Across the league, many of Tyronn Lue’s peers see a coach who processes the game in the moment, and someone who keeps his players honest.
“Ty is a great coach,” Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “I’ve never been around a guy who can see the pictures of what’s happening on the floor, like in real time.”
“He tries to keep things in perspective,” New York Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “If he needs to let somebody know pretty pointedly, I feel like Ty is the type of guy that will do that.”
Perhaps the strongest endorsement of Lue has come from associate head coach and de facto defensive coordinator Jeff Van Gundy, who was the head coach for the Houston Rockets when Lue was a player in 2004. Van Gundy doesn’t speak often to the media, but in his first news conference at a practice while substituting for Lue, he made it clear what he thought of Lue’s detractors past and present.
“I had the good fortune of coaching Ty, and he’s one of the most beloved people, both as a player and as a coach, that you could ever come across,” Van Gundy said last month. “If you don’t like Ty? You’re the asshole. I aspire to, in my later years, be more like him, and I’ve learned a lot from him. He’s not only a brilliant coach, but the thing I think he gets that eludes others is that he wants happiness and success for everybody. And I believe that is the key to life.
“He exemplifies it every day, with every player and every staff member.”