He’s a brilliant guy with a self-deprecating wit.
He was good enough for the Ivy League and was a magna cum laude college graduate.
He isn’t the hottest coaching property in the league, but he’s one of the most clever. He was the one who referred to the Bulls’ Phil Jackson as “Big Chief Triangle.”
That he regrets.
“Here I was saying Coach Jackson shouldn’t knock other coaches,” said Jeff Van Gundy, “but I was doing the same thing.”
Not that he still doesn’t annoy Jackson much in the same way that Jackson bothered Pat Riley when Jackson was the climber in the coaching social order.
But Van Gundy, who brings his Knicks to Chicago Tuesday, has survived the critics–and the hardest city in which to coach–with a confidence and ability that belie his substitute-science-teacher look.
Eyes sunken, hair thinning, known to take most of his meals at a McDonald’s near Madison Square Garden, he seems like the kind of guy who can buy his suits and garden tools in the same place. But Van Gundy has defied the stereotypes to pilot a team that at least some–Sports Illustrated, for one–think has a chance to defeat the Bulls in the Eastern Conference and get to the NBA Finals this season.
“I don’t know what we’re going to win here during my time as coach,” Van Gundy said. “What I do know is whenever the time comes, I’ll go out and look in the mirror knowing I did a good job and worked hard at it.”
For this remains an awfully flawed Knicks team.
Patrick Ewing is their star, but he is slowed at times by knee problems and never has been able to raise his team to a higher level as Michael Jordan has. Even Van Gundy last week acknowledged the Knicks don’t have a late-game, go-to guy, so they have to be a team that executes its offense better than its opponents.
And, even with the off-season additions of Chris Mills and Chris Dudley, Ewing still doesn’t have a sidekick, as Jordan has in Scottie Pippen, who is as indispensable now for the Bulls as Jordan is.
The Knicks signed guard Allan Houston for that purpose, but he’s often tentative and gives way to John Starks at key parts of the game. Forward Larry Johnson no longer resembles the player he once was and often gives way to Van Gundy’s desire to play three guards. Guard Chris Childs remains a tough guy who basically had two good months when he replaced Kenny Anderson in New Jersey, but is erratic at best.
Yet the Knicks persevere, even if it doesn’t look like Van Gundy perspires.
“I’ve worked for Chuck Daly, Hubie Brown and Rick Pitino, and he ranks right up there with all of them,” said Knicks assistant and former Raptors head coach Brendan Malone. “He’s very intelligent, hard-working, a good leader and courageous. And Phil hates him, doesn’t he?”
All in the family
Van Gundy was born to coach. Riley wasn’t and neither was Jackson. They were going to be star players.
But Van Gundy’s father, Bill, still is a coach, at Genesee Community College in Batavia, N.Y. His brother, Stan, the former Wisconsin coach, is an assistant for the Heat.
An oft-told story about the brothers involves a time when Bill was an assistant in California and had surgery for a brain tumor. So, with their mother driving, the boys, who often accompanied their father on scouting trips, were sent to scout an opponent. Jeff was 10.
“My dad kind of embellishes the story,” said Jeff, who adds that a future version surely will have him scouting from the crib.
But make no mistake, this is a man who has studied basketball all his life.
The family moved east from California when Jeff was 15. He eventually was admitted to Yale. After one year there, he decided to transfer. To Menlo Junior College.
Why?
The 5-foot-9-inch point guard would have a better chance of playing basketball.
Van Gundy then transferred to the State University of New York at Brockport to play for his father. But his father was fired after one year, and Jeff went to Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y., where he helped the team into the Division III playoffs.
So Van Gundy said he couldn’t understand why Jordan got so upset during the Jan. 21 Bulls-Knicks game after Van Gundy criticized him that week for buddying up to players before games only to dominate them during games. Jordan seemed to lose his cool several times in the game, cursing out Van Gundy numerous times and going on a personal scoring binge.
Jordan said such remarks could only come from someone who never played the game.
“He obviously doesn’t know I averaged 10.9 points a game my last year at Nazareth,” said Van Gundy in typical deadpan fashion. “I was like a Steve Kerr who couldn’t shoot or handle the ball.”
But Van Gundy has handled himself remarkably well in a city where, after the Knicks lost to the Heat and Riley last season, Van Gundy was featured in a full-page newspaper picture with a noose around his neck, and is often referred to as “Van Grungy.”
Last season, after a particularly poor Knicks start, he benched all five starters just a few minutes into the game. And when Starks, who willingly accepted the sixth-man role he balked at when Don Nelson was the Knicks coach, challenged Van Gundy, Van Gundy suspended him for a game.
Not that Van Gundy insists the Knicks are his team.
“The team reflects the personality of the core people,” he said. “I don’t think you make guys something they’re not.”
Nor has Van Gundy, whose only head coaching job before taking over for Nelson was at McQuaid Jesuit High School in Rochester, changed.
And now, with a contract extension, Van Gundy makes about $2 million a year, and looking at his suits, he must have much left.
“All I’ve ever wanted to do is coach and teach basketball,” he said. “Now, because you make an extra dollar, you have to change? I make more than enough money now to live a lifetime on. I was fine making $18,000. I had an apartment, cable TV. Life was good. Now I have DirecTV. There’s not much more you can ask.”
Van Gundy went to Providence College for graduate work, where he hooked up with Pitino, became an assistant, then went to Rutgers before going on to work through four coaching regimes as a Knicks assistant, first hired by Stu Jackson.
And then Ernie Grunfeld knocked on his hotel room door in March 1996 and said Van Gundy was the new Knicks coach.
And then the Knicks lost to the 76ers in Van Gundy’s debut. And after the Knicks beat the Bulls in New York two days later, Phil Jackson said that, yes, he might like to coach the New York Knicks.
The view from New York
Van Gundy has been through much in almost two seasons in New York, yet hasn’t lost his perspective.
He has that back-page tabloid picture of himself in a noose framed at home.
“It makes me realize all you have to worry about is tomorrow,” he said.
And his approach seems to have worked for the Knicks, who respect Van Gundy as much as any coach they’ve had.
“If you are competent but insincere, they’ll see through that,” he said. “If you’re sincere but incompetent, they’ll see through that. I’ve been around them. They either thought I was good or they didn’t.”
But the Knicks seem to like his style so far.
Because if the Knicks won’t stand up to the Bulls–and they really haven’t all these years–then Van Gundy at least will stand up to his counterpart on the Bulls.
“I read his book,” Van Gundy offered puckishly about Jackson’s “Sacred Hoops.” “The reader is led to believe Indian artifacts and tai chi experiences are more responsible for winning than some of the players. There’s very good stuff in there if you get past the self-serving stuff.
“The perception is I don’t respect them,” said Van Gundy, who acknowledged that he was upset when Jackson talked about taking his job the first weekend he had it. “I love the way they play. The thing I don’t like is their holier-than-thou stuff.”
Zing! Just like Jackson would puncture Riley with impish assaults on Riley’s egotistical empire. Sitting at Riley’s side as a Knicks assistant, Van Gundy learned well.
But Jackson went on to rival Riley’s success.
Now all Van Gundy needs is Jackson’s success. Or, as Van Gundy would remind everyone, No. 23.
“There is no triangle anymore,” Van Gundy mocked earlier this season when questions were raised about the suddenly vulnerable Bulls. “They just throw it to Jordan. They should call it Triangle 23: Get the ball to Jordan and get out of the way.”
And then Van Gundy revealed a devilish smile.
Coaching in New York. Nobody could be enjoying it more.
