MacLeod Goes to Irish; Knicks to Seek Riley?

As expected, John MacLeod resigned Thursday as coach of the New York Knicks to replace Digger Phelps, who retired two weeks ago, as basketball coach at Notre Dame.

Newsday reported that the Knicks are preparing to make an all-out effort to lure former Laker coach Pat Riley back into coaching, quoting a team source that said the job, basically, was Riley’s to turn down.

Riley, who would have to give up his lucrative television deal with NBC to return to coaching, could not be reached by The Times Thursday.

Ed Hookstratten, Riley’s lawyer, said: “Pat is under contract to NBC, and is extremely busy. To my knowledge, he has not been contacted and neither have I.”

But Newsday quoted Magic Johnson as saying Riley would be willing to coach in the NBA again--if the right job surfaced. “There are only two jobs for Pat Riley: the Lakers and New York. I think he’d be interested in the Knicks,” Johnson said.

MacLeod, 53, who has not coached at the collegiate level since he was at Oklahoma 18 years ago, said the Notre Dame offer was “on the table” Monday after the Knicks had returned from Chicago during the first-round playoffs against the Bulls. Under MacLeod the Knicks were 32-25 in the regular season and were swept in the playoffs, 3-0.