Stan Van Gundy would heap pressure upon himself to coach the maximum from his team if he were doing his job in a vacuum – no TV, no fans in the stands, nobody keeping score. That’s just the way he’s wired.
Now introduce all of those elements to the equation. Tack on the responsibility he feels to coaches, a fraternity whose membership he cherishes, to prove the job of not only coaching the team but assembling it as its chief executive isn’t too big for one man. Plus the duty he feels to all the players he’s brought to the Pistons to deliver on the vision he sold them at the outset.