Do you think people are forgetting? Think again.

Today I found this gem that shows how yet another NBA coach views the scene in Portland. I don't have to summarize, Jeff Van Gundy, in responding to all the recent coach firings, does a great job all by himself.

Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy recently went on a wonderful rant about the wrongful treatment of ex-Blazers coach Maurice Cheeks. Van Gundy, like many others throughout the league, believes that Cheeks was the scapegoat for a whole lot of front-office mismanagement.

"It starts when you fire a quality coach like Maurice Cheeks. That's where it starts," he said. "That has nothing to do with chemistry. That's decision-making. That's bailing. No coach has a chance in this league without support.
"Nothing will fit if you don't support the coach. Nothing. If you don't support your coach, nothing works because then there's no order. And if there's no order, there can be no discipline or accountability. And if there's no discipline or accountability, it follows that people will be talking about chemistry. But I don't really think it's necessarily chemistry amongst the players."

Van Gundy is biased, of course. He coached Cheeks when he was an assistant in New York. But Van Gundy said the issue goes deeper than his own loyalty.

"In the end, whenever management says, 'We're in it together,' you know they're full of it," Van Gundy said. "They'll cut the coach off at the first sign of trouble, like they did in Portland.

"Very rarely in this league, when you have a quality guy like him, and a quality coach like him, do you know what you miss until it's gone . . . Mo Cheeks will be missed more than they'll ever know."
Source:Detnews.com

There is more but that will be a new post...soon.