Stan Van Gundy became coach of the Miami Heat two years ago under unusual circumstances and he resigned the job yesterday in an equally ambiguous state of affairs. Van Gundy, 46, a longtime college coach and NBA assistant, took over the coaching reins in Miami just weeks before the start of the 2003 season, when team president Pat Riley, the NBA’s third-winningest coach, stepped away from the bench during the preseason after eight years as head coach. Van Gundy proceeded turn to what was a lottery team into an Eastern Conference semifinalist, then a conference finalist last season – albeit with the help of some personnel maneuvers by Riley.

“I love coaching, but I love my family more,” Van Gundy said at the morning press conference announcing his resignation. Van Gundy said the move was motivated by a strong desire to spend more time with his family. He said he got to see his family only 49 of the 170 days of the season. Although speculation has swirled for several months that Riley wanted to return to bench, both men went to great lengths to explain that the decision was entirely based on Van Gundy’s concerns for his family. Either way, Riley will be on the bench when the Heat take on the Bulls tomorrow night.

“I was very, very, very, very happy for Stan when he took over as coach. He did it extraordinarily well, and I am happy for him today,” Riley said, his eyes welling with tears.

Tears notwithstanding, this is still a hard explanation to swallow. During the off-season, Riley announced that he wanted to take on a larger role in the Heat’s day-to-day operations. Aside from donning a skimpy outfit and joining the cheerleaders, it was hard to see how he could have a more visible role with the team other than becoming the head coach. Suddenly, Van Gundy’s job was in doubt.

Van Gundy’s impressive regular season and playoff success was punctuated by tumultuous off-seasons. When he took over the team in 2003,the Heat was coming off of a 25-57 season, their second straight losing campaign after six winning seasons under Riley. After an 0-7 start, Van Gundy guided the team back into the win column, forming a nucleus out of rookie sensation Dwyane Wade, perennial underachiever Lamar Odom, and former UConn standout Caron Butler. That team went 42-40 and deep into the second round of the playoffs. During the following off-season, Riley traded Odom, Butler, and draft choices for Shaquille O’Neal. Last season, Van Gundy built a solid support cast for Wade and O’Neal, and only injuries to his dynamic duo kept the franchise from its first NBA Finals appearance.

This summer, Riley exchanged many of the role players for guard Jason Williams and forward Antoine Walker, two talented players with reputations for being difficult to coach. These changes took the Heat from being a club with a solid young nucleus entering a period of probable extended dominance into a team with an ageing nucleus (except Wade) and a rapidly closing window for contention.

What figured to be a difficult early season due to the personnel changes became more so when O’Neal sprained his ankle in the second game and missed five weeks. The center returned Sunday night, and his 10 points and 11 rebounds helped Miami to a 104-101 overtime victory over Washington. At 11-10,and with Southeast Division rivals Washington and Orlando struggling, the Heat seemed poised to put a firm choke hold on the division and cruise into the playoffs. This makes the timing of the change that much more curious. Simply put, the moment for justifying a coaching change was about to end.

Van Gundy’s reasons do little to quell the suspicions that he was pushed out of the job. His 49 days to spend with family out of 170 seems especially odd. Anyone with a demanding job, a public schoolteacher for instance, knows that work can severely cut short on family time. However, just as schoolteachers get the summer off, Van Gundy has the other 195 days a year to devote more time with his family. It’s a standard tradeoff.

As for Riley, this episode provides one more piece of evidence that coaching is an addiction without a 12-step program. Why else do coaches like Phil Jackson, Mike Dunleavy, and Mike Fratello, each assured an affluent existence for the rest of their lives – and in Fratello’s case, a lucrative job to boot – return to the bench time and time again? Riley could just as easily have chosen to maintain continuity by anointing one of Van Gundy’s assistants to take over the team. And if Van Gundy’s family concerns were troubling him for a long time, why would he take the team 21 games into a season and then dump them on the side of the road? Would he not have developed a protege who could have begun a fresh season with the club?

On the court, the first thing to expect is that the team will improve defensively. The Heat presently rank ninth in Defensive Efficiency (points per 100 possessions),but Riley-coached Heat teams almost always finished in the top five. As he did with his older, slower Knicks squads from 1991-95 – but not with the run-and-gun Lakers in the 1908s – Riley will attempt to dominate opponents physically at both ends of the floor.

Also expect low scoring games, as Riley teams only once failed – so to speak – to finish among the five slowest paced teams in the league; Miami currently ranks in the middle of the pack at 16th. Of course, with a roster featuring eight key players older than 28, a slower tempo should be a good fit.

What now for Van Gundy? Despite his claim yesterday that he did not intend to seek coaching opportunities elsewhere, the former Heat coach may want to begin investigating the appeal of northern California. With the Sacramento Kings in a tailspin and a leading coach – Van Gundy leaves the bench with a 111-73 (.603) record – available, Sacramento team president Geoff Petrie is likely creating a front office job for current coach Rick Adelman.

Meanwhile, back in Miami, no amount of tears or family photo opportunities will diminish suspicion that Riley’s return to the coaching fraternity was a hostile takeover, not a rescue mission.