The New York Knicks are one of the hottest teams in the NBA right now for the second time this season. The first time, it was because of Jeremy Lin, this time it’s because of head coach Mike Woodson. As soon as Mike D’Antoni quit, Woodson stepped in and went to work. Since he took over as coach, the Knicks have gone 13-5 and no one really wants to see them in the playoffs.
From the beginning, Woodson wanted to have control of the team. There were rumors that D’Antoni had lost his locker room towards the end of his time with the Knicks. Right away, Woodson called out his star, Carmelo Anthony, and made sure he knew what would be expected of him.
“It was a new start for me, a new start for the team, a new start for the New York Knicks when coach Woodson came on,” Anthony said. “The most important thing is he held me accountable for everything. I hold myself accountable for everything. It was a lot more responsibility that I had to take on and I was willing to do that.
“When coach Woodson took over the job he sat down in front of everybody and I was the one he pointed to and said my responsibilities had to grow. It was going to be more and more, and I accepted the challenge.”
Woodson has the reputation of being more of a disciplinarian than D’Antoni, which it looks like was exactly what the Knicks needed. They’re a team with an enormous amount of talent that just hadn’t gelled the way they should. Now they seem to be pulling it together. They’ve even lost 2 of their best players in Amar’e Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin and they’re still getting it done.
Woodson has brought out the Knicks team that we’ve all expected to see since they picked up Carmelo Anthony. All that talent is finally getting put to good use. It may be too late for the Knicks to make a deep run this year, but they’ve laid a groundwork that could lead to success for many seasons to come.
