t shouldn’t come as a surprise that Stan Van Gundy will not watch tomorrow night’s LeBron James announcement special. James will declare his intentions for next season in a one-hour special on ESPN that will air at 9 p.m. As Van Gundy put it a few minutes ago , “It takes 15 seconds to say, ‘I’ve decided to stay in Cleveland,’ but we’ve got another 59 minutes and 45 seconds to, what? Promote LeBron James? As if we don’t do that enough.” Choosing one quote over another from the 7 minutes we spoke to Van Gundy about this before AirTran Airways Pro Summer League tipped off is completely impossible, so I’ve posted a nearly full transcript of Van Gundy’s thoughts on free agency. Some highlights: 1. He thinks the whole spectacle is ridiculous and said the big three did a nice job putting on a charade. 2. He likened Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade together to Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol and also said he wasn’t surprised Bosh went to Miami because he’d been following Wade around “for two weeks like a lapdog.” 3. He seemed to have great admiration for the way Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant handled their recent contract extensions. “You don’t hear Kobe Bryant and certainly not Kevin Durant talking about their brand … they’re simply basketball players who want to be great players and win games.” 4. He hopes Pat Riley doesn’t return to coach the Heat (thus unseating Erik Spoelstra). Here we go with the transcript. In a normal Q&A we’d have Qs and As, but a lot of our conversation was myself and the two other reporters with me just informing/reminding Van Gundy of things that happened and letting him react. So we’ve got R’s and SVG’s. Reporters and Stan Van Gundys. http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sp...h-lebron-james-espn-announcement-special.html
