“I think whenever you get let go of a job, the sting is — and it’s happened to me before in coaching — the sting stays there,” Jeff Van Gundy said of his highly publicized firing from ESPN. “Whether you have money coming to you or not, I think that sting and that lack of everyday purpose…When someone says, ‘We’re better off without you than with you,’ there’s no doubt you take a hit. And so, I had talked to Brad (Stevens) previously, before being let go, just like I had talked to Dallas.”