On the evening of June 18, Beijing time, according to ESPN, Jeff Van Gundy joined the Clippers as the chief teaching assistant of Terenglu. Chinese fans will not be strange to him. This is the little Van Gundy, Yao Ming's head coach at the Rockets. He served as the team's senior consultant at Celtic this season. As a result, he left the team to join the Clippers just after the Green Army won the championship.
Back in the summer of 2004, Tyranno Lu was sent to the Rockets by Magic in the McGrady trade and played under Van Gundy. Taylor Lu played 21 games for the Rockets, averaging 6 points and 2.8 assists per game, and then was sent to the Hawks. Now, 20 years later, Van Gundy has become Terenglu's subordinate. It's really 30 years to the east and 30 years to the west.
Maybe many fans will ask: Isn't Van Gundy a commentator? When did you go to the Green Army as a consultant? Off season in 2023, Rivers became the chief commentator of ESPN. In order to make room for him, ESPN fired Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy. As a result, on January 25 this year, Rivers returned to the NBA as the Bucks' coach.
Van Gundy lost his interpretation work because of Rivers on the one hand and his interpretation style on the other. Van Gundy criticized NBA referees for a long time in his commentary, which caused dissatisfaction of the league and repeatedly fed back the matter to ESPN. In the summer of 2023, Van Gundy's contract with ESPN just expired, and ESPN did not renew his contract.
Van Gundy was fired by the Rockets in May 2007, and became an ESPN commentator in October of the same year. He had been working for 16 years. Unexpectedly, he would suddenly lose his job. Van Gundy's salary is not low, In the later period of ESPN, the annual salary is millions of dollars, which is higher than the average NBA assistant salary. Van Gundy said frankly: After losing his job on June 30, 2023, he became an empty nest old man.
On October 14, 2023, the Celtics announced that Van Gundy had joined the team as a senior consultant in the basketball operation department. At this time, he had been unemployed for nearly four months. Van Gundy said:“ I was not in good shape that summer when I was fired. At that time, I didn't know what I should do. Brad Stevens and Joe Mazura gave me a life buoy. ”
Even if he left the Green Army now, Van Gundy was still grateful: "From the Celtic boss to Stevens's management, to Mazula's coaching team, they are all excellent. Mazula is an excellent coach, His coaching team cares more about team victory than personal honor, and I will always be grateful for what they have done for me. ”
Van Gundy was born on January 19, 1962, and started his coaching career in a high school in 1985. In 1989, Van Gundy became the assistant coach of the Knicks, assisting Pat Riley, Nelson Sr. and other famous coaches. In the 1995-96 season, Van Gundy became the 18th head coach in the history of the Knicks, leading the team to the eastern semi-finals that season.
Van Gundy is hot tempered and often sprays referees, but he is very protective of his disciples. In the first round of the 1998 playoffs, the Knicks and the Heat met on a narrow path, while Monin and Oakley fought each other, Van Gundy held Monin's thigh tightly and was dragged on the floor for several meters without letting go. Which NBA coach can have such courage?
In the summer of 2003, Van Gundy became the 10th head coach of the Rockets. Chinese fans have complex feelings towards him. On the one hand, Van Gundy is very protective of Yao Ming, scolding NBA referees in the playoffs and being severely punished by the league. On the other hand, he and Sibodu suggested that Yao Ming gain weight, which to some extent led to the increase of Yao Ming's later injuries.
Van Gundy was 248 - 172 in the Knicks and 182 - 146 in the Rockets. How much help do you think he can bring to the Clippers?
Special statement: The above content (including pictures or videos, if any) is uploaded and released by users of "Netease" on our media platform, and this platform only provides information storage services.
Notice: The content above (including the pictures and videos if any) is uploaded and posted by a user of NetEase Hao, which is a social media platform and only provides information storage services.
