Stan Van Gundy sat out the entire 2012 season after getting fired as the head coach of the Orlando Magic. He had a very public dispute with Dwight Howard and was not retained after the center bolted for the Los Angeles Lakers. As the season comes to a close, Van Gundy has been one of the top candidates for vacant head coaching jobs around the league. Despite the large amount of interest surrounding him, Van Gundy has taken himself out of contention, saying he will not be coaching this upcoming season.
The mock turtlenecks will sadly not be seen in the NBA next year like many had hoped. In an interview with an Orlando radio station, Van Gundy announced that he will not accept any head coaching offers from teams for next season.
"As you get down the road more and the longer you are out, the harder it is to get back in and that was certainly a difficult part of the decision process for me because it's certainly something that I miss and don't want to close the door on for the rest of my life, but, it is not right now anyway, in the best interest of my family, so it won't be next year," Van Gundy said.
Van Gundy is not ruling out a return in the future, but ultimately decided that 2013 is just too soon to make a comeback into the league. He is the older of the two Van Gundy brothers. Both were being highly targeted by teams as potential head coaches.
Van Gundy has had a great deal of success as a head coach. He coached the Miami Heat with Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade, helping turn the team into title contenders. He then went to the Orlando Magic here he turned Howard and company into an elite playoff team. However, both coaching stints had rocky endings.
Van Gundy had a fallout with Pat Riley and was forced to resign from coaching the Miami Heat, just months before the team won the NBA championship in 2006. His fallout in Orlando was the center of the Howard controversy. The two were in an apparent feud and the Magic forced him out in hopes of retaining Howard. He was eventually traded.
Van Gundy had been pursued by many teams. Most notably, the Atlanta Hawks brought him in for an interview. The team hoped that if they could land Van Gundy, then Howard would follow in free agency. That will no longer be the case.
Click here to listen to the full interview with Stan Van Gundy
