College - Ohio State
Assistant Coach

Amid a Knicks world that has changed at warp speed, Herb Williams remains a constant, guiding force. One of the longest-tenured players in NBA history is now the senior bench coach on the club’s staff, and looks forward to guiding the fortunes of a revamped Knicks team in 2010-11.

“The biggest thing is to get everyone on the same page, first of all,” says the 52-year old Williams. “If we can do that in a timely fashion, to get the team comfortable with each other, that’ll be the big thing. There are so many new faces. Some guys are coming into a new system. But Amar’e’s played in this system before, Anthony Randolph and Ronny Turiaf have played in the uptempo style. Getting off to a good start will be important.”

One of the game’s most respected figures, Williams celebrates a decade of NBA coaching this season, as he is in his ninth full season (tenth season overall) on the Knicks’ bench. Following nearly two decades as a player, Herb joined the Knicks’ staff as an assistant coach on Dec. 29, 2001. Since then, his coaching career has become every bit as noteworthy as his playing days.

Included in Williams’ coaching tenure is an overall mark of 17-27 as Knicks head coach. Succeeding Lenny Wilkens as Knicks headmaster on Jan. 22, 2005, Herb piloted New York for the remainder of the 2004-05 season, going 16-27. He also notched a 120-110 win over Orlando as interim coach on Jan. 14, 2004, prior to Wilkens’ formal arrival.

Williams has also served as head coach of the Knicks’ entries in the 2003 Reebok Boston Summer Pro League and the 2004 LA Summer Pro League in Long Beach. As an assistant coach, he has served under Head Coaches Don Chaney, Lenny Wilkens, Larry Brown, Isiah Thomas and now Mike D’Antoni. He assumed the reins of the Knicks for the final five games of the 2005-06 season, during Brown’s illness.

During his playing tenure, Williams was a force in New York’s locker room as a leader with assests that only a wily veteran could posess. For three seasons (1996-97 through 1998-99), he served as Knicks tri-captain. His knowledge and leadership qualities made him a natural for his new career.

“Herb brings head coaching experience and helps me in a lot of areas,” says Head Coach Mike D’Antoni. “He’s been around the organization and knows all of its ins and outs. He’s just a great coach and a great guy to have around. We’re very fortunate to have him on our staff.”

As a Knick, Herb became a Garden fan favorite as Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing’s primary backup in the pivot as well as a guiding force off the court. His final on-court appearance – a scoreless minute in Game Five of The 1999 NBA Finals against San Antonio – made him the oldest Knick ever to appear in a game (41 years, four months, nine days).

Few Knicks connected with New York fans better than Herb. For nearly two decades, he has been one of the most beloved figures on the Big Apple hoop scene.

“A lot of people said the fans in New York wouldn’t be patient, they wouldn’t go for rebuilding. But Knicks fans are Knicks fans,” says Herb. “They’re going to be behind you and they’re loyal. The one thing they want to make sure of is that when you come out on the floor, you give a good effort.

“But now, it’s not what we’re going to do for the future; it’s what we’re going to do right now. We have the talent to win. We have to compete night in and night out, because now they’ll expect us to win, not just hope that things fall into place. They expect us to win.”

Williams’ coaching tenure follows a distinguished playing career that spanned 18 seasons (1981-82 through 1998-99), just three shy of the all-time NBA record of 21 shared by Robert Parish and Kevin Willis. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Herb is one of only nine players in NBA history to appear in a game following his 41st birthday, along with Parish, Willis, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bob Cousy, Nat Hickey, Charles Jones, John Stockton and Dikembe Mutombo.

Indiana’s first-round pick (14th overall) in the 1981 NBA Draft, the 6-foot-11 Williams averaged 10.8 points, 5.9 rebounds and shot .467 from the field for the Pacers, Mavericks, Raptors and Knicks. He scored 11,944 points in 1,102 career games. Herb played the first 7½ seasons of his career with Indiana, and is third in blocked shots (1,094; behind only Jermaine O’Neal and Rik Smits), seventh in games played (577), seventh in total minutes (18,455) and eighth in total rebounds (4,494) on the Pacers’ all-time franchise lists.

Williams spent virtually all of the final seven years of his playing career as a Knick, and was one of only two players (along with Ewing) to be a member of both of the Knicks’ Eastern Conference Championship teams of 1994 and 1999. He originally signed with the Knicks as a free agent on Nov. 15, 1992. Williams was part of two separate trades (to Toronto on Feb. 18, 1996 and to Philadelphia on Feb. 19, 1998), but quickly returned to the Big Apple just days after both.

Williams averaged 17.6 points and 9.7 rebounds in a four-year college career at Ohio State, and became the first Buckeye in school history to record more than 2,000 career points (2,011).

Born on Feb. 16, 1958 in Columbus, OH, Williams was a recreation major at Ohio State. Herb has two children - Erica (24, a 2008 graduate of George Washington University) and Jabrille (18, a high school hoop star) - and lives in Stamford, CT, The City That Works. Off the court, Herb is extremely involved in the community, spending countless hours with area youth. In his spare moments, he is one of the Knicks’ most devoted golfers.