Patrick Ewing and a host of other Knicks greats were feted at the Garden last night. Stan Van Gundy and his Magic were in town, and Orlando’s coach wasn’t exactly in a celebratory mood.
After watching the Knicks honor his assistant coach, Van Gundy tore into them for not giving their former center a fair shot at a coaching gig. From the NY Daily News:
“I’m a cynical person,” Van Gundy said following the Magic’s 106-102 win at the Garden. “If they feel he’s one of the greatest players in franchise history and they’ve hired a lot of other prominent players, why won’t they even give him an interview? But on a night like tonight, they’ll want him to help him sell out the building.”
“I’m not trying to needle anybody or tell them their business,” Van Gundy said. “But they honor the guy every year and what’s amazing to me is that while they have a lot of ex-players in their organization, they hadn’t made any move to try to hire him. This is a guy who is not only the face of the franchise and their best player ever and who works as hard as he does, and they say great things about him. But when it comes time to put up or shut up, they don’t do anything. It’s our good fortune.”
If there’s one way to quickly gain some much-needed public support this summer, it’s not hard to see what the Knicks should do.
