Brad Stevens gets real about Jeff Van Gundy after giving Clippers assistant his ring
Yesterday at 09:41 PM
The Boston Celtics are playing the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday, also the season debut of Kristaps Porzingis after having surgery on an ankle injury that hobbled him in last season’s finals. Moreover, the Clippers have stormed to an 11-7 record after losing Paul George to the 3-13 Philadelphia 76ers in the offseason. Still, one of the sub-stories of the game includes Celtics GM Brad Stevens facing off against ex-consultant Jeff Van Gundy, now Clippers assistant, after giving JVG his championship ring from 2023-2024.
“He was everybody’s favorite, for sure,” the ex-Celtics coach said, via NBA reporter Jared Weiss on X, formerly Twitter. “But we want to kick his ass and he wants to kick ours. He’s cool with that. This is the way it goes.”
Celtics vs. Clippers
Notably, prior to working as a Clippers assistant, Jeff Van Gundy worked with Brad Stevens and the Celtics last season after ESPN fired Van Gundy and broadcast partner Mark Jackson in their mass layoffs in 2023.
Jackson and JVG were once Mike Breen’s color commentators and analysts who called some of the greatest games in the past twenty years or so for the network.
However, the Celtics hired Van Gundy as a consultant just days before Boston’s championship season began, marking JVG’s return to the league after his last stint as a head coach for the 2006-2007 Houston Rockets.
That season, Van Gundy led the Rockets–with Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming–to a 52-30 record, though they lost in seven games to the Utah Jazz in the first round. He had also led the Patrick Ewing-less New York Knicks to the NBA Finals in 1999.
Still, the former coach had nothing but gratitude for Stevens and the Celtics for welcoming him after experiencing both layoffs and devastating personal losses.
“Brad Stevens and Joe Mazzulla threw me a lifeline, and everybody on that coaching staff has welcomed me with open arms,” JVG said on his appearance on The Mark Jackson show.
Then, Van Gundy continued, “After this summer, I was not in a great place, and I’ll always and forever be appreciative of what the Celtics, Brad Stevens, Joe Mazzulla, and that coaching staff has done for me.”
What’s next for JVG
After helping Boston win the NBA title last season, further proving the pace-and-space and five-out basketball of the modern NBA isn’t going away anytime soon, JVG has seemingly found a second wind as a coach with the Clippers.
Moreover, the Clippers personnel may have also bought into his hard-nosed approach to the game, particularly on defense.
Despite the persistent absence of Kawhi Leonard, the team hasn’t fallen to the basement of the Western conference because they always play hard. Additionally, James Harden as the point guard remains as deadly as he was on the Rockets.
Or perhaps it could also be that the Clippers are better without Paul George, because now they can share the ball among five players?
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