ESPN reporting Van Gundy retiring.

[samikeyp]

SportsCenter just announced it.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2861976

[Obstructed_View]

Tp? Pj?

[Tippecanoe]

i guess he musta been really pissed

[TDMVPDPOY]

pewing takn over?

[schadenfreude52]

Wow.

[ShoogarBear]

Yahoo's take on it (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AiJouE_OIQ.h9jhdBj_tKDe8vLYF?slug=aw-vangundy050607&prov=yhoo&type=lgns)
According to this, this stems from issues from last year with ownership.



Van Gundy out
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
May 6, 2007

Unless Jeff Van Gundy has a change of heart about wanting to continue as coach, he will not sign a contract extension and stay as with the Houston Rockets, league sources said.

This has been a decision that Van Gundy has considered for months, something he has discussed at length with his wife, Kim, and his closest confidants. Van Gundy turned down a contract extension in February, an offer which came too late considering how little confidence the organization showed in him after the 2005-2006 season.

After that 33-victory season in which his team was decimated by injuries, Van Gundy associates said he was taken aback by a volatile meeting with owner Les Alexander, who blamed him for poor attendance and a doom-and-gloom attitude that made it difficult to market the franchise. Van Gundy would've signed an extension then, but he was told to enter the final year of his contract.

Once he delivered a 2006-2007 season that made him a top coach of the year candidate, more than one extension offer was made, but he told management to wait until season's end to discuss his future. The Rockets' season ended Saturday night in a Game 7 first-round loss to the Utah Jazz.

Now, Van Gundy has all but decided to leave the job after four seasons. His family is comfortable in Houston, and sources said he has no interest in pursuing other coaching jobs and moving again. His future could include a return to TNT as a television analyst.

Van Gundy has had some heartbreaking playoff losses with the Rockets, including Game 7 defeats to the Dallas Mavericks and Jazz in two of the past three seasons. Nevertheless, Tracy McGrady has played the best all-round basketball of his career under Van Gundy, and 7-foot-6 Yao Ming has made significant strides toward becoming one of the league's most dominant forces.

Houston hasn't drafted well, nor have they signed significant free agents in his four years as coach. Still, Van Gundy resurrected Dikembe Mutombo and Juwan Howard for productive seasons, and found a way to maximize the limited potential of Chuck Hayes, an undrafted player, as his starting power forward.

Daryl Morey, who takes over for Carroll Dawson as the Rockets' general manager this offseason, told Yahoo! Sports recently that he had hoped to re-sign Van Gundy, and said that he believed it worked in the Rockets' favor that Van Gundy had "the best talent he's had in his coaching career" with the Rockets.

"He's the best coach that I've ever played for," McGrady said after the Game 7 loss. "I have a lot of respect for him. I hope he's back."

Van Gundy would be a sought-after free agent, but he recently told Yahoo! Sports that his wife and oldest daughter, Mattie, do not want to move, and Van Gundy said he has no interesting uprooting his daughter when she's so happy with school and friends. Considering that Morey's background is in statistics (he's a former colleague of Bill James), it would make sense for the Rockets to include Van Gundy as a peer when it comes to player personnel, but Alexander hardly seems inclined to do so.

In fact, the Houston owner has told friends in the league that he wishes the Rockets would play a much faster style, like the Phoenix Suns. With Yao as his franchise player, and one of the most un-athletic rosters in the Western Conference, it's hard to understand why a coach would try that with the Rockets. As it looks now, Alexander will get the chance to find his man.

[ShackO]

Just what we need more competition for a coach...................

[Roxsfan]

Just what we need more competition for a coach...................


we'll give you JVG AND bonzi back and gladly take Rick Adelman from your trash-bin. :elephant

[PM5K]

In fact, the Houston owner has told friends in the league that he wishes the Rockets would play a much faster style, like the Phoenix Suns.

Umm, you have a 7'6" center, it takes him twenty minutes to run from one end of the cour to the other, the type of basketball that Jeff had them playing is exactly the type they should be playing, you don't have the personnel like Nash, Barbosa, and Amare to play that type of game...

Stupid Fuck....

[RogerIsEatingASandwich]

No surprise here really, after that game Van Gundy looked like he wanted to have a heart attack.

[sribb43]

After that 33-victory season in which his team was decimated by injuries, Van Gundy associates said he was taken aback by a volatile meeting with owner Les Alexander, who blamed him for poor attendance and a doom-and-gloom attitude that made it difficult to market the franchise. Van Gundy would've signed an extension then, but he was told to enter the final year of his contract.

How the hell can you blame JVG for poor attendance and the 33 wins last year. your two best players maybe played 20 games together all last year, if that. How do you expect to win, let alone have your fans come watch a team that ran a lineup of Alston, Head, Mutombo, Howard and Padgett

[Roxsfan]

Umm, you have a 7'6" center, it takes him twenty minutes to run from one end of the cour to the other, the type of basketball that Jeff had them playing is exactly the type they should be playing, you don't have the personnel like Nash, Barbosa, and Amare to play that type of game...

Stupid Fuck....

your're the stewpid fawk, everyone knows it only takes Yao 19 mins coast to coast :rolleyes :bang :ihit :nope :pctoss

[Ronaldo McDonald]

czar and van gundy back together on tnt!!

fuk ya

[sribb43]

czar and van gundy back together on tnt!!

fuk ya

yep and throw marv in there with them, bet ABC wishes they had trio and not that spare mark jackson as their lead anylast. Brehn is good at what he does but the rest of ABC's guys suck

[E20]

I would love to see JVG on TNT. That would be sick, because then TNT would surpass ESPN/ABC even more so.

TNT w/o JVG >>>>>>>>>>> ESPN/ABC
TNT w/ JVG>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>ESPN/ABC

[Borosai]

I really like JVG, and was not looking forward to making a trading card for him. A TV gig wouldn't be bad at all, as long as he replaces one of the dipshits on nowadays...except the TNT guys...they aren't all that smart (Kenny and the Chuckster), but they are entertaining.

[lefty]

Man, why retiring? too bad

[itzsoweezee]

van gundy is a great coach. too bad the rockets FO didn't do enough to make that team a legit contender.

[Purple & Gold]

He should after not being able to get anything out of Bonzi.

[easjer]

He's retiring rather being fired. Les Alexander, he ain't the brightest of owners. He's looking solely at numbers. People go to PHX, they play uptempo. People = $. Ergo, Play uptempo, we fill seats! Also, it's clearly that JVG is running a boring system and that's why people don't want to go, not that Yao and TMac were injured.

It's a real shame. They hitched their horse to Yao, and it seems that it may have been a mistake, particularly with so many teams in the west downsizing. Yao is far too slow and he doesn't make up for it with aggressiveness. He is meek and plays passively.

I like JVG a lot, and have a lot of respect for him. He is my second favorite coach after Pop, and one I hope would be seriously considered when Pop retires.

[ShoogarBear]

He's a decent coach, but Van Gundy coaching the Spurs = :vomit:

[exstatic]

JVG's offense makes Pop's look like Nellie's. He won't even let them go 2 4 1 with like 35 seconds left on the quarter clock.

[exstatic]

Has Rudy T dried out yet?

[Mr. Body]

Rick Carlysle.