Stan Van Gundy

Stan Van Gundy

Volunteering for "Bike the Sites", State University of New York at Brockport
Orlando Magic
Head coach
Personal information
Date of birth	August 26, 1959 (1959-08-26)
Place of birth	Indio, California
Career information
College	SUNY-Brockport
Pro career	1995–present
Career history
As coach: Vermont Catamounts (assistant) (1981–1983) Castleton State College (1983–1986) Canisius College (assistant) (1986–1987) Fordham University (assistant) (1987–1988) University of Massachusetts Lowell (1988–1992) Wisconsin Badgers (assistant) (1992–1994) Wisconsin Badgers (1994–1995) Miami Heat (assistant) (1995–2003) Miami Heat (2003–2005) Orlando Magic (2007–present)
Career highlights and awards
2× NBA All-Star Game head coach (2005, 2010)
Stats at NBA.com

Stanley A. "Stan" Van Gundy (born August 26, 1959) is the head coach of the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic. From 2003 to 2005, he was the head coach of the Miami Heat but resigned in 2005 mid-season, turning the job over to Pat Riley. He is the brother of former New York Knicks and Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy.

College coaching

Van Gundy began his coaching career as an assistant coach at the University of Vermont, 1981–83, and was head coach at Castleton State College (VT) for three seasons. After serving as an assistant coach at Canisius College in 1987 and Fordham University in 1988, Van Gundy was named head coach at UMass Lowell and spent four seasons there, where he compiled a record of 54-60 and coached Leo Parent, whom Van Gundy called "the best Division 2 player in the nation."

Van Gundy then became an assistant at the University of Wisconsin under Stu Jackson (later NBA Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations), and then became head coach at UW.

Overall, Van Gundy compiled a record of 135-92 (.595) in eight years as a college head coach.

Miami Heat

Van Gundy spent twelve years with the Heat organization, beginning as an Assistant Coach to Pat Riley in 1995.

After working as an assistant under coaching legend Pat Riley, Van Gundy was named head coach when Riley abruptly resigned as coach prior to the 2003–04 season. However, Riley remained on as President of the team. Van Gundy took over a team that had won 25 games the previous season. He led them to a 42-win season, in which they won a very high percentage of their late season games and surprised many by advancing to the second round of the 2004 NBA Playoffs, nearly defeating the team with the league's best record, the Indiana Pacers, due to the strong play of rookie Dwyane Wade.

During the off-season, Shaquille O'Neal demanded a trade and made Miami the only viable option for the Lakers to make a transaction with. Riley gave up Caron Butler, Lamar Odom, Brian Grant and a future first-round draft choice, replacing three of the team's starters, including an Olympian and a future all star, with O'Neal. The Heat ended the first half of the season with the best record in the Eastern Conference, allowing Van Gundy to become the first Heat coach to coach in the All-Star Game, leading the East to a victory. The Heat finished the season with 59 wins, earning the best record in the conference.

The Heat went on to advance to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost to the Detroit Pistons. Injuries played a factor in their defeat, particularly a rib injury to leading scorer Wade during Game 5, which prevented him from playing Game 6 and severely hindered him in Game 7, both Piston wins. During the 2005 off-season, it was widely speculated (with no evidence) that Pat Riley was attempting to run Van Gundy out of his coaching job after Van Gundy had led the team to a position of dominance after Riley had abruptly abandoned it less than two years earlier. Whether or not these rumors were valid (and, indeed, Miami sportswriter Dan LeBatard has said Van Gundy resigned by choice and was not in fact forced out by Riley), Van Gundy indeed resigned from his position as head coach on December 12, 2005.

Van Gundy had a winning percentage of .605 with the Heat (112–73).

