Looks like Stern told ESPN they could not hire him.
Stan Van Gundy doesn’t buy ESPN’s reason for not hiring him
Kurt Helin
The rumor was out there — Stan Van Gundy was going to join ESPN’s pregame studio show. Basketball fans were excited because that show lacked something — maybe a loose-cannon former coach — and Van Gundy along with ESPN’s online force Bill Simmons would help that show immensely.
But then it fell apart. Reports surface that David Stern stepped in and killed itESPN’s official response was the two sides “differed on potential assignments and we moved in another direction.”
Van Gundy says that is a load of… fertilizer. He was on with Dan LeBatard on the Ticket in Miami and didn’t hold back (thanks to The Big Lead for transcribing).
“No one at ESPN will tell us what happened. Certainly the NBA office isn’t going to tell us what happened. One of the quotes from ESPN in there – we had discussions, but couldn’t agree on a role … as is usual, that’s a bunch of BS from ESPN.
“We actually did agree on a role, but then they came back and pulled that. That’s when we knew something was up.”“
And really, what kind of Stan Van Gundy rant would it be if David Stern’s power were not questioned?
What I find fascinating … you have to give David Stern and the NBA a lot of credit … ESPN pays the league, and then the league tells them what to do. It’s more ESPN’s problem. You gotta have no balls whatsoever to pay someone hundreds of millions of dollars and let them run your business.
Not sure that is helping SVG get a television gig in the future. But man am I going to miss him on the sidelines.