Red Holzman

William "Red" Holzman (August 10, 1920  November 13, 1998) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He is best known as the head coach of the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1967 to 1982. Holzman helped lead the Knicks to two NBA Championships in 1970 and 1973, and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1986. In 1996, Holzman was named one of the Top 10 Coaches in NBA History.[1]

Red Holzman
Holzman in the 1970s
Personal information
Born(1920-08-10)August 10, 1920
New York
DiedNovember 13, 1998(1998-11-13) (aged 78)
New Hyde Park, New York
Listed height5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Listed weight175 lb (79 kg)
Career information
High schoolFranklin K. Lane
(New York City, New York)
College
Playing career1945–1954
PositionPoint guard
Number10, 16
Coaching career1954–1982
Career history
As player:
1945–1953Rochester Royals
1953–1954Milwaukee Hawks
As coach:
19531957Milwaukee / St. Louis Hawks
19571967New York Knicks (assistant)
1963–1967Leones de Ponce
19671977,
19781982
New York Knicks
Career highlights and awards
As player:

As coach:

Career BAA & NBA playing statistics
Points2166 (6.1 ppg)
Rebounds344 (1.5 rpg)
Assists721 (2.0 apg)
Stats  at NBA.com
Stats  at Basketball-Reference.com
Career coaching record
NBA696–603 (.536)
Basketball Hall of Fame as coach

Early career

Born in Brooklyn[2] (or according to some sources, in Lower East Side[3][4]), New York in 1920, to Jewish immigrant parents, as the son of a Romanian mother and Russian father.[5] Holzman grew up in Brooklyn's Ocean HillBrownsville neighborhood[3] and played basketball for Franklin K. Lane High School in the mid-1930s. He attended the University of Baltimore and later the City College of New York, where he played for two years until graduation in 1942. Holzman joined the United States Navy in the same year, and played on the Norfolk, Virginia Naval Base team till he was discharged from the Navy in 1945.[4]

College statistics

Year Team GP PPG
1940–41 CCNY 2110.9
1941–42 CCNY 1812.5
Career 3911.6

Professional career

Holzman in 1950, when playing for the Rochester Royals.

After the Navy, Holzman joined the NBL Rochester Royals, which won the NBL championship in Holzman's first season, and he was named Rookie of the Year in 1944–45.[6] In 1945–46 and 1947–48 he was on the NBL's first All League team; in the interim year he was on its second team.[7] Holzman stayed with the team through their move to the NBA and subsequent NBA championship in 1951. In 1953, Holzman left the Royals and joined the Milwaukee Hawks as a player-coach, eventually retiring as a player in 1954 but continuing as the team's head coach.[3][4]

Coaching career

During the 1956–1957 season, Holzman led the Hawks (then in St. Louis, Missouri) to 19 losses during their first 33 games, and was subsequently fired.[3][4] He then became a scout for the New York Knicks for the next ten years, till 1967, whereupon he became the team's head coach for the most part until 1982.[3] Holzman's former player, Willis Reed, replaced him as Knicks head coach in 1977, but Holzman returned near the start of the 1978–1979 season. During this 15-year span as Knicks' coach, Holzman won a total of 613 games, including two NBA championships in 1970 and 1973.[3]

In 1969, Holzman coached the Knicks to a then single-season NBA record 18-game win streak, breaking the 17-game record first set back in 1946. For his efforts leading up to the Knicks' 1970 championship win, Holzman was named the NBA Coach of the Year for that year. He won his second NBA championship as the Knicks won the 1973 NBA Finals against the Lakers.[8] He was one of very few individuals to have won an NBA championship as both player and coach. As a coach, his final record was 696 wins and 604 losses. At the time of his retirement in 1982, he had the second most career victories as a head coach in NBA history.[9]

In 1985, he was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The New York Knicks have retired the number 613 in his honor, equaling the number of wins he accumulated as their head coach.[3] He is also a member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[9]

He lived with his wife in a home they bought in Cedarhurst, New York in the 1950s. Following his lengthy NBA coaching career, Holzman was diagnosed with leukemia and died at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York in 1998.[3] Just before Coach Holzman died a clock tower was erected in his honor at the intersection of Central Avenue and Cedarhurst Avenue in Cedarhurst, New York as part of “Operation Downtown” a project started by Nassau County Presiding Officer Bruce Blakeman and Cedarhurst Mayor Andy Parise.

