On Wednesday morning, Kelly Dwyer asked, "Does Dwight Howard want Stan Van Gundy out as Magic coach?" On Thursday afternoon, we got our answer: Yes. Yes, he does.
And in a world of anonymous sources and reports based on the whispers of "a person familiar with the thinking of people involved in discussions," the source on this is pretty strong — Van Gundy himself, who confirmed the reports during a shootaround session before the Orlando Magic take on the New York Knicks on Thursday night. From Frank Isola of the New York Daily News:
According to Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel, Van Gundy said he was "told by people in our management" that Dwight had requested his firing. "Right from the top [of the organization]."
Things got even more awkward moments later, according to Howard Beck of the New York Times, when Howard ambled over to Van Gundy, leaned down and hugged him, not knowing that the coach had just told a gaggle of reporters that the All-Star center tried to have him fired. Howard reportedly immediately denied it, demanding reporters reveal their source, who was standing just a few feet away. Wow.
Oh, by the way, the Magic and Knicks play in a nationally televised game on TNT with Eastern Conference playoff implications in about 6 1/2 hours. So I'm guessing we'll be hearing an awful lot more about this in the very, very near future.
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