Stan Van Gundy has no problem putting his foot down, even when the player who crossed the line is franchise cornerstone
Dwight Howard. Van Gundy benched Howard for two minutes in Monday's loss to the Cavs after Howard said something that set Van Gundy off during a timeout. From
Brian Schmitz's blog in the Orlando Sentinel:
"That's going to be between Dwight and I, but his focus isn't where it needs to be," Van Gundy said. "I don't think right now we're on the same page to be quite honest." [...]
"His focus is on the offensive end," Van Gundy said. "He gets discouraged when he doesn't get the ball. I think the numbers prove that what we need him to focus on to win is defensive rebounding, but that's not what he wants to do right now and we've got a little bit of a conflict."
Granted, a two-minute stint on the bench seems more like a breather than an actual punishment, but the fact Van Gundy explained it all after the game shows that he was serious. To Howard's credit, he downplayed the rift when asked about it in the locker room, saying, "It's just like when families have problems." That may be, but the Magic can ill-afford their head coach and their best player staying dysfunctional for long.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. The best center in the NBA get help get Kidd!
Posted at 6:07PM on Feb 12th 2008 by frank
2. Dwight does not have a good suporting cast that's why a Jose Calderon an excellent passer( asst.)or some one similar will help him a lot to go all the way like Lebron that have Gooden,Hughes 40 points last night against Dwight and no name D,Gibson,Z a 7"3 with a soft touch, Newble,Pavlovic an excellent shooter,Verajao a 6"10 a good rebounder and so on;Hopefully Orlando will draft some good players like the Cavs have.
Posted at 6:58PM on Feb 12th 2008 by frank
3. Frank, you're out of your mind. I'd take Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu over Larry Hughes and Anderson Varejao any day.
Posted at 7:01PM on Feb 12th 2008 by Matt W.
4. Matt besides Lewis and Hedo who else? they ( Cavs) do not have a passer ( asst.) do they ??
Posted at 9:13PM on Feb 12th 2008 by frank
5. Correction - Orlando does not have a passer to feed Dwight (especially).
Posted at 9:15PM on Feb 12th 2008 by frank
6. And last did you watched the game? bet.Orlando and Cleveland ? Lebron was a non factor ; I rest my case.
Posted at 9:18PM on Feb 12th 2008 by frank