Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 12:00 pm  |  15 responses

Stan Van Gundy’s Latest Complaint: Playoff Length

SVG was at it again yesterday prior to his team taking a 2-0 lead on the Bobcats. According to Doc Rivers, though, his aging team benefits from the time between postseason games: “Van Gundy sounded off before Wednesday’s Game 2 win over Charlotte about the space between first-round games, pointing to the fact that the playoffs began April 17, but the NBA Finals won’t end until mid-to-late June. ‘It’s almost like you’re on a high school schedule or a college schedule playing twice a week,’ Van Gundy told reporters. And while he acknowledged the schedule is due in large part to the lucrative TV contracts, he pointed to other professional sports that move along at a quicker pace. ‘Baseball gets their whole playoffs and World Series done in like three weeks,’ said Van Gundy. ‘Us, it takes us the first round to go three weeks.’ Asked if a two-day break between Games 2 and 3 could stem any of the momentum Boston built with a lopsided victory Tuesday night, Rivers noted the positives outweigh negatives associated with the additional time off. ‘I love it, it’s great for us. Don’t forget we’re so old,’ Rivers joked. ‘But I don’t think it hurts us at all. Especially the travel day, this is a long [flight]. This isn’t your typical hour-and-a-half flight. It’s three-plus hours This allows us to have this day of film [Wednesday] — a day off kinda — and [Thursday] a hard practice and get on the long flight.”‘

  • Add a Comment
  • Share
  • RSS

Tags: , , ,

  • slamfan4life Posted: Apr.22 at 12:24 pm
    Dude needs to start coaching again

  • LA Huey Posted: Apr.22 at 12:34 pm
    We talkin’ ’bout scheduling?

  • ENDS Posted: Apr.22 at 12:52 pm
    @slam4 SVG is right. We played Sunday and have to wait till wednsay for game 2?!?! Every other day

  • RedRum Posted: Apr.22 at 12:52 pm
    he is awful.. I think he is doing a great job as a coach, but if he just shuts ups and coach, maybe he can win something… his constant winging, and complaining is awful.. I think he brings that negativity to his team as well, which is why Shaq dished him so much

  • neaorin Posted: Apr.22 at 1:26 pm
    Good luck with that. The league wants as many games as possible during weekends because it leads to better ratings, which means more $$$. They don’t give a damn that SVG can’t find anything to do in the meantime.

  • Rob Posted: Apr.22 at 4:47 pm
    SVG’s voice is annoying. I can even hear him when I read him. That’s even more annoying. DWIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!

  • T-Money Posted: Apr.22 at 4:50 pm
    Would SVG be okay with giving back a portion of his salary due to the loss of TV ratings too? Just stfu already. How about working on your sub patterns in big games?

  • dfrance21 Posted: Apr.22 at 9:35 pm
    He complains a lot, but this is a valid complaint. There is no fluidity to the playoffs in the first round. Its dragged out way too long and I think they lose some casual fans because of it. Remember when they showed double headers on TNT and TBS the same night? They should do something like that. Play games every other night and two days in between city changes.

  • Michael Scorn Posted: Apr.22 at 9:53 pm
    I remember in 2006 when LA almost beat Phoenix in 6 games. There was a FULL WEEK until game 7. I thought the rest helped Phoenix a lot more.

  • Jukai Posted: Apr.23 at 2:28 am
    Michael Scorn: Also Kobe taking two shots and giving up on his team probably helped too.

  • Dacre Posted: Apr.23 at 5:38 am
    dfrance21…casual fans… we talking ’bout casual fans??

  • Dave Posted: Apr.23 at 7:02 am
    Kobe probably hurt his knee carrying 11 other guys onto the floor night after night, Jukai.

  • Michael Scorn Posted: Apr.23 at 7:58 am
    @Jukai- I completely forgot about that. That was the strangest thing I saw. Kobe has pouted before with Shaq during the regular season. But during a game 7? Unforgivable.

  • Sparty's Law Posted: Apr.23 at 9:53 am
    He’s totally right. NHL playoff games go every other night and hockey, especially playoff hockey, is much more physically intensive than basketball. I can maybe understand 2 off days if there is a long flight involved, but there should never be more than one off day in between games taking place in the same city.

  • Tejas Posted: May.4 at 10:12 am
    Michael Scorn: 7 days? They had 1 day rest and then they played game 7. Wow.

Comments




The comments section is a place to further discuss the topics in this post. Commenters who seek to accomplish any of the following may be banned: - Personally attack other commenters. - Make derogatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, language, gender, sexual orientation or religion. - Troll, or comment with the intention of creating problems. Trolling includes, but isn't limited to, baiting people to flame at you, encouraging people to leave the site, spamming and using alternate IDs.