2023 would’ve been a painful year for Jeff Van Gundy. After an acclaimed broadcast career of 16 years at ESPN, he was abruptly fired owing to cost-cutting. Compounding the professional setback was the loss of loved ones. However, he picked himself up and went back to his old calling. He’s not made a full return to coaching but he is a valuable consultant to the Boston Celtics. While he’s probably buzzing with excitement as they play in the Finals, fans still seek answers about why ESPN fired one of their best analysts.

A year since he was out of the ESPN fold, Van Gundy got candid about his perspective on Mark Jackson’s podcast. This mini-reunion between the former ESPN sportscasters has revived lingering questions about why ESPN ended the Van Gundy era of sports.

Jeff Van Gundy has feelings about his ESPN exit

ESPN was going through a wave of layoffs in June 2023. Fans didn’t anticipate any of the big on-camera names getting cut but ESPN crushed those hopes by firing Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson. ESPN attributed the massive purge as cost-saving. Yet it didn’t make sense to anyone when there were alternatives to firing the top analyst.

Van Gundy found the job in the Celtics front office and Mark Jackson is now hosting the Come and Talk 2 Me podcast. Jeff reunited with his old co-host on the podcast a year after not being colleagues. Jackson’s son, Bluu, summed up everyone’s feelings about how great it is to see both of them on a show again. For Van Gundy the past year was bittersweet.

His youngest child had left for college and he and his wife were empty-nesters. His brother, Stan Van Gundy’s wife passed away at that time and Jeff was losing a friend to cancer then. Changing jobs was not on his mind during this time. But it came down to it after losing his ESPN role. He described how he came to work with the Celtics, calling his new front office role a “lifeline.” From the sound of it, if things were in Van Gundy’s control, he’d have stayed at ESPN longer. But ESPN chose to shock and anger fans with this unexplainable decision.

Theories for Van Gundy firing floated

The Van Gundy name guaranteed the finest in sportscasting. No one was prepared for Stan’s brother to end his career in this way. It was so shocking that his TNT counterpart Charles Barkley claimed he would never work for ESPN if they worked someone like a “dog“ for 16 years and fired them. But Chris “Mad Dog” Russo’s reaction was the wildest.

Russo alleged that NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver directed ESPN to fire Jeff because he was most outspoken about the NBA officials. He further alleged he dangled the NBA media rights package to get them to their bidding. ESPN retained the marquee rights of NBA media but ironically, one of the best analysts fans love will not be leading it.

Even before the layoff, fans always felt that the NBA didn’t like Van Gundy much for criticizing their officiating. It was easy to buy into Russo’s outright accusation. But another theory that went around was that ESPN was afraid Jeff Van Gundy would leave them first.

In his pre-ESPN life, Van Gundy coached high school and college teams followed by the New York Knicks and the Houston Rockets for 22 years. Though he didn’t formally coach after 2007, ESPN was reportedly afraid Jeff could bow out of his contract early to return to coaching. They were burned by Doc Rivers who abruptly left ESPN to coach the Milwaukee Bucks and didn’t want to suffer that again.

Ironically, ESPN got in JJ Redick to succeed Jeff. Redick is now a top candidate for Lakers HC. If that’s a done deal, ESPN will be left embarrassed by Rivers 2.0. But as Van Gundy has shown, he never intended to leave ESPN for a lucrative coaching position. A professional shift amid personal turmoil was not on Van Gundy’s 2023 card. ESPN’s (rumored) paranoia just cost them there.

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