Frustrated by his team's ouster in the first round, Jeff Van
Gundy plans to take some time to evaluate his future as coach of
the Houston Rockets.
The Rockets' season ended Saturday with a Game 7 loss to Utah,
and a report in the New York Post the next day said Van Gundy was
going to retire.
"I do the same thing every year since I've been coaching -- I
sit back and I think about what's right for the team and what's
right for myself," Van Gundy said Monday. "This is no
different."
Van Gundy has no immediate plans to make a major decision.
"To do that, when I'm still emotionally frustrated with the
outcome (of the series) would be, really, a disservice to everybody
involved," he said. "Where that originated, I haven't seen the
story, so I can't tell you. When I got called about it, it caught
me off-guard a little bit."
Van Gundy has one year left on his nonguaranteed contract,
meaning the Rockets have the right to terminate it any time after
June 30. Van Gundy said he had no timetable for meeting with
Rockets owner Les Alexander.
"To me, I'm under contract," he said. "I love the team, I like
the organization a lot, I've been treated extremely well here. I
have zero complaints."
Van Gundy met with his players for about 15 minutes Monday.
Afterward, Tracy McGrady reiterated his support for Van Gundy,
calling him "the best coach I ever played for." But McGrady offered
no insight into whether Van Gundy addressed his future during the
meeting.
"As far as I'm concerned, he's still our coach and that's all I
can give you," said McGrady, who added that Van Gundy told the
players during the meeting he'd be talking with them individually
over the summer.
Van Gundy, a former assistant to Pat Riley and Don Nelson,
coached New York for six seasons, then quit when the Knicks started
10-9 in 2001-02. He spent the next year working in television
before becoming Houston's coach before the 2003-04 season.
He repeatedly chastised himself Monday for losing Saturday's
game and three other home playoff games in his four seasons as the
Rockets' coach -- to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 4 in 2004 and
twice to Dallas in 2005.
Van Gundy expected those losses to come up when he sat down with
Alexander and new general manager Daryl Morey, the successor to
retiring Carroll Dawson.
"This is a result-oriented business," Van Gundy said. "I have to
take responsibility. Those four home playoff losses -- I'm not
saying you're going to win them all. But if you're management, you
have to look at that, certainly."
The Rockets haven't won a playoff series since 1997, and Van
Gundy has lost their last three. He's had Yao Ming for all three
series and Yao and McGrady for the last two.
"They want to work, they want to win," Van Gundy said. "I'm
disappointed that I haven't been able to help, not just those two,
but the whole group get over the hump in that first round. That's
where my emotion is right now."
The Rockets went 52-30 this season, their best record since
1997. Van Gundy said the franchise has "made strides forward," but
needs to make offseason changes to compete with the elite in the
Western Conference. He wouldn't specify what those changes might
be.
"We're a really good regular-season team," he said. "What we
have to decide is whether that can translate into playoff success.
Something's got to change, so we can get more playoff success."
(China Daily via AP May 8, 2007)