One of the many high points of X-Men ‘97 comes late in season one, after Charles Xavier condescends to Magneto one time too many.
It’s a theme the show develops further in season two: Xavier, whose status as an educator is so central to his identity everybody calls him Professor X (even in another galaxy, one with presumably neither professors nor colleges, though on the bright side no administrators), is repeatedly doubted and demeaned as a teacher. Which raises a fair question: what makes a good
teacher?
I had many, though one who stood apart was a man whose class I took in grad school. I’d never studied with anyone who asked as many questions you couldn’t answer as him. The first 30 minutes of day one, I was frustrated. The rest of the semester I was exhilarated. I think the best teachers make you re-examine the kinds of questions you ask, your sense for framing what is or isn’t possible.
That’s probably true of basketball coaches, too. In honor of John Gove’s wonderful series of Knicks rankings across all five positions, plus Jslashnoel’s request in the recent mailbag invite, I thought I’d take a stab at the top four coaches in Knicks history. Since there’s no objective way to define or measure coaching greatness, I’m going with a pastiche of numbers, unique accomplishments and how they re-framed the franchise’s notion of what’s possible. Feel free to share your own choices, so long as you acknowledge they’re pedestrian at best while mine shine like a city of perfect opining up on a hill. I’ll go in order of greatest to fourth-greatest because we all know there’s zero suspense at the top.
1) Red Holzman
Last season was the 80th in Knickerbocker history. 77 times they never won a championship. One time they did was two months ago. The other two were teams led by William H.
Did you know Holzman led the Knicks to as many 50-win seasons as Joe Lapchick*, Jeff Van Gundy and Tom Thibodeau combined (Lapchick’s 1953 Knicks won the equivalent of 55 games in the 70-game 1953 season)? Or that Holzman, who came to New York with over a decade having passed since he’d last coached in the NBA and a lifetime record of 83-120, is the only coach in franchise history with 50-win seasons in three different decades? From Walt Bellmay to Willis Reed to Micheal Ray Richardson and Mike Woodson (yes, that Mike Woodson), Holzman won with all kinds of people in all kinds of ways in New York.
He cut his teeth as head man of the Milwaukee Hawks when George Mikan was king of the north, followed the franchise to St. Louis for a few years and retired as Knicks coach two years before Michael Jordan arrived. Before Red’s run at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks were 0-for-21 winning championships; since, they’re 1-for-44. His first six years here the ‘bockers reached three Finals, won two and became a team for the ages. They went from second-rate to the best of the best, doing so mostly against teams made up almost entirely of Hall of Famers in Boston and Los Angeles.
So yeah. Red’s easy.
2) Pat Riley
I once took a Bible as literature course. Our first assignment was to read Genesis. There was this guy in the class in his 30s who zeroed in on the youngest girl in every class he was in. Didn’t try to talk to anyone else, just girls 10-15 years younger than him. You know the type. Ewww.
When the professor asked what stood out to us from the reading, he raised his hand, stood — who DOES that in school in the 21st century?!? — and very smugly and smarmily said if Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel were the first family (and Seth, natch, the original Serth) “How could there be people for Cain to meet after he was banished for killing Abel?” The professor didn’t flinch, didn’t raise her voice, didn’t betray a single note of derision. But the way she explained why such an observation was something she’d expect from a child in Sunday School and not an English graduate student was so satisfying I can still taste the flavor lo these many years later.
Gotta problem with Pat Riley being number two all-time in Knick coaching history? Consider yourself that grad school creeper: missing a spectacular forest for one insignificant tree.
Remember who and where the Knicks were when Riles walked in that door. From the Bomb Squad’s 51 wins under Rick Pitino in 1989 to him leaving for Kentucky, to 45 wins under Stu Jackson in 1990, to John MacLeod’s 1991 Knicks finishing below .500 and being swept in the first round by an average of 20 points a game. Two starters, Kiki Vandeweghe and Maurice Cheeks, were out of the league by 1993. Mark Jackson’s star had fallen. Patrick Ewing took the team to court to try and escape his contract. Not great, Bob.
By the time Riley faxed his cruel intentions to leave in 1995, the Knicks had won 51, 60, 57 and 55 games during his reign. They won seven playoff series in that time, more than they had from 1974-1991. Three Knicks were named All-Stars those years, versus two in the Big Fella’s 11 years as a Knick without Riley. In his postgame interviews — yes, Virginia, once upon a time the New York Knicks were not afraid of a free press — Riley was so drenched in sweat you’d think he played 40 minutes that night. His Knicks were dominant at home, going 128-36. They weren’t too shabby on the road, either, a 95-69 mark good for a 48-win pace. The team bulked up from a 98-pound weakling to the bully at the beach kicking sand in people’s faces. Ewing wasn’t getting a lotta invites to appear on David Letterman under MacLeod, shall we say.
And this wasn’t Riley winning with Showtime, with obvious freak athletes like Magic and Kareem and Worthy. This was John Starks and Anthony Mason and Anthony Bonner, strays back when nobody know who any of them cats were. If you longed for the meek to inherit the Earth, Riley’s Knicks were as beautiful a beatitude as any. Talk about a teacher expanding one’s sense of what’s possible.
