by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni
The NBA Playoffs are many, many months away, but for Phil Jackson, it’s never too early to start throwing verbal darts at foes.
Jackson weighed in on the dicey situation currently developing in Miami yesterday, and the world predictably went crazy.
Today, Erik Spoelstra and Stan Van Gundy had a chance to respond, and both offered commentary on Phil’s observations.
Spoelstra smartly deflected the questions with well-placed humor, and SVG ranted (as he is wont to do.)
From HoopsWorld and the Palm Beach Post:
“My coaching staff was giving me some grief about it,” Spoelstra said. “They got a good chuckle out of it.” Did he? “Yeah,” Spoelstra said. “Come on. Everybody has had something to say about us. I can’t expect that I would be excluded from that. I’m sure some people are probably saying some stuff about me out there, other than him … First of all, I’m single, OK, so I don’t think I’ll be taking a leave from my team to spend time with my family.”
Van Gundy hadn’t heard the comments prior to speaking with reporters but after being told what was said, he shook his head and laughed. “Well first of all, obviously Phil has no idea what the ‘Van Gundy situation’ was. Even though he coaches in our league, he certainly had no inside knowledge of that so any analogy he would make to my situation would be totally useless because he doesn’t have any clue what the situation was in that case,” Van Gundy said.
“First of all, to second guess another coach and to comment on a situation he knew nothing about is inappropriate and it’s also ignorant. I don’t mean that commenting on Phil’s intelligence; he’s obviously a very smart guy. I mean that as ignorant because he doesn’t know what that situation was and he doesn’t know what the situation in Miami is now. I don’t think, unless their relationship has changed drastically, that he and Pat talk on a regular basis so I doubt he would have any information whatsoever on what’s going on in Miami,” Van Gundy said. Van Gundy was not only frustrated with Jackson, but also with the media for bringing up a situation that hasn’t been relevant for years and for making assumptions about what happened in Miami.
Why do I get the feeling that Phil will be bumping a certain Jay-Z track when he reads about this today, with a big smile plastered on his face?
