LeBron James

Stan Van Gundy cringed when he heard his rookie's comments on LeBron

Published Apr. 21, 2016 5:24 p.m. ET

Aaron Torres

Credit to Stanley Johnson: He may only be 19 years old. He may be a rookie in the NBA. But he is not afraid. His comments about LeBron James proved that on Wednesday night.

But whether Johnson got into the "head" of LeBron James in Game 2 on Wednesday is still up for debate, he certainly got into his coach's head once the comments went viral.

On Thursday, Stan Van Gundy told reporters that he had heard the comments, and had spoken with Johnson about them.

While at first glance, Stan Van wasn't happy with what Johnson said, he also admitted that it's just part of dealing with a player who is so young.

Clearly, Van Gundy has been here before with other emotional young players (cough... Dwight Howard... cough), and credit to him for handling the whole thing so well.

While it would be easy for the veteran coach to blow up at Johnson, Van Gundy knows that this season is the start of what is (hopefully) a very long relationship between the two. It doesn't help either party for the coach to completely flip on a young player, who has quite literally never been on the NBA's playoff stage before.

Besides, maybe Johnson really get into the LeBron's head ... OK, probably not.

But we'll find out soon enough.

The Cavs visit the Pistons for Game 3 of their Eastern Conference series on Friday night.