Woj: Stephen, Jeff Van Gundy had your role a few years ago and coached a couple cycles of America Cup, World Cup qualifying. Your coaching tree goes back with Jeff. He worked with your dad, the legendary Paul Silas with the Knicks. I think you've probably known Jeff since you were a kid. Was he somebody whose brain you picked going into this experience? Stephen Silas: Absolutely. He was the first person I called. So Sean Ford, who's amazing by the way, he called me and asked me if I wanted to do it and he was like, ’reach out to Jeff.’ So the first call I made was to Jeff and Jeff was like absolutely do it. He was like there's so much that's good about it. There's guys who come in and really want to work and there's a lot of guys who want to be there and haven't played for their country before or haven't worn the USA on their chest and that's a cool thing as well. But the guys that we get, the guys that Sean picks are usually just great guys who are willing and able to do whatever you want them to do. But, Jeff, I lean on Jeff quite a bit. Like when I was a head coach of Houston, I used to call Jeff, we would go to lunch and spend a lot of time together.
He's a basketball genius, but he's also really good at the people part and the group dynamic part. So yeah, whether it's USA basketball or playing groups or whatever, Jeff is someone I've always leaned on.
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