To: Jeff Van Gundy, ESPN / ABC From: A fan of the reality Beloved Jeff, Why am I maybe not surprised that, in the same week that you confessed you're still a Fresh York Knicks fan (via newsday.com), you'd be rumored to be at the top of the record to coach the Knicks' cross-borough competitors, the Brooklyn Nets? (via cbssports.com) You're the last of a dying variety of broadcasters who actually say what they're thinking, instead of wanting to pander to the people or the employers. Better still, you appear to preserve and even obtain respect for it. I was privileged for some years to see the late great Howard Cosell "tell it like it is", when I was young and first seeing sports. Whether his position on an issue was popular, as well as right, was never the issue. The pull was the electric thrill of seeing a sportscaster taking such a strong stand one way or another. One of the first boxing matches I ever saw was Howard Cosell's last. From the staring in shock at Randall "Tex" Cobb obtaining the living crap beaten out of him. I, along side millions, observed Larry Holmes, round after round, pulverize Cobb's experience right into a bloody mash resembling beet soup and gelatin. And still the beating continued, on and on, showing no sign of stopping if not decreasing. It was terrible to the point of madnessa'and yet the only voice of sanity was Cosell's, saying what I have to think everyone else with fifty per cent of a feeling of medical propriety was thinking: How come maybe not someone stopping this fight? He was so annoyed, he never transmit another battle. By choice. He took a stand. That variety of broadcaster has passed, replaced with universal wealthy baritones, one the same as the following, brimming with peppy bromides but carefully beautiful to avoid any utterance that could function as the least bit opinionated, not to mention controversial. I'm of course not counting tiresome rabble-rousers like Stephen A. Jones and the ever-irksome Skip Bayless. They are just hot air filling up time on ESPN, and their alleged views are, to paraphrase Shakespeare, tales told by two idiots, saturated in sound and fury, signifying nothing. You are different, Jeff. Like you coached: high in verve and interest and, most of all, honesty you broadcast. You use your heart in your sleeve. That's an increasingly rare quality in this world of speaking heads spouting glittering generalities. Like your accept Dwight Howard's attitude here. You understand why it stands out? When you are telling the truth, simple and simplea'a truth that everybody feels, but it seems no one nowadays has the guts to style. I daresay your repeated criticism of the league because of their inaction regarding rampant failing may have actually caused the fat cats in their ivory towers (any resemblance to David Stern is purely coincidental) to take action to improve league credibility log off their heinies and actually. If the emperor were bare. you'd be the go-to guy for the role of town crier. I guarantee Cosell to you will be proud. I'm perhaps not saying you're always right, Jeff. Heck, I'm not just saying you're always in your right minda'clutching onto Alonzo Mourning's leg in the middle of a fracas is a simple method to get a lung or a fractured cranium. But I've simply no doubt you call it like you see it. Like describing Michael Jordan as a disadvantage mana'which affected MJ so seriously, he put it into his Hall of Fame speech. Once again, Shakespeare said it best: The man doth protest an excessive amount of, methinks. Translation: I do not for one minute doubt your assessment of the specific situation. What about when you accused the league of a conspiracy to target Yao Ming? (via the New York Times) Stern sure got disappointed, to a veiled threat and the song of $100,000 to oust you from the NBAA( via ESPN.com). Again, Stern's harumphing only made me believe you more. In sports, we're lied to more often than we are told the truth. We are provided exactly the same tired rates and creaky findings contest after contest, without apology or even pity. We are taught to value a broadcast rife with brilliant words and ex-jocks' jokes, design over substance, information without substance. Phooey, I say. My sports are much preferred by me with a part of truth, Van Gundy model. So much concerning the NBA in this time appears advanced, polished, sanitized and soulless. By huge deal, you are quite definitely alive, unfettered, vitriolic and raw. And Jeff, to my head and ears and heart, that's music. Perhaps you summed yourself up best in Men's Journal, while describing your own time as the coach of the Knicks: We didn't always get and we never surely got to the final step, but I really do not think there were when supporters left a casino game thinking, "They didn't bring it today often times. They half-assed it." Whether you stay behind the broadcaster's desk or return to the sidelines, no-one will ever say you half-ass a second of what you donate to professional baseball. Thanks for giving everything you have got. Thanks for keeping it real.
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