Jeff Van Gundy Elaborates On Calling Brother's Finals Games

Tuesday, June 02, 2009


ESPN held its annual NBA Finals conference call today, and the topic of discussion was mostly about Jeff and Stan Van Gundy. The first question of the call came from the NY Times' Richard Sandomir, who asked JVG about his plans, and here was his response. Via ESPN PR....

Obviously I was a little bit leery of doing the games, and I remember speaking to Mike [Breen] and Mark [Jackson] about it, and I said maybe I shouldn't do the games because I'm not sure I could be critical of Stan. And Mark said, "Well that's no different, you're never critical of any coaches," so that made a lot of sense to me because I know how hard the job is, and I think Mark and I both try to say what we may do, but we don't spend a lot of time second guessing. So, I think once the game starts, I'll try to be as objective as possible. If they're fortunate enough to win, you know the Championship, I may have my bottle of champagne I pour over myself, and Mark and Mike. I definitely want him to win, no doubt, but during the games I'm going to try to be objective as possible.
I really think Jeff will be fine, and this whole thing wouldn't have an issue if he didn't make it one to begin with. I'm sure it won't be easy, but he's been around the booth long enough to handle himself in a situation like this.

5 Comments:

I hope he talks about his haircuts again!!!

GMoney said...
Jun 2, 2009, 4:09:00 PM  

AA, why did you reuse that same pic of JVG?

(looks at avatar)

Never mind...

Jun 2, 2009, 4:24:00 PM  

Lil' Walton plays for the Lakers, and yet you still see Big Red calling games. I don't think JVG will have any more problems than he already has (If you don't tie that guy down he's just going to spin right off the planet).

800# said...
Jun 3, 2009, 4:11:00 AM  

Also,

if by some miracle Chris Simms becomes the quarterback of my Broncos and the Nantz/Simms duo does a game, I doubt Phil will have any problems being objective. All the scuttlebutt is a tempest in a teapot anyway.

Brad James said...
Jun 3, 2009, 1:42:00 PM  

I like this crew but more I hate a Homer calling the game. This is just silly, he goes on and on about Magic strategies and no talk about the Lakers.

I turn on the radio to listen to a real coach. Hubie

Unknown said...
Jun 8, 2009, 10:08:00 AM  

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