ENUFF ALREADY....

By Terry Lyons

I've had enough of Stan Van Gundy.  

The former coach, fired by Orlando last season and also mysteriously banished from the Miami Heat back in the middle of the 2005-06 campaign, has been leaving a wake of negativity by taking his 'low road' approach towards his former organization after his dismissal by the Magic.

Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy

The target of his 'disgruntled former employee' rants are usually Dwight Howard and Magic team President Alex Martins, who worked his way up to team CEO from his starting position as the director of public relations in 1989. So, while the 'Dwight-Mare" summer of 2012 is concluding with Howard finally traded to the LA Lakers, Van Gundy continued to open the sores of days gone by with an appearance on Orlando sports talk radio.

Van Gundy told Mike Bianchi and his side-kick Brian Fritz, “It’s a typical lack of understanding from someone who has no sports knowledge, who has never coached, who has never played, who has never been in a lockeroom….it’s a naivete,” Van Gundy said of Martins Monday morning on the Mike Bianchi show on AM 740 in Orlando, Florida.

“I think Alex’s comments are based on the fact that Dwight and, maybe others, didn’t like me…and thinking somehow that’s important.”

Earlier in the interview, he said, "A lot changed in the make-up of our organization.  When Bob (Van der Weide) was there, when Bob left, it really became Alex over everything.  Otis had to report to Alex.  What happened to sum it up, and I have, I'll take my share of the blame, we had developed a very good culture.  Team first, hard work, preparation.  Otis and I were on the same page.  The Dwight thing was so big, in an effort to make Dwight happy, we compromised a lot of the culture we had before.  When you compromise those things, it was no longer a team first thing."

I say, "Muzzle it, Stan."

Yes, excuse me for disagreeing with Mr. Dean Smith here... or the new Dr Naismith Jr.?

Yes, the head coach at UMass Lowell and the assistant at Canisius learned much, much more about the game than the rest of us mere basketball mortals, especially those who didn't spend our formative basketball years at Castleton State College but, instead, were being instructed by the likes of Hubie Brown, Dick Harter, Mike Fratello, Billy Cunningham, Alex Hannum, Red Auerbach, Pete Newell, Jerry Sloan, Rudy T, KC Jones, Doug Moe, Chuck Daly, -- I could go on....

Oh, yes, don't forget Stan Naismith got to sit in the 2nd chair next to Rick Pitino disciple Stu Jackson while he was at Wisconsin. And, they made it to the NIT!

Stan? Just because the guy came from PR, he was never in the locker?  No sports knowledge? Never on the mountain top, like you?  In NFL terms, rather than NBA, the Ph D. in public relations, the very core of an organization, seemed to work for Pete Rozelle? Roger Goodell?

Stop disgracing the game and your profession with the constant bickering, Stan, you

frickin light weight ...