This is a Washington Wizards blog, and even though we have a segment entitled, “From The Other Side”, where we grab comments and interviews from the opposing locker room, we still try to make sure most of our content is Wizards-related.
However, there are instances when I get an audio or video clip that is too good to pass up regardless of whether it has anything to do with the Wizards or not. Tonight happens to be one of those instances.
Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson and Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy have been engaged in a war of words during this Thanksgiving week. First, Jackson hinted that if that Miami Heat continued to struggle a “Van Gundy situation” could emerge and current coach Erik Spoelstra could be fired. Van Gundy shot right back by saying Jackson was “inappropriate and ignorant” about what really happened in Miami.
After a morning shootaround in Utah yesterday, Jackson offered up a bit of an apology:
“It was an off-handed remark about if things continue to go poorly for Miami, what might happen. But, obviously Stan felt that he had to say something. Unfortunately he got defensive about it. I didn’t mean to do that. I should apologize because I do know about his situation. Stan was going home to be with his family and that was his reason for leaving. I have no idea about the rest of it; why he came back out after retiring and being with his family. But, that’s his decision and fine.”
Prior to tonight’s Wizards/Magic game, Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel and David Aldridge of NBA TV asked Coach Van Gundy to respond to Phil Jackson’s words:
Van Gundy should stop lying. Everyone one knows why he left. And it’s not because of his family. It probably still hurts him how Riley undermined him and betrayed him all those years ago.
I know the mediat plays up that Phil purposely plays mind games with other players to gain a competitive advantage, but I wonder sometimes if he’s just bored and enjoys tweaking others for the fun of it. I mean even this “apology” is a tweak. Phil basically says “I’m sorry for saying that leaving the Miami job to be with his family was an excuse. Now why Stan would then turn around and take another coaching job with Orlando that took him away from his family makes no sense if that were the real reason he left Miami, but hey, whatever you say Stan.
Rex,
I think Phil does this for the hell of it..the same way he tries to tweak the refs right before playoff time. I guess you can do that when you are 11 titles deep