Stan Van Gundy opens up on broadcasting career with TNT and says brother Jeff & Mark Jackson were ‘fantastic’ on ESPN
TNT Sports game analyst Stan Van Gundy has said he's tried to learn some of his brother Jeff's broadcasting tricks after venturing into media himself.
The Van Gundy brothers' careers have been intertwined since early in their NBA coaching days.
When Pat Riley failed to pry Jeff – his top assistant on the New York Knicks – away from Madison Square Garden after taking charge of the Miami Heat in 1995, he lured Stan out of Wisconsin.
''I wanted at least one Van Gundy with me,'' Riley told The New York Times at the time.
Stan credited his younger sibling for the opportunity to get his first coaching job in the NBA at the time.
''I don't kid myself,'' he said. "It was the respect that Pat Riley had for Jeff that opened the door for me to talk with Pat.''
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More than 20 years later, Stan, 64, again emphasizes Jeff's impact on his career – a sportscasting one this time around – when asked about fellow game analysts he's looked up to.
"Well, my brother, number one," he told The U.S. Sun ahead of Game 2 between the Indiana Pacers and Knicks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Jeff Van Gundy joined Mark Jackson and the legendary Mike Breen on ESPN's lead NBA broadcast team after being dismissed from his post as the Houston Rockets head coach in 2007.
The trio worked together until the network parted ways with both of Breen's game analysts during last year's layoffs.
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"He did it for 17 years – and he was the best," Stan said of Jeff, 62.
"I thought he and Mark Jackson were fantastic."
Stan followed Jeff into the media world in 2018, transitioning into the new role after years of head coaching NBA teams just like his brother.
He started off by serving as an analyst for ESPN before signing with Turner Sports (now Warner Bros. Discovery Sports) the following year, providing insight for TNT and NBA TV.
Stan is now the only Van Gundy brother to call games as Jeff didn't land another media gig after leaving ESPN, joining the Boston Celtics as a senior consultant instead.
But Jeff continues to play a role in Stan's growth as a broadcaster.
Inside the NBA's future?
Inside the NBA's run on TNT Sports is in doubt due to the NBA's broadcasting deals.
The Emmy-winning sports show is a fan favorite thanks to the likes of Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley.
But TNT's broadcast deal with the NBA is up after next season and NBC is lining up a bid to take those rights.
If TNT loses its NBA package, it raises questions over the popular Inside the NBA.
One solution could be to recreate the show on another network, which snaps up the NBA rights.
"He doesn't give me a ton of advice unless I ask," the TNT commentator explained.
"But the advice that I've gotten from him and others are to try to make my points quicker and get in and out, which I'm not great at – I tend to get pretty wordy.
"And to not get too negative. I can say that something was bad defense or a bad call, but I tend to harp on it a little much at times."
Stan named his TNT colleague Reggie Miller, who joined him and Brian Anderson for Game 2 at MSG, as another muse.
"Reggie's been one of the best in the business for a long time," he said.
"But you can learn a little bit from everybody you watch, not just the national broadcast but the local broadcast you watch when you're preparing, too.
"There's a lot of really good people out there who have a lot more experience than I do."
Stan said his coaching instincts still show up when he watches NBA games, though.
"I look at it as a coach," he said.
"But what you have to think about more is what will fans want to know, like what will help them?
"I'm not trying to win a game now. I'm just trying to inform people. So that changes a little."
Stan the Analyst has already made one return to the coaching bench, taking charge of the New Orleans Pelicans in 2020-21 before parting ways with the team and reuniting with TNT.
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But he doesn't yet know whether his second venture into media is a permanent switch.
"I've learned enough in a career of bouncing around not to know if anything is permanent or not," Stan said.