After the Brooklyn Nets fired head coach Avery Johnson one of the names listed as his possible replacement was former NY Knicks and Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy. Read more after the jump.
Van Gundy hasn’t been a coach since the 2006-07 season but he may be ready to return to the sidelines. The problem however is that he won’t speak with the Nets while they have a coach in place.
From Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:
While Jeff Van Gundy does have interest in the Brooklyn Nets‘ opening, he’ll be likely unwilling to meet with team officials while an interim coach is in place during the season, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
The Nets haven’t reached out to Van Gundy, but he’s well regarded on every level of the organization’s ownership and management charts.
Van Gundy has never met with an organization that had a coach in place as part of his personal code, and he has respect for P.J. Carlesimo’s status. It is likely that the Nets would have to wait until season’s end to meet with Van Gundy about the job.
Van Gundy is highly regarded as an excellent coach taking both the Knicks and Rockets to the playoffs. The Nets however may not be willing to wait until the end of the season to fill the head coaching position. Though Carlesimo holds the job for now and the front office haven’t begun the process of replacing him, it is believed that he won’t retain the job. The question is just for how long.
