Quotes from Jeff Van Gundy

I don't ever remember wanting to do anything but coach. My dad obviously influenced me. But it wasn't because he sat there and drilled coaching stuff into our heads. We were on the bench keeping the scorebook and traveling with the team on weekends. It was such a great upbringing.

To be successful in anything, you have to have a passion for it, and that leads to being enthusiastic and demanding. I didn't have it for history. So I wouldn't have been a good teacher in that area. But I had it for basketball. And that's what coaching is at every level: it's about teaching.

If you are going to call out your teammates, you have to call out yourself, too. You can't just separate yourself from the rest, because if you are going to get 90 percent of the credit when you win, you have to be willing to take 90 percent of the blame when you lose.

Are you playing for your teammates and coaches? That's how it should be.

You start comparing people, and ultimately, somebody feels diminished.

I don't like comparing people or teams.

I like to watch anyone who has great competitive spirit and will: passionate teams.

I enjoy watching Gregg Popovich-coached teams.

I think greatness is always good for the NBA. Great players, great teams - it's always good for the NBA.

There are a lot of young teams that all they are is young. That doesn't mean they have a chance to be good.

To me, it doesn't matter who's out there: NBA basketball is great - if teams are putting out their best players and they're competing to win.

Why is UCLA and Georgia Tech in China to play a basketball game? Missing all that school, and then force-feeding their fans the idea of 'student-athletes.'

If Kyle Korver blocks your shot there should be a penalty box you should go to!

All the fascination with numbers conspires to make you forget the beauty of the game sometimes.

I think there are much bigger differences between players in this league than between coaches. There is a big gap between LeBron James and the small forward for whoever. Far bigger than between two coaches.

Kobe Bryant is a terrific offensive rebounder.

Providence had a graduate assistant job opening. They asked me if I wanted to apply, and I applied. That break right there put me in position to learn from great coaches. It really jump-started every other good break I ever had in coaching.

I frankly think the NBA All-Star game has run its course, the whole dunk contest... The game - if those guys actually played hard in that game, it'd be the best watch ever.

If you coach, and coach every day, you should be getting better if you're self-evaluating and you've got people around you telling you the truth.

I have known Marbury since he was in seventh grade, and I have always felt he is a hell of an NBA player.

Dwight Howard is a Hall of Fame player.

I grew up dreaming about being an Olympic basketball player: Doug Collins getting smashed into the stanchion, making two free throws. Phil Ford and Mike O'Koren in 1976.

Mark Fox is always criticized recruiting: he can't keep the Georgia kids home. What that means - he's not cheating and paying. That's what it means.

My father and mother have given me so much love, so much support, that it would trivialize their parenthood if I would reduce it just to basketball. But my dad does call me before and after every game. And when we lost a game we shouldn't have, he told me it wasn't my fault. And I appreciated that, because he was trying to pick me up.