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Stan Van Gundy Will Not Stand For Pat Riley’s Smack Talk

Hey, remember how Pat Riley just couldn’t believe anyone would dare criticize the LeBron/Wade/Bosh Heat trio? And also how Magic coach Stan Van Gundy was one of the people in his crosshairs? Van Gundy heard all about it – and he has some words of his own for Riley.

Van Gundy was first and foremost amused by Riley’s hypersensitivity:

“He goes into Charles Barkley, me and Otis and then says he doesn’t worry about what people say. Wait, you called the press conference, you went off and everybody and you don’t care what people say? Clearly, he cares a great deal about what people say. I was laughing when I saw that.”

Damn, Stan’s not messing around. As for Riley’s assertion the Magic GM Otis Smith made “an absolutely stupid remark” in saying he thought LeBron was “more of a competitor” than his actions this summer showed, Van Gundy had this to say:

“The position LeBron and Bosh took isn’t necessarily wrong, but it’s different from what (Michael) Jordan, Magic (Johnson) and Larry Bird would have done. Otis was a part of that generation…So what Otis said wasn’t a stupid remark. Unless of course you have a different opinion than Pat, then apparently it’s stupid.”

Damn, Stan’s not messing around. And he also had strong feelings on Riley being irked that people in basketball were making “moral judgments” about his prized new trio:

“Pat getting onto people for making moral judgments made me laugh. I was with Pat when we had all of those Knicks series and he had no problem making moral judgments on my brother. What I read into that was that I guess Pat is the only one allowed to make those moral judgments and the rest of us can’t do that.”

In case we haven’t made clear enough how much we’re enjoying this war of words…this is awesome. And in this case, we’re on Van Gundy’s side. It’s perfectly acceptable to do what Riley did in bringing that incredible class of free agents together. Anyone in his position should have tried to do the same.

But apparently landing the free agent class of anyone’s dreams was insufficient for Riley – he had to land it and have no one hate his team for it, even in the face of out-of-control egos and devastated fanbases. It would have been fine if he defended his players but calling people out the way he did left him open for retorts, and we’re glad Van Gundy delivered.

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