David Richard-US Presswire
The former Orlando Magic and Miami Heat head coach will step away from the sidelines to be an analyst for ESPN’s NBA Studio. He will join Michael Wilbon, Magic Johnson and Bill Simmons. This is interesting because Stan Van Gundy’s dry wit and self-deprecating humor will be nice to see on ESPN. He is also a brutally honest guy and he could draw attention to the show with his thankless comments.
Van Gundy was always fun to listen to on interviews because he tells it like it is and he is not afraid to step on his players’ toes. He is also an extremely knowledgeable person and he will have a different take on the NBA storylines once the season starts.
The only thing I have against this news is that Van Gundy is too good a coach to not get an NBA coaching gig somewhere. Not to sound brash, but Van Gundy is better than probably half of the coaches in the league. He is knowledgeable and his coaching ability is probably just behind Gregg Popovic, Doc Rivers, Tom Thibodeau and Rick Carlisle. He is one of the better coaches out there and he should come back to the sidelines sooner rather than later.
It’ll be interesting to see Van Gundy’s chemistry with Magic, Wilbon and Simmons; especially since Wilbon has visibly criticized Van Gundy’s coaching with the Magic. Will we see a difference of opinion between Van Gundy and Wilbon? Will there be combustible elements between those two? Will we see objectivity with Van Gundy? Or will he bash the Lakers every chance he gets (because Dwight Howard is there)? In the end, the ESPN show will finally be more entertaining especially after they got rid of both Jon Barry and Chris Broussard.