You could argue the 2026 Knicks were the first Knick team to succeed since Riley in non-Riley ways. Jeff Van Gundy deserves his own praise for his own work, but he’d be the first to acknowledge that without the Riley Knicks the JVG Knicks never would have come to pass. Riles was just as infamous for grinding his players’ bones to dust with excessive work as Thibs, particularly Charles Smith. And while we all cherish the magic and majesty of last year’s Knick titleists, it’s fair to wonder: if the Garden had given Riley the deal he wanted in 1995 instead of Miami, how different do the last 30 years of Knick history look? What if Shaq and LeBron and the like had signed here? What if the Knicks had won four or five titles instead of the one?
There’s not many people you can point at and say, “They def would’ve gotten the job done.” Love him, hate him or both, Riley would’ve. 100%.
3) Joe Lapchick
Joseph Bohomio Lapchick was born in Yonkers a couple of months into the 20th century. This was a man who played professional basketball before the Great Depression, who crossed paths with New York sports legends from Babe Ruth to Lou Carnesecca. So if he’s not already forgotten, he will be soon. Which is a real shame. Lapchick, a legendary coach for both St. John’s and the Knicks, is also renowned for his dedication to social justice and helping de-segregate the NBA.
The on-court accomplishments were legit. Lapchick led the Knicks to eight consecutive winning seasons, with the team was still over .500 when he was replaced late in the 1957 season by Vince Boryla, a run of winning no other Knick coach has known. The franchise would stumble without him, with nine losing seasons in the decade post-Lapchick. No other Knick coach ever led them the team to three straight Finals. Hell, take away Lapchick and Holzman and every Knick coach there’s ever been combined have only three.
The Knicks don’t have the hardware their historical peers like the Celtics and Lakers do. They never will. The enduring magnificence of New York City’s men’s pro basketball team has always been more about transcendence than trophies, a legacy of stories, character and characters. Without Joe Lapchick, basketball in general and NYC hoops in particular wouldn’t have looked as much like the people who play and love the game as it does today.
The Denver Nuggets owners have refused to spend a dime on the team since winning it all three years ago. Which has greater staying power: the humanity of Joe Lapchick, or the miserliness of the Kroenkes? Choke on your ring, Stanley. I’ll take the story in the video about Lapchick kissing a man before games over the Larry O’Brien anyday.
4) Tie: Tom Thibodeau & Mike Brown
You know the old story about the two women who appear before King Solomon? Arguing over who is the mother of a baby? And Solomon says the solution is to cut the baby in half? Which he doesn’t actually believe, but it’s a way to make a point?
The Knicks nearly drafted Karl-Anthony Towns in 2015. I was at MSG shortly before the draft covering an event featuring season-ticket holders having a live Q&A with Al Trautwig and Knick president Phil Jackson. New York was seemingly primed to land the top pick, and Jackson was clear when asked that the Knicks were looking for a big man who could contribute on both ends.
Imagine if they’d landed KAT then. What a disaster. The city wouldn’t have had the patience to let Towns grow up. All the things he can do would never measure up to the few that he couldn’t (see: Ewing, Patrick, 1986-2000). He would’ve stayed here a while, eventually been traded, and probably helped a team win a championship. And we’d all look around dumbly, thinking, “Why never us?”
Coaches work similarly. If Mike Brown were hired in 2020, is he leading the Knicks to a title in 2026? I don’t think so. Conversely, is any team that’s gotten close but no cigar of late looking to hire Thibodeau today to get them over the hump? Spoiler: no. Why is Julius Randle a Net this season? Not to lead them to a title. But to help a downtrodden franchise get back up on its feet.
Randle did that for the Knicks. So did Thibs. Holzman may be the only other coach in franchise history to take the head job on the heels of a long stretch of losing seasons and turn things around immediate. They said he wouldn’t play the kids. He did. Said his teams couldn’t score. They did. Said he’d burn his guys out. He tried.
The Knicks didn’t need a total makeover after 2025, just some localized glow-up. I once took a semester off from teaching, but a colleague’s mother died a couple weeks into his class and the department needed a replacement. In theory, it seemed a simple gig. I didn’t have to design the course or figure out what materials to use, or how to grade. Just follow his syllabus. And yet it was easily the most difficult class I’ve ever run, because the job was to think and act like someone I wasn’t. When you’re used to freestyling, even the cleanest sheet music’s measures can look like the bars of a prison cell.
Brown had already earned millions and millions of dollars coaching in the NBA. He didn’t have to work another day in his life. He didn’t have to compromise his vision or preferences to tweak Team Thibs. The Knicks needed someone to guide them to change within limits, not a full-scale revolution. Thibs could never. Brown seemed born for the role.
Thibs is beloved by many Knicks fans today in part because Brown finished the race his predecessor never could have. Brown was in position to win the race by winning the last lap, all because the work Thibodeau did getting the Knicks to the level they reached with him. Don’t cut the baby in half. Just nuzzle and love, babes. Nuzzle and love.
