Knicks’ Win Impacts Van Gundy’s Future
The coach of the New York Knicks will be the coach of the East. Jeff Van Gundy is going to the All-Star game.
Latrell Sprewell scored 32 points and Allan Houston had 28 Sunday as the Knicks had their highest-scoring game of the season in a 120-111 victory over the Sacramento Kings at New York that made Van Gundy the Eastern Conference All-Star coach.
“It certainly is an honor, more for the team than it is for me,” Van Gundy said. “I really didn’t have anything to do with it, I was just a part of a good team.”
The Knicks gave a rare high-octane performance, leading by as many as 24 while looking perfectly content to play run-and-gun with the Kings, the NBA’s highest-scoring team.
The victory gave the Knicks a record of 26-16, moving them into a tie with Miami for the Atlantic Division lead. All-Star coaches are determined based upon records following Sunday’s games, and Van Gundy got the call over the Heat’s Pat Riley because he has not coached most recently.
Indiana’s Larry Bird has the conference’s best record, but he is ineligible by virtue of having coached at the last All-Star game in 1998.
Sprewell, who tied his season high, scored 12 points in a fourth quarter marked by the ejection of Sacramento’s Jason Williams with 11:15 left.
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