Lewis/Van Gundy controversy
According to an article in the Orlando Sentinel from Brian Schmitz, the Magic's Rashard Lewis refused to enter the game last night against Utah in the second quarter when coach Stan Van Gundy asked him to.
Some excerpts:
"(Lewis) didn't want to go back in. I wanted to put him back in with six minutes to go in the second quarter and he didn't want to go back in," Van Gundy said after the Magic (17-5) had their six-game winning streak broken. "He said it was because he had two fouls, and so if you have a guy who doesn't want to play, I'm not going to get in an argument and put him back in if he doesn't want to play at that time.
"He said, `I'm going back in and be out in three or four minutes and Ryan (Anderson) is playing good.'
"I didn't have time to get into it. It's rare and I've never had that in the first half of a game. I was a little baffled by it.'
Asked if he was being defiant, Lewis said, "No, hell, no. I was looking at it and Ryan had 14 points and I had two fouls. Let him play. "
Click here for the whole article.
Some excerpts:
"(Lewis) didn't want to go back in. I wanted to put him back in with six minutes to go in the second quarter and he didn't want to go back in," Van Gundy said after the Magic (17-5) had their six-game winning streak broken. "He said it was because he had two fouls, and so if you have a guy who doesn't want to play, I'm not going to get in an argument and put him back in if he doesn't want to play at that time.
"He said, `I'm going back in and be out in three or four minutes and Ryan (Anderson) is playing good.'
"I didn't have time to get into it. It's rare and I've never had that in the first half of a game. I was a little baffled by it.'
Asked if he was being defiant, Lewis said, "No, hell, no. I was looking at it and Ryan had 14 points and I had two fouls. Let him play. "
Click here for the whole article.
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 5:36 PM
3 Comments:
At 5:51 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
It's never a good thing when a player defies a coach for any reason.
Lewis is getting paid $19 million, so it's his job to listen to the coach to go in the game when the coach wants him to.
Last thing the Magic need is a controversy like this to develop; let's hope this is the end of it.
At 10:44 PM,
Ken said…
This is the last thing i expected out of Rashard.. Like Mike said, he is getting paid $19 million dollars to play. It doesn't matter if he thinks Anderson is having a good game or not and it's not Rashards job to worry about his foul situation. Thats for the coach to worry about.. I just hope there isn't something brewing that we can't see.
At 5:36 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
In Lewis's defense, he was being unselfish, deferring to another player (Anderson) who was playing well.
But still... it's up to the coach who comes in and out of games. It's not the players' jobs to worry about that, it's the coach's job.
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