Wednesday, August 1, 2018

J-Speaks: What If the Knicks Fired Jeff Van Gundy?


Today, the basketball world had come to know Jeffrey William Van Gundy as an insightful NBA color analyst for NBA on ESPN/ABC working alongside Mike Breen and Mark Jackson the past decade. Before that, Van Gundy was the head coach of the Houston Rockets and before that, the New York Knicks, where he began as an assistant from 1989-96. In his five seasons as the head man on the Knicks sidelines he became one of the most beloved and respected coaches not just in the “Big Apple” but in the league. What if you were told though that Van Gundy’s head coaching career might have been shorter if not for game-winning shot in the 1999 NBA playoffs? 
In Game 5 of the Knicks’ First-Round opening round series 19 years ago as the No. 8 Seeded Knicks against the No. 1 Seeded Miami Heat, it came down to one play and All-Star guard Allan Houston made the one play that made the difference as his leaner over the outstretched hands of Hall of Famer Alonzo Mourning that hit the rim, then the backboard and went into the hoop put that Knicks ahead by one point. 
They eventually won the contest 78-77 to take the series 3-2 and would begin an unprecedented run to the 199 NBA Finals, where they lost against the San Antonio Spurs in five games. 
That victory showed how far the Knicks had come from where they started the strike shortened 1998-99 NBA campaign.
That season was unlike any other because of the 240-day lockout, the longest in the history of the league.
To put how long that delay was, the season did not begin until to Feb. 5, 1999 and cut the regular season was reduced to 50 games. 
“The game is 50 games. We got to get back out there and get the job done,” Knicks’ Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing said of the task ahead for him and the rest of the league. “Hopefully I can get me a championship in 50 games.” 
The condensed season was particularly troublesome for Ewing and the Knickerbockers and their fourth-year embattled head coach in Van Gundy. 
“We played exceptionally poorly early in that 1999 shortened season,” Van Gundy, who was the team’s head coach from 1996-01 said. “It was a lockout season. We made two major trades. Latrell Sprewell for John Starks and Chris Mills, Marcus Camby for Charles Oakley. So, we didn’t have a lot of time to get together. We had poor chemistry. Poor togetherness.” 
Brooklyn Nets announcer Ian Eagle, whose been their play-by-play man since 1994 described the Knicks’ regular season was “topsy turvy.” 
It did not help that the Eastern Conference was very good that season and it took the Knicks a while for them hit there stride. 
That stride took came at the end of the season where the Knicks won six of their final eight regular season games to nail down the No. 8 and final playoff spot in the East and as mentioned earlier set up another battle with the arch rival Heat and former head coach Pat Riley, the Heat’s now team president for the third straight postseason. 
“We knew those of us who’ve been around the team, we recognized right away when they slipped into the playoffs at the very end of the season that they were going to be a tough out given the kind of talent they have,” New York Times writer since 1991 Harvey Araton said. 
The Knicks right from the start showed the Heat and the rest of the league how far they have come taking Game 1 at the Heat 95-73 on May 8, 1999. 
The Knicks and Heat split the first four games with each team winning by double-digits and holding the loser to under 80 points. 
In Game 5, the Knicks fought back from a 13-point deficit to trail by one-point (77-76) with 19.9 seconds remaining. 
That final possession began with Sprewell getting the ball and he dribbled himself into the baseline right in front of the Heat bench with guard Terry Porter all over him and he poked the ball out of bounds. 
“We were really disjointed on the last possession,” Van Gundy said of that play. “Sprewell was trying to create something off the pick-and-roll. Bad possession. Gets knocked out.” 
Rewarded with another possession the Knicks ran what Van Gundy called triangle down where Houston got the ball on an isolation from the top of the circle. 
Houston received the inbound pass from guard Charlie Ward. Drove right passed swingman Dan Majerle. Ducked under and shot a leaner that took a bounce off the rim, then the backboard and went down with 00.8 remaining. 
“I tell you, I thought I kind of short-armed it at first,” Houston said during his postgame presser of the eventual game-winner. “But it hung up there. Seem like two minutes instead of two seconds.”
New York Daily News writer since 1995 Frank Isola described the shot as hitting the rim, backboard and in, and it was sheer ecstasy. 
After making the shot, Houston ran to the other end, swung his fist, and was greeted warmly by his teammates like Larry Johnson and Sprewell. 
It was a thrilling moment for the Knicks and gut wrenching disappointed for the Heat falling short in the postseason again. 
“Life in basketball you know, has a lot of suffering in it and we will suffer this one,” were the words of Riley, the former Knicks’ head coach after the loss. 
Just two days after winning that emotional Game 5 in South Florida, the Knicks moved on to the Semifinals to take on the Hawks, who had home court advantage. 
The Knicks managed to steal home court by not just winning Game 1 100-92 on May 18, 1999, but they won Game 2 77-70 two days later to take a 2-0 series lead. 
One of the defining moments of that series that swing things in the Knicks favor was a straight-line drive to the rim dunk that Camby had on Hall of Fame center Dikembe Mutombo that many felt was the defining moment of the series. 
The Knicks returned home and finished their sweep of the Hawks by winning Games 3 and 4 by 12 and 13 points respectably. In both games, the Hawks managed 78 and 66 points respectably. 
