- Herb Williams
infobox NBA Player
name = Herb Williams
nickname =
position = Center–Forward
height_ft = 6 | height_in = 10
weight_lbs = 242
nationality = American
birth_date = Birth date and age|1958|2|16|mf=y
birth_place = Columbus,Ohio
college = Ohio State
draft_year = 1981
draft = 1st round, 14th pick
draft_team =Indiana Pacers
career_start = 1981
career_end = 1999
former_teams = Indiana Pacers (1981–89)Dallas Mavericks (1989–92)New York Knicks (1992–95; 1995-99)Toronto Raptors (1995)
awards =
halloffame =Herbert L. Williams (born
February 16 1958 inColumbus, Ohio ) is a retired Americanbasketball player in theNational Basketball Association (NBA) for eighteen seasons from1982 to1999 . Williams served as the interimhead coach of the NBA'sNew York Knicks . He is currently an assistant coach.College career
Williams was a four-year starter for the Ohio State Buckeyes, scoring 2,011 points (then a team record) and pulling down 1,111 rebounds (still second in team history only to
Jerry Lucas ). Williams is the school leader in career field goals made, with 834 in 114 games. He is second all-time in career blocked shots with 328.Williams was named to the All-
Big Ten team as a junior, when Ohio State finished the year with a 21-8 record and advanced to theNCAA regionals. He led the Buckeyes in scoring that year,with an average of 17.6 points per game.Williams was a team co-captain in both his junior and senior years.
Professional career
Williams was a first round draft choice of the
Indiana Pacers in 1981, where he played from 1982 to 1989 and had his most productive years. He was traded to theDallas Mavericks after the 1988-1989 season. In1993 , he was signed by theNew York Knicks , where he spent six years backing up perennial All-StarPatrick Ewing . Williams played 1 game (31 minutes) for theToronto Raptors in 1996 before been waived and quickly returned to the Knicks. The team made the 1994 and1999 NBA Finals , with Williams serving as a team leader.After the 1999 Finals, Williams retired at the age of forty-one after just 6 regular season games and 8 playoff games in 1999. Four years later, he returned to the Knicks as an assistant coach. He worked under head coaches
Don Chaney andLenny Wilkens . When Wilkens resigned in2005 , Williams took over as head coach.On
July 26 ,2005 ,ESPN .com announced that legendary basketball coach Larry Brown was hired as the next head coach of the Knicks, thus ending Williams' head coachingtenure . Williams was the acting head coach of the Knicks for the final two games of the 2005-2006 season when illness kept Larry Brown away from the bench for the final two games of his Knicks career.After that season Brown was fired by the Knicks and replaced as head coach by
Isiah Thomas . Williams worked as an assistant coach under Thomas, and continues to be in the coaching stuff underMike D'Antoni , going into the 2008-09 season.ee also
*
List of college men's basketball players with 2000 points and 1000 rebounds External links
* [http://www.basketball-reference.com/coaches/willihe01c.html BasketballReference.com: Herb Williams (as coach)]
* [http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/willihe01.html BasketballReference.com: Herb Williams (as player)]
* [http://www.nba.com/coachfile/herb_williams/index.html NBA.com: Herb Williams]
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