The NBA has ended its investigation into recent allegation made by Houston Rockets head coach Jeff Van Gundy. Commissioner David Stern fined Van Gundy $100,000 and threatened to ban him from the league for comments he made about NBA officials.
Van Gundy has since clarified that the “official” he claimed was the source of the information was an actual league official and not a referee.
Van Gundy’s take (from the Houston Chronicle):
“I stand by my original comments (May 1) and was quoted accurately,” he said today in a statement. “As Russ Granik correctly said in his statement today, the contact I spoke of that day was with league personnel. When I referred to an NBA official, people inferred that I was talking about a working NBA referee, instead of an official with the league. I was purposely vague because I had given my word that I would keep his name out of it.
NBA statement:
“Over this past weekend, coach Van Gundy publicly apologized for his comments last week suggesting bias in the leagues refereeing relating to Yao Ming. He has also confirmed directly to an NBA representative that, during the Houston/Dallas playoff series, he did not have any communication with a referee (working or non-working) other than, of course, during an ongoing game. In fact, his only conversations with league employees during the series were with league personnel in the normal course. In light of these circumstances, we now consider the matter to be closed.”
Eric Anderson at 7:18 pm
