Coach Stan Van Gundy says he expects to finish season with Orlando

Stan Van Gundy said Thursday that he expects to remain the Orlando Magic’s head coach for the remainder of the season.

Van Gundy, who has been at the helm of the Magic since 2007, had said earlier in the day that he heard from management that superstar Dwight Howard had requested that he be fired. [Check out a video above from the news conference.]

Howard denied those claims, and after the team’s 96-80 loss to New York on Thursday evening, he told reporters, “I’m not gonna talk about that.”

Van Gundy said he intends to remain focused on helping his team, which has lost a season-high five games in a row.

“My job security is not what is important right now,” he said after the game. “What Dwight wants is not what’s important right now. What’s important is we focus on getting better as a team. It’s not like we’ve played five awful games in a row.”

Van Gundy said he met with Howard and General Manager Otis Smith before Thursday’s game, but he declined to reveal what was discussed.

“Look, we’ve been together all year this year,” Van Gundy told reporters. “We’ve been together for five years. So we know each other very well, and Dwight will go out and play, and I’ll coach, and that’s the understanding. We know that.”

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Orlando Coach Stan Van Gundy says he expects to finish season with Magic