Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy confirmed rumorsThursday saying he knows that Dwight Howard went to management asking he be fired as coach, reports Howard Beck of the New York Times on twitteralong multiple other journalists on the scene. Van Gundy said he was told this by people at the top of Orlando management.
Just to make things painfully awkward, minutes later Howard came over to the media scrum — unaware of what Van Gundy said — and put his arm around the coach, according to this tweet from Frank Isola of Newsday.
Dwight Howard, moments after putting his arm around Stan, denies he wants him fired.
Howard pressed for the reporter’s sources on these rumors. Which is now Van Gundy.
What. A. Mess.
There is no accident that Van Gundy decided to let this slip on the night of a nationally televised TNT game with the New York media in house. That is how you create maximum exposure.
It’s hard to see how Van Gundy doesn’t get fired now. Van Gundy likely wanted out, but also certainly wanted to get paid the money he is owed for next season (he is under contract until the summer of 2013). To do that he can’t resign, he has to get fired. So… motivation.
I love that Van Gundy refused to play the game by the rules Howard and Orlando management wanted. Howard certainly left himself plausible deniability here — he probably never said anything to management, but the people around him spoke on his behalf. The impact is the same.
Howard has tried hard not to be the bad guy in all of this with Orlando, but that is backfiring. Always was going to if he left town.
Smart money says Magic assistant Patrick Ewing (the former Knick) will get the now impossible interim gig.
The Magic are in a bind — they still have to deal with getting talent to go around Howard and now they need to find a new coach that can make it all work. And good luck getting a top-flight coach to walk into that situation now.
No comments:
Post a Comment