Four years have passed since Jeff Van Gundy's last coaching job in the National Basketball Association.
The people around Van Gundy when he was a teenager in Brockport are sure not much more time will go by before the NBA television analyst's next coaching gig.
"He'll try to get back into it," Section V boys basketball chairman Jack Purificato said. "That's what he does."
Van Gundy, coach of the New York Knicks team that reached the 1999 NBA Finals, has a 430-318 record in 11 professional seasons. He apparently acted like a coach long before becoming one, according to friends and acquaintances at Brockport Central's Athletic Wall of Honor induction ceremony Friday night.
"I'm happy doing what I'm doing," Van Gundy said. "I'm very thankful to ESPN and ABC for giving me the chance to talk about basketball and say stupid stuff, but I miss the everyday competition in coaching. Hopefully, one day it will be the right time to do that again at some level."
Van Gundy and his wife, Kim, were at the casual ceremony with fellow Wall of Fame inductees or friends and relatives of Elizabeth Goetz, Ann Hefke Wall, Wilbur Heise, Bud Heise, John Heise, Dick Knab and Section V coaching legend Ed Nietopski.
"Seeing people that you haven't seen in a long time, that you don't have a chance to see, they look older," Van Gundy said. "So, you know that you look older. That's uh, (smiles) that's a problem, but it's nice to get back and get a chance to catch up with some people. We rarely get a chance to do that."
Van Gundy was a three-year starter at guard with Brockport's varsity basketball team after his family moved from California.
He was named to the All-Greater Rochester team, as one of Section V's top 15 players, twice.
"Jeff worked hard," former Brockport coach Charlie Hage said. "He was like 5-foot-9 and was like a shirt on you (playing defense) for 90 feet."
Purificato remembered that he, then a teacher at Brockport and assistant coach at the nearby college, would open the gymnasium before school at Van Gundy's request.
"He'd make all of his teammates come," Purificato said. "Then all the girls (basketball players) would come. We used to have 15, 20 kids in the gym, 6 a.m.-7:15 every morning.
"And there were no games, just drills, because Jeff just did drills. He had that, 'We're going to outwork them' mentality."
Van Gundy went on to help Nazareth College reach the NCAA Division III Final Four before he moved into coaching.
The start of Van Gundy's path in coaching was in Brighton in 1985 at McQuaid Jesuit. He shared a couple of shoulder hugs Friday night with a former formidable opponent, Nietopski, who is second on Section V's all-time basketball wins list with 545.
"I think it was my second or third game I ever coached (Nietopski was on the other bench)," Van Gundy said. "I still remember telling my team, 'Listen, this guy has got 300 wins. I've got one.
"'You better outplay them, because I'm not outcoaching him.' It's an honor to be honored at any time, but it's a special honor to go in with a guy that I respect so much, who has accomplished so much."
Van Gundy went on to good things, too.
There was a Final Four appearance in 1987 while an assistant coach at Providence.
Van Gundy made it to an NBA bench two years later, where he waited seven years before the Knicks hired him as coach.
Van Gundy would unintentionally draw laughs for his downtrodden sessions with the media after losses.
Another moment that made it on to highlight reels was when Van Gundy wrapped his body around 6-11 NBA center Alonzo Mourning's leg in a futile attempt to prevent a fight.
Very few people laughed at Van Gundy's ability to coach in the NBA, however, one reason why he was later hired to coach the Houston Rockets and his name still comes up when openings occur.
"Coaching is where it's at with Jeff," former Brockport basketball, baseball and soccer coach Mike Myers said.
JAMESJ@DemocratandChronicle.com
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