As the Knicks were taking down the Hawks in Game 3, the Madison Square Garden crowd began cheering Van Gundy’s name saying for several minutes in unison while clapping their hands, “Jeff Van Gundy!!! Jeff Van Gundy!!! Jeff Van Gundy!!!” 
“Well a month earlier it was Jeff Van Gundy and they finished with sucks,” he said of that reversal of feelings the fans had for him prior. “So, fans are fickle and its all based on performance of the team.” 
“There are very few things that you remember as a coach in vivid detail as you go along in your life, but that’s one I will never forget.”
After sweeping the Hawks 4-0, they would take down their other Conference rival the Indiana Pacers and Hall of Famer Reggie Miller in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals. 
Unfortunately, they lost Ewing in Game 2 of that series with a partially torn Achilles and without their starting man in the middle, the Knicks would fall to the Spurs and the dynamic frontcourt tandem of Hall of Famer David Robinson and future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan and the Spurs in five games in the 1999 Finals. 
Many have asked if Ewing were healthy, if Johnson were healthy would the Knicks had a better chance against the Spurs? 
Van Gundy said of that, “I would take my chances against anybody with a healthy Patrick Ewing.” 
“Larry Johnson was not healthy in that series either. He had sprained his knee in our Game 6 at home against the Pacers. So yeah, we had our injuries but that part of it, and the Spurs were very worthy champions.” 
That improbable run to The Finals earned Van Gundy a contract extension. What if though Houston’s runner bounced out and the Knicks fell in Game 5?
Van Gundy has said many times had that shot not fallen, the entire Knicks structure from the front office to the coaching staff would have been axed and maybe some players might have been traded. 
Knicks play-by-play announcer from 1967-2004, and now NBA on TNT commentator Marv Albert said if the Houston shot had rimmed off, “The Knicks structure would have been fired.” “It just changed the course of the lives of everybody in the front office.” 
In the words of NBATV/TNT insider David Aldridge, “There is no doubt in my mind if they lose that series they fire Jeff Van Gundy. So, what do they do then?”
At the time, the Knicks president and chief executive officer was Dave Checketts, a guy who liked to make headlining, splashy moves to improve the team, especially the fact that he was in New York. 
One person he wanted to bring on as the Knicks new head coach had they fired Van Gundy was six-time champion head coach and former Knick during the Red Holzman days where they won their only two titles was Phil Jackson. 
“If that ball bounces out, I think its very likely that Van Gundy is out and it might have been a remake right there” Araton said. “I mean that was the year Dave Checketts was trying to sign Phil on the sly and for all we know had that position opened up that might have happened back then, only with Phil as the coach.” 
Had the Knicks gotten Jackson in 2000, there is no Laker three-peat from 2000-02 or them winning five titles in the first decade of the 2000s. There is no great tandem of Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, with one of them getting traded. 
If Jackson becomes coach, is Patrick Ewing dealt earlier than he was on Sept. 20, 2000 to the then Seattle Supersonics. 
Had the Knicks gone after Jackson and missed out, they probably would have gone after the coach Ewing had at Georgetown, the great John Thompson. 
This is also how legends are made. Before that shot, Jeff Van Gundy was known as the guy who replaced Hall of Fame head coach Don Nelson after 59 games in the 1995-96 season. He became well known to the Knicks faithful in his first full season in the 1998 playoffs in the opening round against the Heat when the 5’9” head coach fell to the floor and clung onto the leg of 6’10’ Mourning who was engaging with the 6’6” Johnson in a bench clearing brawl that Van Gundy unsuccessfully tried to break up. 
While Van Gundy had been a good head coach in his time with the Knicks winning 57 games in 1996-97, the team won just 43 games the next season and had their postseason runs end in the Semis both seasons losing in seven games to the Heat and then five games to the Pacers respectably. 
That Houston shot allowed Van Gundy to stay with the Knicks and kept their front office structure intact. 
Van Gundy’s run as Knicks head coach concluded 19 games into the 2001-02 season when he unexpectedly resigned. 
Since his resignation, the Knicks have gone through eight different head coaches and are on their ninth one as David Fizdale signed with the team this off-season. 
To put how things have changed since Van Gundy left into context, the Knicks have made the playoffs just four times, and advanced past the opening round once. 
After a four-year run with the Rockets, where they failed to get out of the First-Round three times the reach the postseason under Van Gundy, he is now as mentioned earlier a color analyst for ESPN/ABC and does games alongside Mike Breen, who ironically enough was the play-by-play man for the Knicks in Van Gundy’s time as Knicks coach as well as did radio commentary when he was an assistant coach and Mark Jackson who he coached when he was with the Knicks at the start of his career in the late 1980s into the early 1990s. 
Being a head coach in the NBA can be tough at times especially when you are on the hot seat because your team is not playing to its full potential or that you can be one play away from being out of a job. 
That is the situation Jeff Van Gundy found himself in 19 years ago and the game-winner by Allan Houston in Game 5 of the First-Round in 199 at the Heat kept Van Gundy in the “Big Apple” and allowed him to dictate the course of his career. 
As Eagle put it, “The bounce of the ball shouldn’t dictate the future of the head coach, a player or a GM. But this is why we love sports. This is part of the attraction.” 
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