Stan Van Gundy

He busted his ass.

He was in there.

He was in there every damn day for 14 hours doing a great job.

And he's being punished for my decisions.

Like, let's tone down the...

you know, excitement over people losing their jobs.

It was.

And I will, you know, I know that's hard for people to believe, but I remember having been here only a couple of months.

And I remember saying to my wife at home and to my brother and father, who obviously are basketball people like

This guy's great, you know, and I've only done that, you know, he was early in his career, obviously right at the beginning.

And I did that one other time and it was with Sean Miller when I was at Wisconsin and I was only months on the job and I was like, whoa, this is a different level.

And I think what amazed me is when I came here.

I'd already been in college coaching for 14 years, so I was new to the NBA, but I wasn't new to coaching.

And to see somebody in their first job who had his intelligence, his knowledge of the game, his approach and players.

immediately trusted him.

Like he would go work with them and he just had this air about him.

The thing with Eric, and I think players still catch on to it with him.

It's always about them and about making the team better.

It's never about him.

And so I think they are attracted to that right away.