There is no way the Van Gundy’s are Brothers

This has been weighing on my mind for years. How the hell are Stan and Jeff Van Gundy Brothers? Of course there is the physical disparities. Although Jeff has been packing on the lbs over the years with that cushy ESPN gig bringing the likeness a little closer. But, just look. They are all over the place, with the hair - no hair, fat - skinny fat, - big eyes - slanty eyes, giant ears - mouse ears, moustache - no stache, maybe the nose? Do they both wear glasses to prove their kinship? (BTW every picture of Stan Van Gundy on the internet has his mouth gaping like this)

So, Beyond the physical differences the oddity that there are two brothers as head coaches in the NBA or any league for that matter is just weird and frankly not talked about enough.(Except for the Harbaughs. Pound sand ESPN, we get it. They grew up together).

The Van Gundy’s grew up in a “Coaching household”. Their Dad was a coach at a low level and they both grew up on the bench and in the gym. Here is a good story about that. Fine, lots of guys grow up with coaches for Dads. Usually that leads to a couple brothers making it to the league. Not two brothers climbing the ranks to Head Coach. That’s infinitely harder. There only 30 of these guys. Total! The first question for these two should be, at what point in your playing career did you realize you were going to be a short fat white guy and asked to hold the clip board? If the answer isn’t immediately, then they are lying.

Maybe it’s just an NBA thing? We have seen it in Football with the Harbaughs, Grudens, and those rubba dub tubs of grease and glory Rex and Rob Ryan. (I know Rob has never been a head coach, but come on. He’s electric) The thing is football is in the blood. The Ryan’s were bread for football and raised like NFL hogs by their father Buddy. If you’re a football guy, you’re a football guy. Plus, there are I think 150 coaching positions on a football team so lots of opportunity to get your feet wet.

Any way, thanks for letting me get that little internal quagmire of my chest.