Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy said that he hopes the NBA decides to do away with playing games on Christmas Day, a big tradition for the league.
The coach went even further, insulting those who showed up. Van Gundy said fans that came to the Christmas Day game must really have nothing better to do with themselves.
He said he thinks it gets a little bit ridiculous when the NBA is considered more important than Christmas.
The Magic were one of the teams that played a nationally televised game on Christmas, losing to the Boston Celtics. Maybe some of his frustration was really over the loss and not the timing of the game.
The NBA generally owns the day from a sports standpoint. They broadcasted three nationally televised games, while the NFL had a primetime game and college football did not have a bowl game.
The coach did admit that he knows the games are a huge economic boost for the league and that stopping the tradition would probably not be possible.
Sunday, December 27, 2009 at 10:05 am by steve
Back when Shaquille O’Neal was dominating the league (and not the football field, boxing ring, volleyball court, etc…), teams often employed the Hack-a-Shaq policy, forcing him to shoot free throws instead of gather easy buckets around the rim.
Now, his successor may have earned the same respect.
Dwight Howard has been hacked repeatedly around the rim, and it came to a boiling point on Monday night, when Indiana’s Troy Murphy grabbed Howard around the neck as he went up for a shot.
Both were assessed a technical during the game; however, the league has rescinded Howard’s technical and upgraded Murphy’s technical to a flagrant foul.
Indiana’s coach, Jim O’Brien, acknowledged that his strategy to contain Howard revolved around fouling him… hard.
“I think the thing that if I was Dwight Howard would tend to frustrate me is, I think, sometimes defenses are allowed to get away with murder from the standpoint of how they foul him,” O’Brien said before the game. “That can be very, very frustrating. So it’s not giving him deep catches, fouling him and pray to the heavens that he’s not making foul shots that night.”
After Murphy hacked Howard during the game, Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy became irate, saying after the game that NBA refs are much more likely to blow their whistles for perimeter players like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
Van Gundy did appreciate the NBA’s decision to upgrade Murphy’s foul.
“We didn’t feel like we won anything [with the rescindment] because we’re not at battle with” the league, Van Gundy said. “But it’s a good acknowledgment that those things have to be flagrant fouls.”
Friday, December 18, 2009 at 12:18 pm by bryan
Well, it sure didn’t take long for the Magic’s latest All-Star to reincorporate himself into his team’s offense.
After being banned for the first ten games of this season due to testing positive for an elevated testosterone level, Rashard Lewis is back in force, as he scored 20 points and added 11 rebounds in the Magic’s 118-104 win over the New York Knicks on Wednesday night.
“There’s a number of things that we want to do to let people know that we are a good team,” Lewis said.
The Magic weren’t about to take the Knicks lightly, as they were fresh off a 25+ point blowout upset of the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, who were sporting the NBA’s best record at the start of the week.
Now, the Magic hold the distinction of being the NBA’s first team to 15 wins, as they kept their early-season success rolling along, having won nine of their last 10 games.
Center Dwight Howard chipped in 19 points and 10 rebounds of his own, while Michael Pietrus added 17 for the Magic. Orlando blew the game open with a 41-point third quarter.
“It lets you know that we have a deep team,” Lewis said. “We have a lot of guys that can help us win games. We have a deep bench. Our starters are playing well for us, but we got a lot of guys that we can go to any night.”
Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 11:10 pm by bryan
