Product Code Database
Michael Dean Woodson (born March 24, 1958) is an American professional basketball coach and former professional basketball player who is the associate head coach of the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
With coach Bob Knight's Indiana Hoosiers, Woodson played collegiately from 1976 to 1980. As a junior team captain, his Hoosiers won the 1979 NIT Tournament and he was named to first team All-Big Ten. That summer Woodson won a gold medal as captain of the United States basketball team at the 1979 Pan American Games. His senior year, Woodson and Isiah Thomas led the 1979β80 Hoosiers to a conference title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet Sixteen. Woodson was named the 1980 Big Ten Player of the Year, an NABC All-American, and awarded the Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball. Among Hoosier basketball players, Woodson ranks fifth all-time in total points and his 19.8 points per game average is tied (with Calbert Cheaney) for the second highest by a Hoosier who played four seasons in college.
Woodson played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) after getting drafted by the New York Knicks as the 12th pick of the 1980 NBA draft. He also played for the Brooklyn Nets, Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Clippers, Houston Rockets, and Cleveland Cavaliers. He appeared in 13 NBA playoff games over five post-seasons.
Woodson later coached for seven different NBA franchises. He worked as an assistant for the Milwaukee Bucks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Larry Brown's Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Clippers, and New York Knicks. Woodson and Brown, who had previously worked together as player and coach, won an NBA Championship with the Pistons during the 2003β04 season. Woodson went on to serve six years as head coach of the Atlanta Hawks, where he made the playoffs his last three seasons and his 206 career wins rank fourth-best in Hawks franchise history. He subsequently spent three seasons as head coach of the New York Knicks, where he reached the playoffs twice and secured an Atlantic Division title.
Growing up in Indiana, Woodson felt the Hoosier Hysteria that permeated the state, which helped prepare him for a career in basketball. He said, "Every yard had courts, little basketball hoops in the yard. If you didn't have it, you had neighbors two doors down that had it. You had parks in every area of town where you could go get a pickup game. Had rec centers where you could go play. It was a place to go learn your craft." He was also able to practice with a large number of talented basketball players in the Indianapolis area, including professionals such as George McGinnis, Roger Brown, and Rick Mount. According to Woodson, playing in Indiana meant "you had to be able to pass, and shoot, and dribble, and play without the basketball, you know, the motion offense. That was Indiana basketball. And Bob Knight is the one who really instilled a lot of the fundamentals and how high school coaches taught their teams."
In Woodson's freshman year, the 1976β77 season, the Hoosiers were coming off a 32β0 undefeated season. Reflecting on that year, Woodson remarked, "My freshman year I only weighed a buck-85 playing small forward, and I could never keep anybody off the boards, and Coach told me early on, I kept missing block outs, and Coach was like 'Dammit, you miss one more block out and you're gonna run them stairs until I get tired.' And sure enough I missed a block out. And there I go, I ran all the way to the top, and walk all the way down. And this was going on for about an hour and I was like 'did I come to IU for this?' So he (Knight) hollers up and says 'Well, I guess I've got to put up with your ass for another three years. Get on down here.'" In Woodson's sophomore year, the 1977β78 season, the Hoosiers finished the regular season with an overall record of 21β8 and a conference record of 12β6, finishing 2nd in the Big Ten Conference and advancing to the Sweet Sixteen in the 1978 NCAA Tournament.
In Woodson's junior year, the 1978β79 season, he served as captain of the Hoosier team. During the final game that season, against Illinois, word leaked out that Big Ten coaches had left Woodson off their all-conference first team, despite averaging 21 points and 5.7 rebounds while shooting 50 percent from the field. Woodson proceeded to lead Indiana to victory and score a career high 48 points (including 29 at the half). At the post-game press conference, Coach Knight criticized the media voters. "He just erupted," Woodson recalled. "He was like 'how the hell can this guy not be on first team All-Big Ten,' and then the next day they put me on first team All-Big Ten." The Hoosiers went on to win the 1979 NIT Tournament.
Following that season Woodson was selected to play for the United States in the 1979 Pan American Games on the basketball team coached by Indiana's Bob Knight. Behind Woodson's leadership as captain, the U.S. team compiled a 9β0 record and won the gold medal, while averaging 100.8 points a gameβthe first time that a United States team averaged more than 100 points-per-game in the Pan American Games. Following Woodson's team-leading 18.3 points per game, Coach Knight believed Woodson "was the best player in the country, and headed for a spectacular senior season."
The 1979β80 Hoosiers, led by Woodson and Isiah Thomas, began the season ranked No. 1 in the polls after a rare 78β50 blow-out of the Soviet Union men's national basketball team and then went on to four straight college victories. But Hoosier star Randy Wittman broke his foot and Woodson was forced to miss seven weeks due to back surgery on a herniated disc. Hobbled by these injuries, the team dropped to a 7β5 conference record, but upon Woodson's return on Valentine's Day with a win against Iowa, the Hoosiers went on a six-game winning streak and finished with a conference record of 13β5, finishing 1st in the Big Ten Conference. After winning the 1984 NBA All-Star MVP, Isiah Thomas was asked if that was his biggest basketball thrill, to which Thomas replied, "No, my biggest thrill was my freshman year at Indiana when Mike Woodson came back from back surgery and hit his first three jump shots at Iowa." The team advanced to the 1980 Sweet Sixteen and ended the season with an overall record of 21β8.
