Herb Williams

Last updated

Herb Williams
Herb Williams 2 at 2 August 2015 game cropped.jpg
Personal information
Born (1958-02-16) February 16, 1958 (age 67)
Columbus, Ohio, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)
Listed weight262 lb (119 kg)
Career information
High school Marion-Franklin (Columbus, Ohio)
College Ohio State (1977–1981)
NBA draft 1981: 1st round, 14th overall pick
Drafted by Indiana Pacers
Playing career1981–1999
Position Center / power forward
Number32
Coaching career2003–2019
Career history
As a player:
19811989 Indiana Pacers
19891992 Dallas Mavericks
19921996 New York Knicks
1996 Toronto Raptors
19961999 New York Knicks
As a coach:
20032014 New York Knicks (assistant)
2004, 2005 New York Knicks (interim)
20152019 New York Liberty (assistant)
Career highlights
Career NBA statistics
Points 11,944 (10.8 ppg)
Rebounds 6,509 (5.9 rpg)
Blocks 1,605 (1.5 bpg)
Stats at NBA.com  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Stats at Basketball Reference   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Herbert Levene Williams (born February 16, 1958) is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for eighteen seasons from 1981 to 1999. Williams served as the interim head coach and the assistant coach of the NBA's New York Knicks. He was last an assistant coach for the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

Contents

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). [1] 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 the NCAA 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.

A consistent and productive center, Williams averaged double figures in all seven of his full seasons as a Pacer, including a career-best 19.9 points per game during the 1985–1986 season. He remains among the Pacers' top ten career leaders in rebounds (4,494), blocks (1,094), and games played (577).

Williams was traded to the Dallas Mavericks midway through the 1988–1989 season on February 22 in exchange for forward Detlef Schrempf. [2]

In 1992, he was signed by the New York Knicks, where he spent seven years backing up perennial All-Star Patrick Ewing. Williams played one game (31 minutes) for the Toronto Raptors in 1996 before being waived and quickly returned to the Knicks. The team made the 1994 and 1999 NBA Finals, with Williams serving as a team leader.

After the 1999 Finals, Williams retired at the age of forty-one after six regular season games and eight playoff games in 1999. Four years later, he returned to the Knicks as an assistant coach. He worked under head coaches Don Chaney and Lenny Wilkens. When Wilkens resigned in 2005, Williams took over as head coach.

On July 26, 2005, Larry Brown was hired as the head coach of the Knicks, thus ending Williams's head coaching tenure. 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 Mike D'Antoni, and continued to be in the coaching staff under Mike Woodson until Phil Jackson fired the entire staff in 2014. He has coached for the Knicks' NBA Summer League team.

On March 26, 2015, Williams was hired as the assistant coach of the WNBA's New York Liberty. [3]

Career playing statistics

Legend
  GPGames played  GS Games started MPG Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage 3P%  3-point field goal percentage FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game APG  Assists per game SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game PPG Points per game Bold Career high

NBA

Source [4]

Regular season

YearTeamGPGSMPGFG%3P%FT%RPGAPGSPGBPGPPG
1981–82 Indiana 827527.8.477.286.6707.41.7.62.211.5
1982–83 Indiana 787432.2.499.000.7057.53.4.72.216.9
1983–84 Indiana 695333.0.478.000.7028.03.1.91.614.9
1984–85 Indiana 757034.1.475.111.6578.53.4.71.818.3
1985–86 Indiana 787435.5.492.083.7309.12.2.62.419.9
1986–87 Indiana 746734.1.480.000.7407.32.4.81.314.9
1987–88 Indiana 753726.2.425.000.7376.31.3.51.910.0
1988–89 Indiana 464634.1.450.000.7148.61.9.71.712.6
1988–89 Dallas 302030.1.396.000.6326.61.2.51.86.6
1989–90 Dallas 811927.1.444.222.6794.81.5.61.38.6
1990–91 Dallas 603630.5.507.000.6386.01.6.51.512.5
1991–92 Dallas 752627.2.431.167.7256.11.3.51.311.5
1992–93 New York 55010.4.411.6672.7.3.4.52.9
1993–94 New York 70311.1.442.000.6432.6.4.3.63.3
1994–95 New York 56313.3.456.6222.4.5.2.83.3
1995–96 Toronto 1031.0.3758.0.01.02.06.0
1995–96 New York 43212.6.410.250.6501.9.6.3.73.1
1996–97 New York 2128.8.391.000.7501.5.2.2.21.9
1997–98 New York 2706.6.419.1251.1.1.2.31.4
1998–99 New York 605.7.5001.0001.0.0.0.31.7
Career1,10260725.8.467.095.6965.91.7.51.510.8

Playoffs

YearTeamGPGSMPGFG%3P%FT%RPGAPGSPGBPGPPG
1987 Indiana 4433.5.588.5385.01.8.0.311.8
1990 Dallas 3027.0.609.8134.31.7.3.713.7
1993 New York 709.9.3571.0002.0.3.1.62.0
1994 New York 1906.7.419.6671.1.2.2.61.5
1995 New York 806.9.2311.000.9.0.6.61.0
1996 New York 506.6.600.750.0.0.0.41.8
1997 New York 307.7.400.3.0.0.01.3
1999 New York 802.0.200.4.0.0.0.3
Career5749.4.469.7381.4.3.2.42.7

Head coaching record

Legend
Regular seasonGGames coachedWGames wonLGames lostW–L %Win–loss %
PlayoffsPGPlayoff gamesPWPlayoff winsPLPlayoff lossesPW–L %Playoff win–loss %
TeamYearGWLW–L%FinishPGPWPLPW–L%Result
New York 2003–04 1101.000(interim)
New York 2004–05 431627.3725th in AtlanticMissed playoffs
Career441727.386

See also

References

  1. "Herb Williams biography". NBA. Archived from the original on February 11, 2001.
  2. "MAVERICKS TRADE SCHREMPF TO PACERS – Deseret News". Deseret News . Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
  3. "News Archive". New York Liberty. Archived from the original on March 28, 2015.
  4. "Herb Williams NBA stats". Basketball Reference . Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved August 25, 2024.