Orlando Magic

In May 2007, Van Gundy received an offer to replace the fired Rick Carlisle as head coach of the Indiana Pacers. Van Gundy turned down the offer, but began interviewing for other head coaching jobs. He was considered a lead candidate to become head coach of the Orlando Magic and also the Sacramento Kings. However, the Magic hired Billy Donovan. Shortly thereafter, Donovan decided he wanted to back out of the deal and return to the University of Florida. Finally on June 5, 2007, the Magic released Donovan and offered another contract to Van Gundy. ESPN SportsCenter has reported that the Heat allowed Van Gundy to coach the Magic in exchange for a second-round draft pick in 2007 and the right to swap first-round picks in 2008 or another 2008 second-round draft pick and cash.

In Van Gundy's first season with the Magic, he guided them to a 52-win season, earning the team's first division championship since the 1995–96 season, and the third-best record in the Eastern Conference. Orlando defeated the Toronto Raptors 4–1 in the first round of the playoffs, advancing to the Eastern Semifinals for the first time in twelve seasons. They were later defeated in the Eastern Semifinals by the Detroit Pistons 4–1.

More success was found in the 2008–09 season. The Magic won 59 games, second most in franchise history, along with a second consecutive division championship. After defeating the team with the league's best record that season, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Magic won the Eastern Conference Finals in six games, advancing to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1995 to face the Los Angeles Lakers, but lost the series in five games.

Also during the 2008–09 season, a bit of a feud developed between Van Gundy and Phoenix Suns center, and former Magic/Heat player, Shaquille O'Neal (the two were together when O'Neal played for the Heat and Van Gundy was his coach). After a game between the Suns and Magic, Van Gundy said O'Neal was flopping throughout the night. O'Neal fired back by calling Van Gundy "a master of panic," because Van Gundy was not successful in the playoffs per O'Neal. Despite everything, O'Neal was actually in attendance at Amway Arena on the night the Magic played Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Magic extended Van Gundy's contract through the 2010–11 season on September 28, 2009.

On January 31, 2010, Van Gundy was named the coach of the Eastern Conference All-Star team for the 2010 NBA All-Star Game, making it the second time he had been given the honor to coach an all-star team. He led the Eastern Conference to victory for the second time.

Personal life

Van Gundy was born in Indio, California. Van Gundy and his wife, Kim, have four children, Shannon, Michael, Alison and Kelly.

Van Gundy grew up as a son of a basketball coach, Bill Van Gundy, the former head coach at Brockport State University in Western New York. His younger brother Jeff Van Gundy has coached several teams in the NBA as well. After Jeff became a member of the NBA on ABC's broadcast team, he was an analyst during the 2009 NBA Finals while Stan coached the Orlando Magic.

Head coaching record

Legend
Regular season	G	Games coached	W	Games won	L	Games lost	W–L %	Win-loss  %
Post season	PG	Playoff Games	PW	Playoff Wins	PL	Playoff Losses	PW–L %	Playoff Win-loss  %

Team	Year	G	W	L	W–L%	Finish	PG	PW	PL	PW–L%	Result
MIA	2003–04	82	42	40	.512	2nd in Atlantic	13	6	7	.462	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
MIA	2004–05	82	59	23	.720	1st in Southeast	15	11	4	.733	Lost in Conf. Finals
MIA	2005–06	21	11	10	.524	(resigned)	—	—	—	—	—
ORL	2007–08	82	52	30	.634	1st in Southeast	10	5	5	.500	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
ORL	2008–09	82	59	23	.720	1st in Southeast	24	13	11	.542	Lost in NBA Finals
ORL	2009–10	82	59	23	.720	1st in Southeast	14	10	4	.714	Lost in Conf. Finals
ORL	2010–11	82	52	30	.634	2nd in Southeast	6	2	4	.333	Lost in First Round
Career		513	334	179	.651		82	47	35	.573

References

Preceded by James Casciano	Castleton State College Head Men's Basketball Coach 1983–1986	Succeeded by Jerry Martin
Preceded by Don Doucette	University of Lowell/University of Massachusetts Lowell Head Men's Basketball Coach 1988–1992	Succeeded by Gary Manchel