Thunder: A night with Jeff Van Gundy
I spent Sunday in an Indianapolis hotel room, waiting for a flight back home Monday morning. Not a bad day to be holed up. A couple of NCAA Tournament regional finals, plus the Thunder on ESPN Sunday night.
Which meant an evening with Jeff Van Gundy. Van Gundy is my favorite sportscaster. Dry wit. Great insight. Self-deprecation.
In case you didn’t see the game, or were there, or watched the Fox Sports Oklahoma broadcast, here’s a sampling of his comments during the Thunder’s 99-90 victory over Portland:
On the newlook Thunder: “They look more like an NBA championship type team … they obviously felt (Serge) Ibaka was ready to be a starter. They obviously felt (James) Harden was ready to expand his role. There’s no doubt to me they’re starting to look more and more like a championship team than when they played very small. Now they’re starting the game huge. It’s a totally different, nasty type of starting unit.”
On the differences in the Thunder’s and Blazers’ defenses: “Oklahoma City defensively is very vanilla, they just guard just guard you man to man. Portland does more switching, more zone. But both do it exceptionally well. Both of these teams have exceptional coaches. But I’m going to say this. (Kevin) Durant makes you a really good coach.”
On Thunder coach Scotty Brooks’ slick appearance on the sidelines: “That’s disgraceful. He’s like a Hollywood starlet, with his hair all made up. He came to shootaround this morning with his hair a mess. We demand that he give us his best, even in shootaround.”
On the development of Harden: “I like his level of aggressiveness, he is taking the ball and attacking. I like the attacking style. He’s at the rim all night.”
On the OKC fan base, which seemed a little subdued Sunday night: “They are the best crowd in the NBA. Their regular season crowd is what many teams’ crowds are like in the playoffs.”
On why Portland’s Andre Miller fell to the court after throwing a long pass: “Is that old age?”
On the excessive number of offensive fouls called against Kendrick Perkins: “Perkins is an excellent screener. If you’re going to be an excellent screener in this league, you’re going to have to take some calls that are illegal screens. But he’s going to have cut back on the illegal screens he takes.”
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