...
By Alex Kirschenbaum
Contributing Entertainment Writer
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Jeff Van Gundy is heading west.
The longtime NBA head coach, who spent decades in broadcasting before transitioning to a senior consultant role with the Boston Celtics under team president Brad Stevens, has agreed to a deal to become the lead assistant under L.A. Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The 62-year-old began his coaching career with McQuad Jesuit High School in 1985, then quickly graduated to assistant stints at Providence and Rutgers, before finally landing on the New York Knicks as an assistant coach under four different head coaching regimes: Stu Jackson from 1989-90, John MacLeod from 1990-91, hoops maestro Pat Riley from 1991-95 (the Knicks reached the NBA Finals in 1994, where it was swept by Hakeem Olajuwon's Houston Rockets), and finally Hall of Famer Don Nelson from 1995-96.
Read More on NBA
When the Knicks fired Nelson in March 1996, Van Gundy finally took over. He led the club to a 27-23 record in the 50-game, lockout-shortened 1998-99 NBA season. When All-Star Patrick Ewing got hurt, pundits assumed the Knicks' playoff run would be brief. Instead, New York went all the way to the NBA Finals, Van Gundy's first appearance there as a head coach. The team got swept again, this time by Tim Duncan and David Robinson's San Antonio Spurs.
...
Van Gundy resigned from the Knicks gig early in the 2001-02 season. He took over for Rudy Tomjanovich with the Houston Rockets in 2003-04, and stayed with that club through 2006-07, when he was let go following a 52-30 season and a first round playoff exit. All told, he boasts a 430-318 overall regular season record as a head coach, plus a 44-44 record in the postseason.
Van Gundy transitioned to broadcasting, where he was a consistently colorful presence calling games for ESPN and ABC for 16 seasons. After being laid off by the Worldwide Leader in 2023, Van Gundy took the Celtics' job, and promptly won his first-ever title on Monday, thanks to the efforts of one of the more dominant clubs in playoff history. Boston went 16-3 in the playoffs and flattened the competition with a five-out, three point-heavy offensive approach, balanced with switchy defense.
Per Woj, Van Gundy has a strong connection with Lue, and was enticed to make his first foray back into coaching in 17 years (there had been overtures for his services as a head coach over the decades thanks to his consistent TV presence) by that relationship and the Clippers' enthusiasm for his hoops acumen.
Led by aging future Hall of Famers Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and James Harden in 2023-24, the Clippers posted a 51-31 record in a tough Western Conference, good for the No. 4 seed. The team fell during the first round in six games to the Dallas Mavericks, who eventually became Boston's NBA Finals foes.
L.A. has yet to make an NBA Finals appearance in its history, a stain on the organization the club is no doubt hoping to correct. In 2024-25, the team will debut its own arena, the Intuit Dome, near the Los Angeles Lakers' old Forum stomping grounds in Inglewood. Adding a seasoned vet at the level of Van Gundy is an absolute coup for the organization, but the club has been plagued by injury issues that might require some tough personnel decisions soon if it really wants to break through.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines