Don’t get Stephen A. Smith wrong. He appreciates a lot about the trio of Mike Breen, JJ Redick, and Doris Burke. But he’d be remiss if he didn’t share his thoughts on the absence of Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson from ESPN’s programming.
On The Stephen A. Smith Show, the host of First Take talked about Van Gundy landing the lead assistant job on Ty Lue’s staff with the Los Angeles Clippers. While he’s happy for Van Gundy to reunite with Lue and re-establish himself in the coaching profession, Smith misses him and Jackson gracing the Worldwide Leader’s airwaves.
“I miss Jeff Van Gundy. I miss Mark Jackson,” he said. “This is not me throwing any shade at Doris Burke, JJ Redick, certainly the Hall of Famer Mike Breen; Doris Burke’s a Hall of Famer, too. This is not about anything like that. This is about the fact that Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson were truly an A-team. They were exceptional at their jobs. They were riveting in a lot of ways. They were an illustrious tag team that the basketball world enjoyed for more than a decade.
“Love them both. Respect the hell out of them. And Jeff Van Gundy has a job back in the NBA; I couldn’t be happier for him. He’s a good man. Stan Van Gundy, his brother, is a good man. And, by the way, the other day, I heard Stan Van Gundy on Dan Le Batard’s show, speaking about how his now late wife, Jeff Van Gundy’s sister-in-law, had passed away after committing suicide.”
On that note, Van Gundy thanked the Boston Celtics for giving him a “lifeline” after being fired by ESPN and having tragedy strike close to home. The Celtics, obviously, won their NBA-leading 18th championship this past Tuesday, defeating the Dallas Mavericks in five games. And with Van Gundy serving as a senior consultant, he was able to parlay that back into a coaching gig.
Smith’s sentiment about Van Gundy having any basketball job is even more striking when considering the recent criticism of ESPN’s NBA coverage, especially during the playoffs and finals.
“Jeff Van Gundy deserves to be what he wants to be in the game of basketball… I respect the hell out of Jeff, and I’m very fond of him,” Smith added. “But there’s one thing that we all have to understand. And nobody speaks about this, because everybody talks about how stuff is unfair and he got let go. In the world of business, when cuts take place, cuts take place.
“There’s hundreds of people who lost their jobs. And it wasn’t just at ESPN or at Disney. Have you seen what happened at Meta? Have you seen what’s happened to places like Apple, Amazon and other places? In the climate that we’re living in, these kind of things happen. I’m not saying it’s right. I’m not saying it’s fair. Damnit, it’s downright cruel. When have we known the world of business to be otherwise?
“And I’ve got news for you; I was sad to see Jeff Van Gundy go. Even sadder to see my brother, Mark Jackson, because, obviously, I’m a lot tighter with him than I am Jeff Van Gundy. But I’m never concerned about landing on their feet because of who they are, how impeccable their reputations are, and the kind of opportunities that will inevitably come their way.
“Again, in terms of Jeff Van Gundy, I miss you, buddy. I wish him and Mark Jackson were still at our network. Just like I’m happy that Doris Burke and Mike Breen and JJ Redick are still there. Just like I’m happy that Richard Jefferson and Ryan Ruocco are there doing their thing. Tim Legler, let me not forget him, who I think is an outstanding basketball analyst and should be doing more color commentator, make no mistake about it.”
And while Smith went on to recognize his ESPN colleagues’ talent, his overall point here was to stress the volatility of the current media industry, where even his own position isn’t secure.
