Byron Scott and Nick Young better make note.
This is how you handle player-coach beef.
Stan Van Gundy and Andre Drummond had something of a disagreement in the Detroit Pistons’ loss to the Boston Celtics’ on Wednesday night. Drummond was visibly upset and immediately isolated himself from the rest of the team. And at that point, Van Gundy went all Van Gundy.
Per MLive.com’s David Mayo:
In the course of a post-game question to Van Gundy about the matter, it was noted that Drummond looked upset at being removed from the game.
“Good,” Van Gundy replied. “He should be.”
Drummond complained about the disciplinary removal from the game, then went to the end of the Pistons’ bench to sit.
“I separated myself for a couple seconds, just to clear my head, and he came back and got me,” Drummond said.
Sure enough, Van Gundy went to the end of the bench, took Drummond by one arm, and led him to the middle of the bench.
“I just brought him back in from the end of the bench, into the team,” Van Gundy said. “I don’t have a problem when guys are pissed off at me. I don’t. But they can’t check out on their teammates because they’re pissed off at me, and I think he understood that and came back and was fine. Good guy. He’s a good guy. I was upset at what he did and he understood that — might not have liked it. I understood why he was upset.”
Drummond also emphasized that the disagreement with Van Gundy was over before the game was.
“I did something that he didn’t agree with and we discussed what it was,” Drummond said. “Stan and I have that relationship where we can have those kinds of conversations. We just move on.”
Kudos to these two. Seriously.
Disagreements between players and coaches happen. They just do. Sometimes they happen too often, like in the case of Young and Scott, or in the case of Rajon Rondo and every coach he’s ever played for. But when any beef is able to be squashed before the game is even over, it’s huge.
Especially here.
Drummond is a 21-year-old center still learning the ins and outs of the NBA. Van Gundy is an impassioned coach who spits fire when the mood strikes. The potential for a game-long clash—or an even longer lover’s spat—was there. But the two made nice.
That’s really the type of relationship coaches and players should be able to have. They need to disagree, to fight, to argue, to show emotion. And then they need to put it behind them, not in the sense they must veil their frustration or true feelings moving forward, but in the sense they’re actually on the same page and communicating and working together without holding any grudges.
The San Antonio Spurs spring to mind here. Gregg Popovich gets batshit pissed all the time. He still loves his players. Van Gundy is a shorter version of him, minus the championship rings and demonstrative dynasty. And, in Drummond, he seems to have an emotionally invested player who, unlike others in the NBA, understands the heat of the moment doesn’t need to last longer than the actual moment.
