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Van Gundy Steps Down

Stan Van Gundy has voluntarily stepped down as head coach for the Miami Heat. Van Gundy resigned for personal reasons, saying that wishes to spend more time with his family. The Heat have announced that Pat Riley who serves as the team?s President of Basketball Operations will assume coaching responsibilities immediately. Van Gundy will remain with the organization in the capacity of free agent evaluator.

The announcement doesn?t come as much of a surprise given the fact that the Heat have been contemplating a coaching change for quite some time now, although denying it publicly. Ever since landing Shaq, Riley has been itching to go back to coaching. Van Gundy became the fifth head coach in franchise history when he took over the reigns from Riley on October 24, 2003.

In his two-plus seasons, Van Gundy has guided two different rosters and led each of those teams to at least the conference semifinals, only the third and fourth times in franchise history that the HEAT has advanced to the second round of the NBA Playoffs and the first time it has been accomplished in consecutive years.

Last season he took the HEAT a step further, guiding Miami to the Eastern Conference Finals for only the second time in the team`s history and came within several minutes of reaching the finals. This season the Heat got off to a disappointing start largely due to Shaq being out with an injury. Now that Shaq is back the Heat are looking to reassert themselves in the East.