<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Les Alexander loves the fight, the "toughness" as he called the quality that makes Jeff Van Gundy so maniacal, so driven. There is no battle from which Van Gundy will shrink. If he had to burn his eyes dry searching the tapes for an edge hidden there somewhere, he would. When he decided he had to rage against the NBA machine, he did. But now, Van Gundy finds himself fighting on two fronts, with the Rockets seeming increasingly overmatched on one and Van Gundy suddenly forced to battle with no chance of winning on the other. "He's a tough guy," Alexander, the Rockets' owner, said admiringly. "He's always willing to battle as hard as he can. That's why the city loves him." But Van Gundy's charge that Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's complaints to the league have led to greater scrutiny of Rockets center Yao Ming than other players led to a $100,000 fine, a record for a NBA coach. By saying he had been tipped by an officiating friend with access to the league's Web site for officials, and his refusal to reveal the official to the league, Van Gundy found himself pitted against a seething commissioner David Stern.</div> Source
