ORLANDO -- Magic coach Stan Van Gundy butted heads with the NBA office Saturday, accepting the $35,000 fine that was levied against him earlier, but questioning its rationale and the interpretation of its own rules that prohibit criticism of officials.Commissioner David Stern is not going to be happy.
The NBA originally fined both Van Gundy and the team for general remarks about replacement officials he made Thursday after practice. In those remarks, he praised the regular officials who have been locked out, and praised some of the replacements, but said others weren't ready for the task facing them with the regular season opening later this month.
"What I said was accurate, reasoned and positive,'' he said Saturday after practice. "I don't regret anything I said.''
Van Gundy also didn't like the wording of the league's announcement, which stated that he was fined "for publicly criticizing officials." He said he was speaking in general terms, and not being critical of any individual officials.
"It said I was fined 'for publicly criticizing officials,' and that's not what I did at all," he said. "I didn't do that. We haven't done it."
These were his original remarks:
"Here's the thing about replacement refs: there's no problem with them. These are guys the NBA in large part has identified. They're good, young officials on the way up, and one day they'll be ready. It would be like us having to play now with an entire D-League roster. A lot of those guys will be ready to play in three or four years. If you took one of those guys (replacements) and put him on an NBA crew every night, they'd probably be OK. But they are all out there together. It would be like me taking a D-League team and saying 'All right, let's go play the Hornets.' It's not going to work too good."
Van Gundy, who took the Magic to the NBA Finals last season, sounded more than ready to move on, but he may not have heard the last of this situation.
"You work under the auspices of David Stern. He decides what you can talk about and what you can't talk about. I talked about a subject I'm not supposed to talk about," he said.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Obviously, coach is right that the replacment officials are just the best available, not the best who could become available. But Stern can`t cave in to the league for the officials who are out, they have to reach a mutual agreement. And you can understand why the league feels its employees, like coach, shouldn`t be putting public pressure on them to cave in. The Magic are not ready for the regular season. That IS coach`s responsiblity. Howard is playing quarter speed, producing half results. Gortat is equal with him in rebounds, Redick is ahead of him in points, so is Bass. Nelson is producing as if he has not recovered from his injuries. Not assisting badly, for limited minutes, but not producing enough to deserve his starter`s spot back. And Lewis will be suspended the first ten games, and should have to earn his starting spot back. The result of trying a quick fix to try to be something he is not, legal, but against Nba rules, as it turned out. What he needed to work on were point guard drills, but he couldn`t just BUY those, he`d have had to WORK at that. Gortat is taller, heavier, he can be the power forward, work on replacing Lewis, if he can beat out Anderson, who is a better scorer, and therefore more like Lewis. The Magic need Lewis to replace Turk, who may radically improve Toronto`s front court passing. Right now, looks like the starting line up the first more than ten games should be Howard, Anderson, Bass, Carter, Pietrus. No pure wing forward, no pure point guard. Williams is shaking off the rust from his season out, and not assisting badly either. But if Gortat is to concentrate on power forward, the Magic will need to add a legit back up center. Stan is not the commissioner, David is. Van Gundy should get the Magic, his own house, in order, and let the commissioner do HIS job as well.
NBA IS A DICTATORSHIP...CALLED THE REPUBLIC OF NBA.
I guess in our new banana republic under the auspicious leadership of BHO - Roger Goodell, David Stern and Bud Selig have been appointed czars of their respective leagues. They are above scrutiny and honest criticism in its purest form. What Stan Van Gundy said was right on target and would be true in any sport. What happens when baseball tries to use minor league umpires? What has happened in the rare instances that the National Felons League has used replacement officials. As Van Gundy pointed out, these are not bad people, and potentially can become very good officials in their sport, they simply are not ready. David Stern and the rest of the sports czars needs to get over themselves and worry about what is happening to their sports.