Jeff Van Gundy thinks David Blatt is a victim of media ‘hit jobs’
JVG took the media to task for the unflattering reports that followed David Blatt’s dismissal.
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
The Van Gundy brothers are famous for speaking their mind. Earlier on Saturday, Pistons' coach Stan Van Gundy had strong words for the Cavaliers' front office following the firing of David Blatt. His brother Jeff was part of the broadcast team for the first Cavaliers game since the decision and he focused his attention on how it has been covered by the media.
Those are strong words but that’s not all Van Gundy said during the broadcast. He had some thoughts about the Blatt situation itself.
“You’re more vulnerable coaching-wise if you win than if you lose,” he said early in the broadcast. “It used to be the other way around. Now the pressure has increased so much on those teams that think they have a shot to win it all, that you’re very vulnerable.”
“When you win, everybody runs to get the credit. But when you struggle, most people run away from blame. So it’s easy then, when you run away from blame, to pin it on one person, like a coach. What’s that line? I think from JFK. ‘Credit has many fathers. Blame is an orphan.’”
Then, after Cavaliers general manager David Griffin gave his version of why he made the decision to fire Blatt, Van Gundy questioned it, especially the part about not consulting with LeBron James.
“To me, it’s all semantics. Did any player or any player’s representative, with words or with actions, let you know that they would rather play for Ty Lue than David Blatt? And we all know the answer: it’s yes. He can’t tell the truth, no one wants to hear the truth because sometimes the truth is ugly in how the sausage is made.”
Van Gundy is clearly not afraid to say what he really thinks. Whether you agree with him or not, that’s refreshing.
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End of the line: David Blatt dumped by the Cavaliers
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