BAA/NBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
   Won an NBA championship

Regular season

Year Team GP MPG FG% FT% RPG APG PPG
1948–49 Rochester 60.326.6112.59.1
1949–50 Rochester 68.330.6862.98.2
1950–51 Rochester 68.326.7262.22.27.3
1951–52 Rochester 6516.4.280.7181.61.84.1
1952–53 Rochester 468.5.255.711.9.82.2
1953–54 Milwaukee 5112.7.330.658.91.53.8
Career 35813.0.317.6821.52.06.1

Playoffs

Year Team GP MPG FG% FT% RPG APG PPG
1949 Rochester 4.450.8333.310.3
1950 Rochester 2.333.500.03.5
1951 Rochester 14.408.6761.41.46.1
1952 Rochester 610.8.200.1671.0.31.2
1953 Rochester 27.0.200.250.5.51.5
Career 289.9.386.5961.21.35.1

Head coaching record

Legend
Regular season G Games coached W Games won L Games lost W–L % Win–loss %
Playoffs PG Playoff games PW Playoff wins PL Playoff losses PW–L % Playoff win–loss %
Team Year G W L W–L% Finish PG PW PL PW–L% Result
Milwaukee Hawks 1953–54 261016.3854th Western Missed Playoffs
Milwaukee Hawks 1954–55 722646.3614th Western Missed Playoffs
St. Louis Hawks 1955–56 723339.4583rd Western844.500 Lost in Western Division Finals
St. Louis Hawks 1956–57 331419.424
New York Knicks 1967–68 452817.6223rd in Eastern624.333 Lost in Eastern Division Semifinals
New York Knicks 1968–69 825428.6593rd in Eastern1064.600 Lost in Eastern Division Finals
New York Knicks 1969–70 826022.7321st in Eastern19127.632 Won NBA Championship
New York Knicks 1970–71 825230.6341st in Eastern1275.583 Lost in Conference Semifinals
New York Knicks 1971–72 824834.5852nd in Eastern1697.563 Lost in NBA Finals
New York Knicks 1972–73 825725.6952nd in Eastern17125.706 Won NBA Championship
New York Knicks 1973–74 824933.5982nd in Eastern1257.417 Lost in Conference Finals
New York Knicks 1974–75 824042.4883rd in Eastern312.333 Lost in First Round
New York Knicks 1975–76 823844.4634th in Eastern Missed Playoffs
New York Knicks 1976–77 824042.4883rd in Eastern Missed Playoffs
New York Knicks 1978–79 682543.3684th in Eastern Missed Playoffs
New York Knicks 1979–80 823943.4764th in Eastern Missed Playoffs
New York Knicks 1980–81 825032.6103rd in Eastern202.000 Lost in First Round
New York Knicks 1981–82 823349.4025th in Eastern Missed Playoffs
Career 1300696604.5351055847.552

See also

References

  1. "Top 10 Coaches in NBA History". NBA.com. Retrieved March 14, 2008.
  2. Red Holzman. Encyclopædia Britannica.
  3. Berkow, Ira (November 15, 1998). "Red Holzman, Hall of Fame Coach, Dies at 78". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  4. "Holzman, William | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2019-10-05.
  5. Othello Harris, George Kirsch; Claire Nolte (April 2000). Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 222. ISBN 0-313-29911-0.
  6. Dimitry, Steve (1998). "Extinct Sports Leagues: National Basketball League (1937–1949)". Archived from the original on August 18, 2005.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 18, 2005. Retrieved 2009-10-25.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. Dadhania, Vivek (May 10, 2019). "On This Date: Knicks win the 1973 NBA Finals". Knicks Film School. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
  9. "William "Red" Holzman". www.jewishsports.net. Retrieved 8 August 2020.

Selected publications

  • Holzman, Red (1987). Red on Red: The Autobiography of Red Holzman. Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-27316-8.
  • Holzman, Red (1980). A View from the Bench. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-33623-8.
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