Chinese Mandarin - 'Odd process' leads to Van Gundy's exit

Sports / Basketball

'Odd process' leads to Van Gundy's exit

By JONATHAN FEIGEN (Houston Chronicle )
Updated: 2007-05-21 10:18

After four years, 328 regular-season games, 19 playoff games and the best
regular season the Rockets had enjoyed in a decade and perhaps the most
disappointing end in those 10 seasons, Jeff Van Gundy was fired at least
as much because of meetings and phone calls.

Van Gundy was fired, the Rockets announced Friday, because while he
decided whether he wanted to return, they found a coach they liked
better. He might not have been back anyway. He expressed initial, though
temporary, ambivalence about coaching next season. Rockets owner Leslie
Alexander never endorsed having Van Gundy back. But after nearly two
weeks trying to determine who would be Rockets coach, it was the process
general manager Daryl Morey called "odd" that ended Van Gundy's time as
coach.

"I understand it seemed like an odd process," Morey said. "I grant that
it was. It was only out of respect for how Jeff asked for it to be
handled, out of respect for Jeff that I desired for him to be a part of
the organization. I wanted it to end with him back here."

Morey still feels that way, but the split began nearly as soon as the
season ended.

--Sunday, May 6 �� With a story in the New York Post reporting that Van
Gundy had decided to retire, Morey calls Van Gundy to ask if he had made
a decision. Van Gundy had denied the report publicly minutes earlier and
told Morey he had not even begun considering his future.

"(Morey) called me 12 hours after we lost," Van Gundy said. "I said,
'Really, I don't want to talk right now. We just lost 12 hours ago.' He
came in the very next day and said it would be better for him if I gave
him the answer. He kept fishing."

--Monday, May 7 �� After meeting with players and the media, Van Gundy
and Morey talk while driving around town and then again in Van Gundy's
office, meeting for nearly three hours.

Van Gundy, having decided to live in Houston regardless of whether he
remained the coach, offers to consider another position with the team.

--Tuesday, May 8 �� Van Gundy meets with Alexander, Morey and vice
president of basketball operations Dennis Lindsey. Van Gundy tells them
he would return, but would need Alexander's support.

It becomes clear to Van Gundy that Alexander wants a more up-tempo
offensive team, one that Van Gundy does not believe suits the roster.

Van Gundy tells Alexander he should have a coach with whom he agrees.

The Rockets come to take that as a suggestion that they begin a coaching
search while Van Gundy mulls his future. Van Gundy considers it more of
expressing an understanding if they start to look at options and prepare
if Van Gundy does not return.

"I knew my owner had issues with style of play," Van Gundy said. "He
wanted to be faster, Phoenix-like. At that meeting he said, 'Yeah, I do
have issues with that.'

"I said you owe it to yourself to go and search for someone if there's a
better fit. At the same time, I relayed to them that I wanted to stay."

--Wednesday, May 9 �� Morey reaches Rick Adelman, who is reluctant to
interview for the position Van Gundy holds.

Though Van Gundy had said he would return the day before, Morey tries to
get Van Gundy to commit to coming back without Alexander's endorsement,
which Morey had come to consider a stipulation.

--Thursday, May 10 �� Morey calls Van Gundy to ask if he could have
Adelman call him. When Adelman reached Van Gundy by phone, Van Gundy
tells Adelman his return to the Rockets is uncertain and that he should
take the interview.

--Friday, May 11; Saturday, May 12 �� Adelman meets with Alexander and
Morey at Alexander's New York home in the Hamptons. He spends a 3 1/2
-hour drive from the airport talking with Morey, meets through the
afternoon and evening with Alexander and talks again with Morey for 2 1/2
hours on the way back to the airport the next day.

Morey had been collecting data on coaches and considered Adelman's track
record better than any available coach.

By the time Morey and Adelman leave Saturday morning, Alexander is sold.

--Tuesday �� Morey and Van Gundy speak over the phone, with Van Gundy
reaffirming he wants to return, adding that he has no reservations about
Alexander's endorsement.

Morey tells him he and Alexander have chosen Adelman. Though he tells Van
Gundy he could remain the Rockets coach if the team and Adelman don't
reach an agreement, Morey works to put together a deal on a consultant
position with Van Gundy.

--Thursday �� Van Gundy and Morey speak throughout the day by phone. Van
Gundy flies to San Antonio to begin preparations for Friday's ESPN
broadcast of the Spurs-Suns game.

By their last conversation, early Thursday evening, talks have broken
down with Van Gundy unsure about accepting the consultant position.

--Friday �� Morey calls Van Gundy in San Antonio to tell him he needs to
end the process and needs a decision. Morey seeks to call the move to the
consultant position a mutual decision.

Unwilling to accept that stipulation, Van Gundy turns down the position.
By the time they finish the conversation, Morey is determined to end the
uncertainty about Van Gundy's status.

The team prepares an announcement in which the Rockets and Van Gundy
"part ways."

"I was given a deadline," Van Gundy said. "I had to agree by the end of
the conversation to say it was a mutual agreement.

"I appreciate the offer very much. But I was a little disappointed by the
heavy-handedness of the conclusion."

With that, Van Gundy's tenure with the Rockets was over.

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