Van Gundy talks Howard Split

Posted by Unknown on Saturday, March 02, 2013 with 2 comments
It was almost a year ago when Stan Van Gundy stood before reporters after an afternoon shootaround and dropped a bomb heard around the world....that Dwight Howard wanted him fired.  While speaking at the 2013 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, Van Gundy relieved the moment when asked about it.  
“Dwight had also, as I knew, been saying things in the locker room with our team,” Van Gundy continued. “So clearly it was becoming a problem with our team. I was told by our management that this had happened before the season started, after the lockout, and I said right away, ‘You need to fire me. Just get it done. We can’t have this hanging over.’
“I wasn’t interested in trying to keep my job. I think as a coach what you want is to succeed. So when the rumors came up, I went back to ’em again. I said, ‘Look, this is a problem in our locker room. It is not helping our team. Do one of two things. Make a statement — not one of those, we have confidence in our coach bull---- statements that means you’re getting fired in the next week. But make a statement. Either fire me right now, get it done, or extend my contract.’
“They wouldn’t do anything. Our management wouldn’t do anything. And, so, my only thought was, ‘What’s the best thing I can do to get our players’ minds off of this to get everything out in the open and let us play?’ Now, the hard part is we did that, and Dwight only played two more games before he had back surgery. So we don’t know if it would’ve worked, but that was my thinking: that this just needed to be cleared up out in the open and let all the players know I know what’s going on and we’re going to get past all this. The speculation’s gone.”