be dismissed.

Well, there you go. My cut/paste function doesn't always work right, so I had to paraphrase a few lines up there, but you get the idea.

Clearly, the next Rockets coach better play Steve.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was at a conference in San Antonio last week and stayed at the same hotel as the Suns and the ESPN guys who did the game. Van Gundy was there just screaming at someone on his cell phone. I think I witnessed him get fired.

Anonymous said...

52-30 is by no means a shabby record. He clearly has coaching talent.