Van Gundy: I was willing to give up front-office role to remain coach
Stan Van Gundy wants to set the record straight about why he was relieved of his duties as head coach and team president of the Detroit Pistons on Monday.
It was reported the 58-year-old was reluctant to accept a revised role that would strip him of his front-office responsibilities, but he contended the opposite is true.
"(Team owner Tom Gores) was looking to make changes and I was willing to make pretty significant changes but even that wasn't going to be enough," he told The Detroit News' Rod Beard. "Tom decided at the end of the day that he needed to change the structure and the leadership."
He added: "When it came down to this, I was perfectly willing to only go in one role and to give up the front office and go into (just) coaching. I didn't fight to hang on to that at all. I was more than willing to just move over into the (coaching) role."
Related: Could SVG's firing spell end of coach-executive experiment?
Van Gundy indicated the organization's decision was based on the results: a 152-176 record over four years, with only one playoff appearance (a first-round sweep) in 2016.
"What it really comes down to is 37 wins and 39 wins and missing the playoffs twice," he said. "You can talk about a lot of other things, but if we're in the playoffs, we're not doing any of this and we're moving on. We just didn't win enough games."
Related: 4 costly moves that led to Stan Van Gundy's firing
Van Gundy said the toughest part about not being able to fulfill the final term of his five-year deal is not having more time to coach the team with Blake Griffin after going all-in on a blockbuster deal for the five-time All-Star in late January.
"I'm disappointed that I don't get to go a full year and coach them with Blake and hopefully with better health," he said. "To me, that was the most disappointing thing from a coaching standpoint. I really wanted to see that group together and wanted the opportunity to coach them."
Griffin took to social media to praise the bench boss and wish him well.
TNT analyst Brent Barry is believed to be a strong candidate to replace Van Gundy.