If only NBA executives felt as strongly about Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson as the two feel about each other.
The two are widely respected for the work they have done on the sidelines, but recent attempts to return there have proven fruitless. Both were considered for the Knicks’ coaching job last year that went to David Fizdale.
That likely means for the foreseeable future they will be ESPN’s lead analysts for the NBA Finals, alongside play-by-play man Mike Breen and sideline reporter Doris Burke.
“We go way back … to be able to do it, when neither one went to school for this, so it’s sort of accidental in some ways,” said Van Gundy, 57. “To be able to do it with great friends, it makes it really special.
“I think we both feel exceptionally fortunate that we get to work under Tim Corrigan, who as a producer gives us the leeway to talk about what we think’s important. We really appreciate that.”
Some in the media have called for Burke to call Finals games. Burke is an analyst during the regular season and early rounds of the playoffs before taking over as a sideline reporter starting with the conference finals. She dismissed the idea of wanting to replace either Van Gundy or Jackson in an interview with The Athletic this week.
This Raptors-Warriors matchup is Van Gundy’s 13th straight NBA Finals as an analyst, a broadcasting record. It’s the 20-year anniversary of him coaching the Knicks to their last Finals appearance. Since 2017, Van Gundy has worked as Gregg Popovich’s No. 2 for USA Basketball, leading a team made up of G-League players to the 2017 FIBA AmeriCup and qualifying for this summer’s World Cup. That comes while Popovich and the NBA stars he will coach this summer are in the middle of the season.
Jackson, the former Knicks point guard who signed a long-term extension with ESPN in 2017, and Van Gundy often chide each other on the air, but that belies a genuine affection they share off it. Jackson lauded Van Gundy’s coaching performance with Team USA as an “absolute masterpiece” and called for him to get greater consideration from NBA teams.
“It amazes me when people say, you’re looking for a head coach, trying to hire a guy, forget about me, you give me an opportunity to hire anybody in the land right now, I’m hiring Jeff,” Jackson, 54, said in a conference call this week.
“He’s proven. When people said maybe the game has passed him by. In the toughest platform possible, you can ask Coach Popovich, he put together 60-plus guys and accomplished a goal where we now as a country have a chance to win a gold medal because of the job he’s done. He’s a heck of a coach and even a better guy.”
Van Gundy has not been publicly linked to as many jobs as Jackson through the years, but said he “never lost the desire” to coach.
Jackson will be calling his 11th NBA Finals, starting at ESPN in 2006, leaving to coach the Warriors in 2011 and returning in 2014 after he was let go by the franchise. Jackson turned the Warriors into a playoff contender, but now — in a somewhat cruel twist of fate — has watched as Golden State has played in every Finals since his departure.
Van Gundy sees it as a testament to Jackson’s coaching acumen, though, and not something that should be cited as a criticism.
“One of the things that stands out to me about Steve [Kerr] through all of this is his constant recognition of all that Mark did to set the table there and establish a new culture as far as winning, defensive-minded, and giving these great players, [Stephen] Curry and [Klay] Thompson, not only the green light but the confidence to achieve what they have achieved,” Van Gundy said. “To me, I’ve always admired Steve because he’s been so quick to share the credit with Mark.”
