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Hall of Fame NBA coach Holzman dies at 78

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Posted: Saturday November 14, 1998 11:53 AM

Holzman ranked 11th on the NBA's list of winningest coaches with 696 regular-season victories in 18 years as a head coach AP

NEW YORK (AP) -- Red Holzman will always be remembered as the New York Knicks coach who molded a collection of individual stars into a cohesive unit that exemplified the team concept.

Holzman, who guided the Knicks to their only two NBA championships, died Friday night. He was 78.

Holzman died at Long Island Jewish Hospital at 10:20 p.m. ET. The hospital did not release the cause of death, though he had been hospitalized earlier this year because of leukemia.

The Hall of Fame coach retired from basketball in 1982 after his second stint as coach of the Knicks. With 696 regular-season victories in 18 years as coach, he ranks 11th on the NBA's list of winningest coaches -- he won 613 games with the Knicks.

In five of Holzman's years as coach, the Knicks won 50 or more games and had a club-record 60 victories en route to the 1970 NBA title. They also won the championship in 1973, with both victories coming against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Holzman took stars such as Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe, Dick Barnett and Jerry Lucas and blended them into a group that became appreciated for its unselfish play and tight defense.

Holzman's Knicks also personified the New York brand of basketball-- the street-smart style that made it the City Game.

"He made playing the game fun," DeBusschere said Saturday. "Significantly, he let the players express themselves, especially on offense. He would say, `What should we do? What do you think will work?'

"We had perhaps the best passing team in professional basketball.

"Red was a true professional and he treated us as professionals."

Born as William, Holzman was nicknamed "Red" by his wife, Selma, who dubbed him for his flaming red hair when they were first acquainted. Holzman, whose hair was gray and far less abundant in later life, was a man whose idea of a good time was a quiet evening at home.

Someone once asked Holzman what he would consider a real disaster and he replied: "Coming home and finding we have run out of scotch."

Holzman always valued his privacy and considered himself "just an ordinary man," he said. "Nobody knows me."

Even a Madison Square Garden usher once had trouble recognizing him. He stopped Holzman from following his players onto the court with the question, "Have you got a ticket?"

Holzman's wife, who died in July, said he never discussed basketball at home.

"The only incident that he might tell me about would be if something very funny happened," she said.

Holzman carried an old-fashioned pocket watch with big numbers and a white face. Walking down a street and riding the railroad to his home, he could be mistaken for a bank vice president or accountant.

Even on the bench during a game, barking out instructions or moving players around like chess pieces, Holzman often looked like a businessman more than a coach.

DeBusschere, one of the key players on the Knicks' championship teams of the early 1970s, once said Holzman "may well be one of the best coaches in the game, if not the best. There is more to the game of basketball than coaching or manipulating players, and this man has it. It's difficult to describe except to say he blends his coaching with every ingredient of life itself."

The intensity with which he coached was the way he played in the backcourts at Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn, City College of New York and the Rochester Royals of the NBA.

Holzman became a pro coach while playing with the Milwaukee Hawks and went with the club when the franchise moved to St. Louis for the 1955-56 season. He coached the Hawks for four seasons.

Holzman joined the Knicks on April 29, 1959, when Fuzzy Levane was the New York coach. He was the Knicks' chief scout until Dec. 27, 1967, when he replaced Dick McGuire as coach.

"His legacy was that when you watched his teams play, it was like watching a clinic," Levane said. "The two Knicks teams he coached to championships, you'll never find better five-man teams. Every guy could pass, dribble and shoot. There was no real dominating player. They were all real intelligent. They played the game the way it should be played.

"His teams never made a lot of mistakes."

Holzman first stepped down as coach in 1977, when he was replaced by Willis Reed, the popular center from the team's championship years. Holzman later came back for a second term before eventually relinquishing the job to Hubie Brown.

Phil Jackson, who played for Holzman before carving his own coaching niche with the Chicago Bulls, said he "learned about putting energy into the team aspect of what we did as a New York Knick team -- what we took pride in. We'd come back to the huddle and we'd talk about defense for 30-35 seconds. As it was winding down, he'd say `What kind of offense to you want to do?'

"He'd always let us have a large share of the reins and the praise, and I think that influence was tremendous for a club that had tremendous egos -- Lucas, DeBusschere, Bradley, Reed, Pearl, Frazier. He gave them a lot of latitude as leaders and it made the team a leader itself."

Holzman is survived by a daughter, Gail, and one grandchild.

Funeral services will be held Sunday at Parkside Funeral Home in Queens.

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