One of the more surprising names that lost a job during ESPN’s latest round of layoffs was Jeff Van Gundy. After spending a decade-plus in the booth for the company as part of its top NBA broadcasting team, Van Gundy saw his time with the company come to an end on June 30, leaving questions about whether someone will replace him alongside Mike Breen and Mark Jackson.
It’s unclear what is next for Van Gundy, but according to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, he has the itch to coach once again. In the aftermath of his time with the Worldwide Leader coming to an end, Mannix reports he’s been in talks with NBA teams about returning to the bench as an assistant.
Jeff Van Gundy, a cost-cutting casualty at ESPN last week, has been actively exploring a return to coaching, sources tell Sports Illustrated. Van Gundy, who last coached in the NBA in 2007, has been discussing assistant coaching jobs with several teams. Dallas and Boston discussed roles with Van Gundy before beefing up their coaching staffs. There’s some mutual interest in Washington, where the Wizards have room on Wes Unseld Jr.’s staff. Van Gundy, who won 57.5% of his games as a head coach in New York and Houston, won 52 games in his last season with the Rockets.
Van Gundy spent some time as an assistant in New York before taking over the team’s head coaching role in 1995. Despite his tenure with the Rockets coming to an end in 2007, he did return to the bench in 2017 as the head coach of the United States men’s national team for the FIBA AmeriCup. After winning a gold medal with that group, Van Gundy stayed on as the coach during qualifying for the 2019 FIBA World Cup.
