Scott Anez: Stan Van Gundy on the passing of Commissioner David Stern, “He and I did not see eye to eye at times but he made everyone in the league alotta money through his vision which is basically globalization and marketing. He held everybody to a standard of promoting the game.”
Tag: Stan Van Gundy
The 2008-09 Magic lost in the finals, …
The 2008-09 Magic lost in the finals, but despite that defeat, they rank as one of the most innovative teams in recent league history because of the way they played, how coach Stan Van Gundy deployed players and how GM Otis Smith built the roster. These days, basketball coaches, executives and fans consider the 3-point shot and stretch power forwards as necessary components to successful teams. But 11 seasons ago, heavy reliance on long-range shooting still was gaining acceptance. That Magic team helped transform conventional wisdom because it proved, for the first time, that a team could rely on the 3-pointer heavily, downsize its lineup for a full 48 minutes and win a conference title at the same time. “A lot of teams are playing small ball and spread the floor, a lot of big men in pick-and-roll, pop-and-shoot,” Lewis says now. “We were one of the trendsetters of it.”
Just how ahead of its time was that …
Just how ahead of its time was that Magic team? Its NBA record for making 23 3-pointers in single game, set on Jan. 13, 2009, remained unbroken until Dec. 16, 2016, when the Rockets made 24. “Obviously, Stan is one of the great coaches of our time, but I still don’t think that he gets the credit he deserves for being a pioneer,” Clifford says. “Stan has so many strengths, but one of the things he’s really good at is he can look at a group on the floor and say, ‘They need to play this way.’ His vision of how he wanted our team to play was so definitive.”
