Stan Van Gundy is currently the head coach and GM of the Detroit Pistons. Which is a great gig in my opinion. But he is most known for his stint as the head coach of the Orlando Magic back when Dwight Howard was bearable.
He was fired from that job in a very awkward circumstance. There was clear friction between him, Dwight and the Magic front office. The firing wasn’t ugly. It was just very drawn out.
But Van Gundy has moved on. Dwight is in Houston. And Orlando are currently without a coach.
Since SVG is feeling good about his team right now. He took to the Detroit Free Press to throw some shade at his former franchise.
“All those things are the same,” Van Gundy said today. “You get in the press conference, they loved Jacque. He did a great job. You listen to all that, and then I listen to Rob say it doesn’t fall on Jacque, but he takes full responsibility. I laugh, obviously, because that’s not true.
“You’re still sitting there with a job, and Jacque doesn’t have one, so I don’t know what full responsibility means. But I would say they left the full responsibility on Jacque.”
Van Gundy also said of the Magic: “They’re an organization that turns over coaches a lot. I don’t know if anybody coached there longer than I did. There’s no such thing as a longtime Magic coach.“
The team they have now has so much potential I’d love to coach them right now. Payton, Oladipo, Vucevic. If Harris stays after this season they could make noise in a few years.
But the front office in Orlando has wasted so much time since Howard and Van Gundy left. This is the only time since their Finals appearance that they actually look like they have the potential to make waves.
