Stan Van Gundy calls replacement refs "D-League"

Stan Van Gundy was the latest NBA coach to get into the act of ripping the replacement refs. Larry Brown was penalized last week and Memphis' Lionel Hollins was fined $25 K on Wednesday.

Van Gundy was fined $35,000 on Friday for comparing the replacement refs to taking a bunch of D-Leaguers and going out and playing the Hornets:

"If you took one of those guys and put him on an NBA crew every night, they’d probably be OK. But they’re all out there together. It’d be like me taking a D-League team and saying, ’All right, let’s go play the Hornets.’ It’s not going to work too good. So there’s no fault of those guys. It’s just as much as we get on our own officials as coaches, they’re the best 60 guys in the world. And, so, you’re comparing the replacement guys to them."

Van Gundy mentioned later that the replacement refs made him appreciate how good the regular refs are. Wait, what? Hasn't Van Gundy been fined in the past for ridiculing the refs?

I'm calling the whambulance on this one. Van Gundy needs to just shut his fat trap and prepare his team for the upcoming season, not criticize hapless, still in-training, replacement refs during the meaningless pre-season. He's just trying to get his time in the limelight in. If he doesn't want to coach his team, maybe he could work on getting himself in shape.

One thing I will commend him on is that he didn't cower like a lot of coaches afterwards and say he regretted making the comments. I can respect that, but I still think he should have never made them in the first place.