Jeff Van Gundy, who has had four teams inquire about filling their coaching vacancy this month, turned down No. 2 yesterday.

Van Gundy and Philadelphia president Billy King spoke for one hour yesterday, which was all the time the two needed to conclude that it wasn't a good match.

"We mutually agreed it wasn't the right fit," said Van Gundy, still a top candidate for the Cleveland and Houston coaching positions. "Really, as we talked it through, that's what it came down to."

The former Knicks coach would not expound on that remark, but a Van Gundy confidant suggested that he felt as though the Sixers needed a different kind of coach than Larry Brown, who Van Gundy is often compared with.

"Jeff thinks that you can't follow a coach that's similar," his friend said.

"He thinks that if he followed Pat Riley directly in New York, he wouldn't have been as successful -- he needed (Don Nelson) in the middle, just to give the players a different voice. Same with Philly."