Jeff Van Gundy's Cat Joins ESPN Broadcast, Van Gundy Reveals Mark Jackson Is Afraid of Cats

Jeff Van Gundy called Wednesday night's Los Angeles Clippers - Dallas Mavericks game on ESPN with Ryan Ruocco. During the fourth quarter Ruocco asked if Van Gundy's cat would like to join the broadcast. The broadcast then cut to a clip of JVG picking up a cat off his desk and moving him. As he explained, it is one of four cats and he had just fed them at halftime. It wasn't a full cat lawyer, but cat announcer is still pretty good.

Van Gundy then revealed that Mark Jackson had come over to call a game earlier this season and basically wouldn't come in the house until the cats were put away. That's right - Mark Jackson has a fear of cats. Ruocco vowed to ask Jackson about this during a future broadcast, which I'm sure Jackson is looking forward to.

Imagine how you would feel if you were watching a basketball game on your day off and you heard a co-worker accuse or reveal that you were afraid of cats in front of a national television audience. Jackson must have been the first NBA announcer to be thankful for low ratings. If Jackson gets to call a game without Van Gundy at some point this season he should assert JVG is afraid of pickles or something. This was an act of aggression by Van Gundy and it deserves to be met with escalation.

At least we now know what you could talk about if you were stuck in a car with Van Gundy for 17 hours.