Cavs' Lue: Sweeping 'bad motherf-----' Van Gundy means a lot
Tyronn Lue passed the biggest test of his young coaching career with flying colors, leading his Cleveland Cavaliers past the Detroit Pistons in four games to advance to the Eastern Conference semis.
After the Cavs completed the sweep Sunday, Lue said he got some encouraging words from Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy - who coached Lue for the last 14 games of his playing career, with the Orlando Magic in 2009.
"Stan just said I did a phenomenal job this year coaching the team," Lue told ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "He said these playoffs were great with my ATOs (after-timeout plays) and baseline out-of-bounds plays.
"He said I'm doing a hell of a job and to keep it up. And he said when I played for him, he knew I'd be a great coach one day."
Lue, who took took over for David Blatt midway through the season, said he took particular pride in sweeping a seasoned, decorated coach like Van Gundy in his playoff debut.
"It means a lot from a premier coach like Stan who is well respected around the league, and to have a chance to get a compliment from a guy like that and then to beat him 4-0, it means a lot," Lue said. "Because I know he's very smart, he's very intelligent, and I knew this was going to be a tough series. Which it was. ... And I mean, to beat Stan and beat him 4-0, that means a lot to me. Because I know he's a bad motherf-----."
With his steady work in the first-round series, Lue garnered respect not just from his peers but from his players.
"We definitely recognize it and understand that it's his first challenge, and he succeeded as well as any coach could, or if it was a player, as any player could in their first series," said LeBron James. "He physically, mentally and spiritually prepared us every single night and gave us a game plan, along with the coaching staff. We as players could execute that as close to 100 percent, then we had a good chance to win every game, which we did, because of the preparation of those guys - starting with Coach Lue, our captain - put us in position to do."
With one of Brad Stevens or Mike Budenholzer set to meet him on the sidelines in the second round, Lue will have another opportunity to test his mettle against one of the league's best coaches in short order.