Master of His Domain

After the Magic blew a 14-point 4th quarter lead in Game 1 and nearly did the same in a close Game 2 victory, much has been made of Stan Van Gundy's composure under pressure, considering Shaq criticized Van Gundy as a "Master of Panic" and "when it gets time for his team to go into the postseason and do certain things, he will let them down because of his panic."

While "Master of Panic" is the best nickname since Don King accused Jose Canseco of being a "practitioner of rat thinkism", you have to wonder if it is entirely justified.

Here's how Van Gundy's post-season track record goes:

2004- Led by an up and coming star named Dwyane Wade and the occasionally interested Lamar Odom, the Heat win a 7-game first round series against the Hornets that made you go (yawn). The Heat ultimately fall in the East semis in 6 games to an Indiana team that had the NBA's best record and went on to lose to the eventual champion Pistons.

2005- Led by a motivated Shaq, the Heat grab home-court advantage in the playoffs and lead the Eastern Conference Finals 3-2 when Wade suffers a ribcage injury that keeps him out of Game 6 and hinders his performance in Game 7. Also worth noting that the Heat were leading Game 7 with just over 2 minutes to play when Damon Jones reared his ugly head.

November 2005- Van Gundy is fired to spend more time with his family *cough cough* Pat Riley got the itch to coach again.

2008- Magic cruise past Toronto in the first round in 5. Lose a highly-contested 5-game set to Detroit in the East Semis.

Since he was hired in the summer of 2007 after Eddie Munster Donovan robbed Otis Smith at gunpoint, the Magic have won 52 and 59 games respectively. Before the season-ending injury to Jameer Nelson, the Magic were a very real threat to win the 1st title in franchise history and may very well still.

Since arriving in Orlando, SVG has made the Magic a much more offensive-oriented team, using the perimeter skills of Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu and (credit to Otis I must say) Courtney Lee. Gone are the 81-80 staples of the rigid Brian Hill Part II Era.

In the series against the Pistons, the Magic lost 3 games in the final minutes. Game 2 was lost partly due to a clock malfunction that would change momentum, Game 4 thanks to multiple brain-lapses by Keyon Dooling (also an assailant in Miami's Game 7 collapse) and Game 5 due to several shots by Hedo falling short. While you could argue that Stan may not have been as calm as Flip Saunders (who I argue was just plain dense), I think this particular Magic group needed to go through that experience to become the contender they are now.

As the season has gone on, the rap on SVG has been that he cannot find anything positive to say about his team, surprisingly Dwight Howard in particular. Now far be it be for me to confirm because I'm not in the timeout huddles, but when Marcin Gortat says things like "His gestures make us nervous out there,", that doesn't really help to dispel the notion now, does it? When it appears that you're a bigger complainer than yours truly, that's not good. The concern being that if he continues to grate, berate and be just irate, this team will eventually tune out whatever good he may have. This isn't exactly true beacuse Superman has it down pat....



I still contend that he was the best fit for this team. Given the weapons available, Stan has gotten the most out of this group. I fully believe that under Eddie Munster Donovan, this is at best a 43-39 team.

Don't get me wrong, Sunday night wasn't exactly Stan's finest hour, but I can't put the onus squarely on him. Firing three after three and giving the Sixers quick outlet opportunities to trim the lead didn't help matters. Not being able to secure A REBOUND on the defensive end did this them in.

With the weakened Celtics looming and the dominance the Magic have shown in recent years over Cleveland, the NBA Finals are well within reach. If they fall short, it'll be because of those things amongst others (Memphis Tigers-like FT%, anyone?) not because their coach had a cross between bitter beer face and John Mayer when he sings.

They say as a coach you should never let them see you sweat a la Phil Jackson, but to each coach his own personality. Might I remind you, this is the Van Gundy family we're talking about here. Jeff wasn't exactly Willie Randolph on the bench.

Now to say I like Stan Van, warts and all isn't fair, because that seems like an indictment on him, but it certainly wouldn't hurt him to have a Paxil and smile before Game 3.