i have only been watching the knicks since the Riley days, but my favorite coach has been Don Nelson cause he used to start Hubert over Starks. Close second of course is General Jeff Can Gundy cause hes the man.

nellie? man, i thought he was one of the worst knick coaches. he is not a big man type of coach and the knicks were the wrong team for him to make his mark on. he was on point about them needing a player better than ewing for them to be a championship contender. do not get me wrong. nellie is a good coach. but he is a good coach for the right team. new york at the time was not the right team.

i would have to go for riley as my favorite coach. he was a marquee coach who proved to everyone that he can coach a team without magic johnson. true, he did not win any championships but he did take new york and miami from an also-ran team to championship contenders. he can flat out coach. coming in close second has to be pitino. coached probably the most entertaining knick team in years when they ran with action jackson at point and a mobile, younger ewing running the break. plus high flying players like gerald wilkins, kenny "sky" walker and jonny newman ( is'nt he still playing?) added to the entertainment. not much on defense though.

so i guess you guys would be the dorks who actually clapped for Riley when he first came back to MSG coaching the Heat after he bailed on the knicks.

Jeffery "THE LITTLE GENERAL" Vangundy !!!!! No coach in history got more out of a bunch of losers then he did !!!!

Red Holzman. A real man.

I read Riles book, it was cool. The dude had style, grace, was all about NY.

He got a sweet deal in Miami, 7 mil a year and 5% of the team. Then he wanted the same in NY. Ok, he is a businessman first.

His NY record is inflated. He did good with getting the team motivated and to the doorstep of greatness, but Two things stand out in my evaluation. One is the inability to control Mason and Starks. He created those monsters, but could not control them. They seem to frequently get ill timed technicals and change the momentum of an important game. Riles also over used Ewing, whom was very manly about hiding his pain. Ewings low percentages of last second heroics was about being tired and in pain to rise above the moment. Ewing played too much for Ewing. Management and Ewing were frequently insecure with each other.

The second thing about Riles was in failure to leave Starks in when he was not right. You go with what got you there, but you can adapt.

I loved Riles, but the patina of his false prophet, and his failures in Miami demonstrate early critic of his Laker teams as being not his coaching, but a great team that could have won with many different men at the helm of that team.

Riley has had a successful career, and is a very wealthy man. But in NY anD Miami, he did not deliver.

Red was the perfect coach for those NY teams. He taught them well and they responded. Phil Jackson learned much from him.

Posted by hDavis:

so i guess you guys would be the dorks who actually clapped for Riley when he first came back to MSG coaching the Heat after he bailed on the knicks.

Just like JVG bailed out on the KNicks, atleast Pat waited the season out. JVG didn't even bother to do that. The best Knicks coach far and away is Red H. Not JVG or for that matter Pat R. Red won championships. That automatically make you the best coach.

i was just kidding about the dork thing. Yeah van gundy bailed out on the knicks just in time just like riley did again with the Heat this year.

With everyone on Red. Was too young to follow the team closely enough to think about coaching.

Van Gumby's my top guy. In the end, picking him over Riley is more about which guy I like better, as they both had a lot of success (tho never quite as much as we'd have wanted).

I liked Gumby for his personality. He gave great interviews to the press. Answered questions thoughtfully, with humor and none of the condescension you usually get from big-time coaches. I much prefer the rumpled, drive a Honda Civic, baggy-eyed thing to the Wall St. wannabe style Riles had going. Riley had this new-age approach that stuck in my craw. But as I said, this is about style and personality. I was perfectly happy to overlook Riley's flaws and give him his due when he was leading the Knicks against some very tough competition.

The title is favorite Knick coach.

Jeff Van Gundy!

alright playa, have at it! LOL!@