Renown author Leo Tolstoy once wrote:

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

So while most families are sharing the similar experiences of getting through the holiday season with their finances and health intact, the VanGundy family is in the unique position of having two brothers at the X-mas dinner who have been fired from the NBA in the same season. I guess technically Stan VanGundy, who was the coach of the Miami Heat until last week, officially resigned. HIs brother Jeff, who is still the coach of the Houston Rockets will most certainly go out with a press conference telling us how bad of a coach he is. Jeff will probably make it through Christmas with his job. Tracy McGrady, Jeff's star player and only hope to win a game, ever, will go beserk for a few games, and average about thirty five points for a six or seven game stretch. As soon as teams realize that Lonny Baxter going to be the Rockets go-to-man in the paint they will start to quadruple team T-Mac and the Rockets will struggle to score 50 points a game.

Injuries really have been the primary cause for the lackluster play of the Rockets, a team that many people felt would contend for the Weststern Conference crown. Starting center Yao Ming is out for several weeks with a toe injury and backup center Dikembe Mutombo is injured as well. Juwan Howard has had his own share of bumps and bruises this season and Stromile Swift, who can jump out of the gym, does not have the back to the basket moves to be a low post prescence. So Jeff will watch as T-Mac shoots thirty five times per night and tries to single handedly outscore opposing teams, which will of course cause McGrady to re-injure his back, which of course will cause the Rockets to lose more games, which in turn will cause Jeff Van Gundy  to..ahem step down as the Rockets head coach. 

Maybe that's the family time that Stan said he needed, time to convince his brother that he really is a great NBA head coach, at least if you have Patrick Ewing playing center, instead of coaching from the bench. All in all the two Van Gundy brothers made out like bandits. Neither Hoston nor Miami were going, or are going to win an NBA title this season, and probably not next season either. San Antonio is still a lock, if healthy, and Phoenix looks as if they are trying to seperate themselves from the pack as well especially after Stoudamire returns. Houston is the bizarro Dallas Mavericks, all defense, one scorer (McGrady) while Dallas is all offense, one defender (okay no defenders).

Miami, well, that house of madness still has many acts to play out that will surely have them imploding long before they approach the conference finals. I'm still waiting for Gary Payton to stab Jason Williams in the locker room, or for Shaq to punch Antione Waler during a game. I'm serious with the personnel on that roster and Riley coaching them, that timebomb is just ticking away.

The Van Gundys should be happy they won't be around to look into television cameras with a straight face and say things like... Antione Walker has found his way in our offense...I think next season he should really be able to make some buckets in the fourth quarter, or maybe... we're bringing in Ron Artest to help toughen up Yao in the off season, Yao is gonna be hanging in out in Queensbridge projects working on his new rap CD.

After sitting out the Duncan dynasty for a couple of seasons, and hanging out with Ernie, Kenny, and Chuck on TNT, Jeff and Stan could go coach St Johns, and Georgetown, respectively and then they could pick their own players, run their own plays, and finally have someone in the locker room that they can control during a game.

Inevitably, both men will return to an NBA bench, but in order for the Van Gundy brothers to make a triumphant return, they must first be dispatched to the unemployment commision. One down, one to go.