New York Knicks sign Mike Woodson as their permanent Head Coach: NBA Update
It took exactly 29 games for the New York Knicks to realize that their interim coach Mike Woodson is the perfect man for the position on a more permanent basis.
The official announcement was made by Knicks General Manager Glen Grunwald on Friday.
Woodson was very humbled with the contract extension and contemplated that it was a matter of great honour to be named coach of the team where he started his playing career.
"I'm very humbled and honoured to continue coaching the franchise where I started my NBA career, our goal is to build off the success we had at the end of last season and to continue our quest of bringing an NBA championship to
Madison Square Garden." – Woodson
Woodson was drafted by the Knicks in 1980 and took over the team on a temporary basis midway during the regular season when Mike D'Antoni opted to step down from the position of head coach on March 14.
Since his take over, the Knicks had a complete turnaround in the short spanned tenure. When the playoffs looked pretty much done and dusted for the Knicks, Woodson was able to revive the Big Apple franchise. He managed the New
York team for the last 24 games of the season and in this span; he was able to get 18 wins out of the same team that was deemed as overrated under D’Antoni’s era.
Woodson has in the past coached Atlanta Hawks for 6 seasons and helped them get to the playoffs in three of those. He made the most of his experience and turned a lacklustre Knicks teams into a team which played the game of basketball
at the highest level.
In his tenure, players like Carmelo Anthony achieved his best form since adorning the Knicks colour.
Woodson was also able to get the best out of J.R. Smith and Jeremy Lin to help the Knicks achieve 7th place in the Eastern Conference. So it did not come as much surprise to know that Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and Lin
backed Woodson to get the job on permanent basis.
The details of the deal offered to Woodson have not been made public yet but ESPN Analyst Stephen A. Smith has revealed that he has been given a two year deal with an option to extend it for one more season. Monetarily Mike`s contract
stands at $4 million per season.
However the rebuilding process for Woodson and the Knicks is going to be a tough job because even though they performed well in the regular season, they did not perform that great in the post season, having won only once against
the Miami Heat before bowing out in game 5.
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