While the coach with nine lives said this season is “all on my shoulders,” Mike Woodson said he’s the same coach who guided the Knicks to prosperity in his first two seasons, earning third place in Coach of the Year voting last spring.
“I haven’t forgotten how to coach, there’s no doubt about that in my mind, I haven’t,’’ Woodson said on his ESPN radio show Thursday. “Again our record doesn’t indicate that and that’s the downside of coaching.’’
Owner James Dolan has been in agreement and is inclined to keep Woodson for the rest of the season despite the Knicks’ epic fall from their 54-28 record to 22-40.
Woodson’s rhetoric could also be his way of campaigning for his next job. After being fired by Atlanta in 2010, he never got another head-coaching offer, after that season, according to a league source. The two jobs he came close to getting were in Detroit and Minnesota in 2011 before Mike D’Antoni brought him aboard as a Knicks defensive assistant.
“I put it all on my shoulders,’’ Woodson said. “I’ve always thought as a coach you need talent to win, you need healthy bodies to win, but I’ve kind of gotten past that.’’
However, Woodson still read down the list of all the injury/drug suspension/gun-charge woes that plagued his players this season.
“It’s been hard to put a team on the floor and have any kind of chemistry all season long,’’ Woodson said.
Woodson had plenty of injury woes last season and got his roster to overachieve. But he has convinced Dolan the club hasn’t quit on him.
Raymond Felton’s heart-to-heart with Woodson — plus other friends around the team giving him encouraging words — had an effect for one night as he posted 18 points, 8 assists and 4 steals on Wednesday. Woodson admitted he had been considering reducing his role.
“I was thinking about pulling him back and his thing was ‘Hey coach, this is my only out,’’’ Woodson said. “’I have nowhere else to go.’’’
Additional reporting by Fred Kerber