The sudden resignation by the New York Knickerbocker coach, Jeff Van Gundy caught everyone by surprise. Especially me!

Van Gundy, in the past, repeated over and over again that he was doing the thing in life that he enjoyed most. He was a meticulous, hard working overseer of the most successful franchise in the National Basketball Association. He seemed to have the respect of his players and Madison Square Garden management (not easily attained in these days of overblown salaries and inflated egos.)

I will attempt to paraphrase his reason for quitting. He lost the fire in the belly! His laser-like approach to the game was no longer there.

Somehow in the next few months different reasons may be promulgated but as of today we must take him at his word. My focus is on the act of quitting something you love doing and not on the reasons for it.

"Act in haste and repent at leisure" is an old axiom that has relevance in this situation. In 1908, Theodore Roosevelt retired from the pressures of the presidency. He was a fabulous president. The building of the Panama Canal, Conservationism, mediating the Russo-Japanese War were only a small part of his progressive activism. He hand-picked his successor William Howard Taft and retired to his Sagamore Hill home in Oyster Bay.

Disputes with his successor drew him back into politics. He unsuccessfully sought the 1912 presidential nomination from the Republican Party. He formed the Bull Moose Party but Woodrow Wilson won the election of 1912.

Theodore Roosevelt quit too soon!

The rigors of office tired him and in a bad moment he quit the job he loved and desired. Looking at things from the outside was not in Teddy's character. He desperately longed to have the job back.

About 20 years ago, I coached a Hicksville American Soccer team and it was a tough, close, whirlwind season. We got to the finals and I was under a lot of pressure up until the final day of the playoffs. When the season was over I said, "Whew" and tendered my resignation. I was spent and exhausted.

When the spring soccer season came around the following year I was on the sidelines, with no position and I missed it terribly. I had quit too soon.

So, Jeff Van Gundy, we really liked you. You came after Pat Riley and you were a breath of fresh basketball air. When you clung to the foot of Alonzo Mourning in that famous Garden brawl we loved you even more.

Why did you quit?

You should have called me first!

Teddy Roosevelt and I would have told you, Don't ever quit something you enjoy doing, in a rash moment! Things will get better. Stick it out!

I took this last adage from a plaque on Theodore Roosevelt's gravestone in Oyster Bay.

"Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground."