Van Gundy shows a different (read: lighter) side as a television analyst

Working from the definition of an excellent TV sports analyst as "someone you'd want to sit next to on a bar stool or a couch while you watched a big game,'' Jeff Van Gundy would rank no lower than No. 37 on your list. OK, wait, maybe No. 83. Would you believe No. 116?

That, anyway, is what you might have thought basing your decision on the Van Gundy most NBA fans knew from his years on the sideline as coach of the New York Knicks and the Houston Rockets . That Van Gundy , assessed from afar, would have been as much fun to have on your couch as Tom Cruise was on Oprah 's, only for reasons that were polar opposite.

Never mind crazed, manic or overly caffeinated; Van Gundy as coach looked glum, frazzled, even tortured. Tightly wound even among the worry worts, he worked with a constipated expression and dark semi-circles under his eyes as pronounced as the restricted-zone arcs under each basket. When a fellow's greatest moment of levity, in a highly visible career spanning 11 seasons, is riding stowaway on Alonzo Mourning 's leg in the 1998 playoffs, you sense you're not dealing with someone Ralph Kramden would mistake for a laugh riot.

Van Gundy wouldn't have had it any other way, either. When he was coaching.

"I don't know how everybody else characterizes their job, but I don't ever come in saying my job is fun,'' Van Gundy told a Knicks reporter back in November 2001, a couple of weeks before he unexpectedly quit that alleged dream job. "My job is ultimately rewarding at times and ultimately disappointing at times. I don't sit there and say it's fun. I think everybody else has this picture of sports as fun.''

Compare that now to the Van Gundy working these NBA Finals as part of the ABC crew with Mike Breen and Mark Jackson . This Van Gundy is upbeat, self-deprecating, accessible, even goofy. He is, in a word, fun.

Earlier in this postseason, Breen was carrying the network water by reading a series promo. "I'm a big Lost fan,'' the play-by-play man said. Van Gundy blurted, "You are lost!''

"Good one,'' Breen said, mockingly.

There was the unfairness he observed during Game 1 on Thursday, that venerable Lakers consultant Tex Winter should look so much better at age 86 than he, Van Gundy , looks at 46. And early in Game 7 between Boston and Cleveland in the second round, Van Gundy was incredulous at how often, and how well, Paul Pierce had been running pick-and-roll plays the past two games.

"Frankly, I didn't know he was this efficient running the pick-and-roll,'' the former coach said. He waited a beat with a comic's timing, then added: "That's probably why I'm sitting down over here, watching the game.''