Report: Knicks to Offer Head Coach Mike Woodson a Contract Extension

According to the NY Daily News, the New York Knicks have begun to work on a long-term deal for head coach Mike Woodson. Looks like Rick Pitino and Phil Jackson aren’t walking through that door, Knicks fans: “Mike Woodson is moving closer to having the interim tag removed from his job title. The Knicks have initiated talks that would keep Woodson as the team’s head coach for the foreseeable future, the Daily News has learned. The talks are only in the preliminary stages but it is clear that Madison Square Garden management is convinced Woodson is the right man for the job and will not pursue either Phil Jackson or Kentucky head coach John Calipari. Woodson replaced Mike D’Antoni in March and emerged as the leading candidate to keep the job when the Knicks finished out the regular season 18-6. […]Coincidentally, a playoff win on Sunday — the Knicks’ first since April 29th 2001 — wasn’t necessarily critical for Woodson’s job security because the club approached him about a possible extension last week. In fact, Garden chairman James Dolan met with Woodson in the head coach’s office for 45 minutes prior to the Knicks’ emotional Game 4 victory over the Heat. When asked on Monday if he believed that winning Game 4 helped his candidacy, Woodson said: ‘It’s not about Mike Woodson and my contract and where I go from here.’ Woodson has the support of several key players, most notably Carmelo Anthony. He also has a strong ally in GM Glen Grunwald, his former college teammate at Indiana. Both Grunwald and Woodson are long-time friends of former Knicks president Isiah Thomas, who serves as a de facto adviser to Dolan. Grunwald and Thomas had to convince Dolan that Woodson would be a good hire after the front office encouraged — some would say demanded — that D’Antoni add an experienced assistant coach after the Knicks were swept by the Celtics in last year’s first round. It wasn’t Woodson’s coaching acumen that concerned Dolan. It was his relationship with Larry Brown.”