Woodson finished his career at Indiana with 1,279 points in conference games (11th all-time) and 2,061 points in all games. Despite playing just six conference games his senior year and missing seven weeks, Woodson was named the Big Ten's Most Valuable Player and an National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-American, and received the Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball award. (1999). 9781582610689, Sports Pub.. ISBN 9781582610689 Among Hoosier basketball players, Woodson ranks fifth all-time in total points and his 19.8 points per game average is tied (with Calbert Cheaney) for the second highest by a Hoosier who played four seasons in college.
Woodson's coaches and mentors during his NBA career included Red Holzman (Knicks), Larry Brown (Nets), Cotton Fitzsimmons (Kings), Gene Shue (Clippers), and Don Chaney (Clippers and Rockets).
After two stints as head coach, with the Hawks and Knicks, Woodson once again served as an assistant. On September 29, 2014, the Los Angeles Clippers officially announced that Woodson had been hired as an assistant coach under Doc Rivers and he would hold that position with the Clippers throughout the next four years, missing out on the playoffs in only his last season there. Woodson would later announce his resignation from the Clippers on May 15, 2018. On September 4, 2020, Woodson was hired as an assistant coach for the New York Knicks under head coach Tom Thibodeau, but he left that position to serve as head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers.
In the 2007β08 season, Woodson's team finished third in the Southeast Division with a 37β45 record and made the playoffs for the first time since 1999. In the first round of the playoffs, they lost to the top-seeded Boston Celtics in seven games. It marked the first of three consecutive playoff appearances for Woodson and the Hawks. In the 2008β09 season, the Hawks went 47β35 (.573), defeating the Miami Heat in the first round playoffs before advancing and losing to Cleveland in the conference semifinals. In the 2009β10 season, the Hawks went 53β29 (.646) and beat Milwaukee in the first round playoffs before falling to Orlando 0β4 in the second round. After the loss, general manager Rick Sund announced that the team would not attempt to re-sign Woodson, whose contract expired on May 17, 2010.Bloomberg.com: "Atlanta Hawks Fire Coach Mike Woodson After NBA Playoff Sweep by Orlando" Retrieved May 14, 2010
With the Hawks, Woodson compiled an overall playoff mark of 11β18 (.379). The Hawks increased their win total in each of Woodson's six seasons in Atlanta, going from 13β69 in 2004β05 to 53β29 in 2009β10. Woodson's 206 career wins are fourth-best in Hawks franchise history, trailing only Richie Guerin (327), Mike Fratello (324), and Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens (310). He was an integral mentor to Hawk all-stars such as Kenny Anderson, Al Horford, and Antoine Walker.
Woodson's 2012β13 Knicks compiled an 18β5 record to start the season, their best start since 1993. In their first four games, they scored at least 100 points and won by double digits in all games. By the All-Star break in mid-February 2013, the Knicks compiled a 32β18 record, placing them second in the Eastern Conference. On April 9, the Knicks secured the Atlantic Division title for the first time since the 1993β94 NBA season. The team finished the season 54β28 and set the NBA single-season record for three-pointers. On May 3, the Knicks defeated the Boston Celtics in the first round of the NBA playoffs, 4β2, their first playoff victory since 2000, but were subsequently eliminated in the second round of the playoffs, losing the series to the Indiana Pacers 4β2.
Woodson's 2013β14 Knicks Knicks struggled with a 3β13 start and the team never fully recovered, finishing with a record of 37β45 and missing the playoffs for the first time in four seasons. On April 21, 2014, Woodson was fired from the New York Knicks head coaching position along with his entire coaching staff.ESPN "Knicks Fire Entire Coaching Staff" Retrieved April 21, 2014. Woodson finished his tenure as New York's coach with a total record of 109β79 (.680). He was a coach and mentor to Knick all-stars Carmelo Anthony, Baron Davis, Jason Kidd, Amar'e Stoudemire, and Rasheed Wallace.
In his first year as head coach, Woodson led the 2021β22 team to a 21β14 record, including a 9β11 record in Big Ten Conference play. Woodson and the Hoosiers snapped nine-game losing streaks against Purdue and Michigan and advanced to the semifinals of the 2022 Big Ten men's basketball tournament, their first appearance since 2013. Indiana was selected to play in a 2022 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament First Four game, which they won, before losing in the first round. It marked their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2016. In Woodson's second season, Indiana again qualified for the NCAA tournament, marking the first back-to-back tournament appearances for Indiana since the 2015 and 2016 tournaments.
During the 2022β23 season, despite missing starting point guard Xavier Johnson for most of the season, Woodon's Hoosiers finished 23β12 overall, ranked in the top 25 in both major polls, and finished tied for second in the Big Ten with a 12β8 mark. The team led the Big Ten in field goal percentage (48.7%), finished second in the conference in field goal percentage defense, tied for the most wins in the Big Ten against Top 25 programs (5), and had the best winning percentage versus ranked foes (62.5%) in the conference. Woodson's team was propelled in large part because of Woodson's development of future NBA players Trayce Jackson-Davis (consensus first-team All-American) and Jalen Hood-Schifino (Big Ten Freshman of the Year).
On February 7, 2025, Indiana announced that Woodson would step down as head coach at the end of the 2024β25 season.
Despite playing and learning under well-known, traditional basketball coaches, Woodson embraced "a modern style of play" at Indiana. He implemented "a four-out one-in offensive system that highlights versatile athletes in a free-flowing system" and "made a point to emphasize that he understood the importance of 3-pointers." Woodson also utilizes analytics to help determine player combinations.
Larry Brown, who hired Woodson in Philadelphia (2001β03) and again in Detroit (2003β04, when the Pistons won the NBA championship), noted Woodson is "just a really good, decent guy who respects the game and is loyal as hell and loves to coach and teach."
|
|
