Stan Van Gundy harbors a grudge against ESPN over the firing of his brother, former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, last year.
Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson served as play-by-play announcers for ESPN for many years, along with play-by-play announcer Mike Breen, but Van Gundy was fired last year in a major cutback and Jackson was fired shortly thereafter.
Stan, a former ESPN announcer who now works for TNT, joined Dan Le Batard on his “South Beach Sessions” podcast and slammed the Worldwide Leader situation.
On your way out the door. Getty Images
“He was hurt. He’d worked for them for 17 years. Not just the fact that they moved, but they criticised him so badly,” he said. Awful Announcing covers.
Jeff Van Gundy had several years left on his contract, but his brother said he wasn’t able to get a buyout quickly enough to work elsewhere.
“The timing was bad. They waited to make the move until the NBA market was already open for coaching, assistant and front office jobs, and then they kept postponing and postponing and postponing a buyout to give him the freedom to work. [other] “People,” Stan continued.
“He was in arguably the best broadcast booth in the basketball business for 17 years, and that’s the kind of guy he was, and now ESPN is bashing him.”
There were rumors that the NBA had issued a “Code Red” against Jeff, but Commissioner Adam Silver denied this.
Stan tried to make it clear that it wasn’t the firing itself that he was taking issue with on his brother’s behalf, but the way his brother was treated.
“These things happen in this business, we all go through them,” Stan added. “He got fired and stuff, but there were things that should have been done and things that shouldn’t have been done. … I think ESPN treated him really badly, considering what he gave to ESPN for 17 years.”
Le Batard didn’t think Jeff would be too happy about Stan revealing this secret, but Stan went along with it.
“My brother won’t be happy to hear me say this, but this is what happened and this is what I’m saying,” he said, “and I don’t think anybody who knows the situation would disagree with me.”
Doc Rivers and Doris Burke replaced Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy on ESPN’s top NBA teams, with Rivers being replaced by JJ Redick when he became the Bucks’ head coach midway through the season.
