Why Stan Van Gundy sought total control of Pistons

"The bottom line: For any of us in big-time college athletics, one of our biggest jobs is making sure that people out there don't find out what it's all

Michael Rosenberg | May 16, 2014

Why Stan Van Gundy sought total control of Pistons /

Pistons owner Tom Gores (left) has given Stan Van Gundy a lot of authority to shape a struggling team. — Pistons owner Tom Gores (left) has given Stan Van Gundy a lot of authority to shape a struggling team :: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

"The bottom line: For any of us in big-time college athletics, one of our biggest jobs is making sure that people out there don't find out what it's all about, because if they did, there wouldn't be the support for it that there is."

As he once said between swigs of Diet Pepsi: "The only thing I'm ever uncomfortable with is bull----." He just cleaned it up before anybody could smell it.

Published May 16, 2014

MICHAEL ROSENBERG

Michael Rosenberg is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, covering any and all sports. He writes columns, profiles and investigative stories and has covered almost every major sporting event. He joined SI in 2012 after working at the Detroit Free Press for 13 years, eight of them as a columnist. Rosenberg is the author of "War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and America in a Time of Unrest." Several of his stories also have been published in collections of the year's best sportswriting. He is married with three children.