On some level, it’s hard not to at least be amused by Rockets' coach Jeff Van Gundy. The man is as ferocious as a tiger but has all the strength of a koala bear, and despite his unimpressive physique, Van Gundy has no fear -- when he was coach of the Knicks he had a reputation for diving into the midst of brawls like a small but blindly loyal dog protecting its owner. Though this behavior was wildly entertaining, it sometimes got Van Gundy into trouble -- he once jumped into the middle of a fight and caught the full impact of a Marcus Camby haymaker. Apparently Van Gundy never heard that when the big boys start fighting, it’s best for little brother to stay on the sideline. But it seems Van Gundy has been ignoring convention for years. Despite his short stature, he turned himself into a servicable college basketball player at a small school called Nazareth. And once he was done there, he apparently decided to shirk the oft-employed practice of sleeping at the end of the day: Van Gundy worked such long hours as Knicks’ coach that he used to come to press conferences looking like he had just stumbled out of a crack den.
I suppose it can be said of Van Gundy that he basically does what he thinks is right regardless of what other people say, and in theory, this is a very admirable policy. Unfortunately, in practice it's just downright egotistical. In his first season as Rockets' coach, Van Gundy has come in, set up shop and imposed his will, and in the process, he's perpetrated basketball's equivalent of capital crime -- he's made an exciting team boring by installing his horrifically methodical offense. Unless you’ve been living in a tar paper shanty for the past four years, you're should be well aware that Rockets' guard Steve Francis is one of the NBA’s most electric players. Listed at 6-3, Francis looks like he’s no taller than 6 feet, and the man is absolutely unguardable. He’s one of a handful of players in the league who does things on the basketball court you can’t even imagine doing. I remember seeing a video of Francis playing in a summer pro league where he had his man guarding him out at the three-point line, threw the ball off the poor guy’s forehead, caught it and then drove baseline for a sick reverse lay-up. He’s a player with textbook skills and playground creativity, which is about as good of a combo as you can get.
Apparently, Jeff Van Gundy doesn’t care much for playground, and he’s had just about all the excitement he can handle from getting thrown around in the middle of NBA brawls, because he’s taken Francis and the Rockets, on paper one of the NBA’s most exciting and likeable teams, and made them damn near unwatchable. With the explosive talent of Francis, a very good shooting guard in Cuttino Mobley and one of the best centers in the league in Yao Ming, the Rockets should be one of the league’s highest-scoring teams, but instead they’re 27th in the league with a pathetic 86.9 points per game. Unable to use his talents to create, Francis’ numbers are the worst of his career, and he's understandably unhappy with the situation. He's like a painter who has been told he can only draw with crayons.
Recently, things seem to have reached a boiling point, as Francis intentionally missed a team flight to Phoenix so that he could stay in Houston to watch the Super Bowl. Van Gundy wasn't pleased. Sound familiar? It should. Steve Francis wants to enjoy himself, and Jeff Van Gundy is the Fun Police. It's understandable that Van Gundy wasn't pleased with Francis missing the team flight, but what he's done to Francis and the Rockets on the court cannot be forgiven. There’s really nothing worse in sports than a coach who thinks he’s bigger than the players, and Van Gundy's got about as bad of a Napolean Complex as you can get.
As Morgan Freeman’s character Ellis “Red” Redding said in The Shawshank Redemption, “Some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright.” Steve Francis is that bird, and the cage is Jeff Van Gundy's ultra-conservative offense. And now Warden Norton needs to put his ego aside and realize that unless he’s going to run out on the court and get slugged in the face, no one wants to watch his boring ass. It’s time to set Steve Francis free.
