Source: Smart likely to join staff
Syracuse fans won’t like this. David Fizdale is expected to bring an NCAA champion along with him to New York: Keith Smart, who is likely to join the new Knicks head coach as an assistant coach, according to an NBA source. Smart hit the most famous gamewinning shot in NCAA Tournament history for Indiana 31 years ago in beating Syracuse in the 1987 championship game. Smart and Fizdale were both assistant coaches in Miami and Fizdale brought Smart with him when he took the head coaching job in Memphis. “He’s his guy,’’ one NBA source said. When Fizdale was fired by the Grizzlies last November after his feud with center Marc Gasol, Smart and the rest of the assistants stayed under interim coach J.B Bickerstaff, who was named to the permanent position Wednesday. Bickerstaff said Wednesday he expected some of his assistants to remain, but not all. There’s a possibility Memphis assistant Nick Van Exel will come to the Knicks, too. When Fizdale ranked (for the Undefeated website) the top 10 African American NBA assistant coaches who never got their big break, Van Exel was on the list. Smart, meanwhile, has experienced three head-coaching stints, including an interim season in Cleveland in 2002-03. He had two losing years as head coach in Sacramento (2011-13) and lasted one season as head coach with Golden State (36-46) in 2010-11 before Mark Jackson stepped in.
Smart’s career NBA head-coaching record is 93-170.
Mike Woodson, who gave Fizdale his first bench assistant-coaching job in Atlanta in 2004, told The Post he would consider joining Fizdale’s staff in New York if asked.
Heat assistant Juwan Howard, who interviewed for the Knicks job, is a possibility as an assistant, but Miami team president Pat Riley would have to give permission and he still consid- ers the Knicks a bitter rival.
While the Knicks fired Jeff Hornacek and associate coach Kurt Rambis 22 days ago, they kept aboard Howard Eisley, Jerry Sichting, Corey Gaines and David Bliss for the time being.
Eisley, who was listed as an honorable mention on Fizdale’s AfricanAmerican assistant coaching list, has the best chance of sticking.