Knicks Trade Chaney for Wisdom of Wilkens

The New York Knicks fired Don Chaney and hired Lenny Wilkens to succeed him as coach Wednesday, another in a series of bold but hardly unexpected moves by new team President Isiah Thomas.

With the Knicks in fifth place in the Atlantic Division with a 15-24 record going into Wednesday’s game against the Orlando Magic, and critics calling for Chaney’s ouster, it seemed only a matter of time before Thomas made a change.

Turning to Wilkens was a surprise for a number of reasons, not the least of which was a report Wednesday in the New York Daily News that Thomas would select TV commentator Mike Fratello, yet another former NBA coach.

Then there is Wilkens’ age.

At 66, he seemed primed for retirement when the Toronto Raptors fired him after a 24-58 record last season. He is the NBA’s winningest coach with 1,292 victories in 30 seasons with the Raptors, Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Seattle SuperSonics (two stints) and Portland Trail Blazers. He also has the most losses in NBA history, 1,114.

Wilkens is the latest in a growing list of AARP-eligible coaches who were coaxed out of a life of leisure to return to the stress and long hours of coaching professional sports.

Then again, if the million-dollar business of throwback jerseys is any indication, everything old is new again.

The trend of hiring retirement-age coaches began when Dick Vermeil, who had led the St. Louis Rams to a Super Bowl championship and then taken a hiatus, went back to work with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. Vermeil, 67, is the oldest coach in the league and two years past the mandatory retirement age at many companies.

Bill Parcells returned to the NFL last year to coach the Dallas Cowboys at 62. He was joined earlier this month by former NFC East rival Joe Gibbs, 63, who was rehired by the Washington Redskins after spending 11 years running a NASCAR team. With a five-season deal worth a reported $28.5 million, Gibbs is the league’s highest-paid coach.

In the NBA, team president Jerry West asked Hubie Brown, now 70, to leave television to coach the woebegone Memphis Grizzlies last season. Although the Grizzlies are in last place in the Midwest Division, Brown’s team has a winning record at 19-18.

During the off-season, the Cleveland Cavaliers hired Paul Silas, 60, to mentor LeBron James. Although the Cavaliers remain near the bottom of the Central Division standings at 12-26, James, 19, has shown an uncommon poise for a rookie straight out of high school.

In baseball, Jack McKeon, 72, became the third-oldest manager in history to win a World Series championship when he guided the Florida Marlins to victory over the New York Yankees. McKeon also was the oldest manager to win National League manager-of-the-year honors.

“They had the courage to go out and hire an old goat like me,” McKeon said of the Marlins on the November day he was announced as NL manager of the year. “I wanted one more crack.”

Thomas stuck with the experience-is-best theme in announcing Wilkens’ hiring. Although he considered replacing Chaney with Fratello, Thomas said Wednesday he decided against it, going instead with Wilkens.

“Lenny would be a better fit,” Thomas said. “Having that type of intellectual knowledge around our team was very important, especially for a guy like [guard] Stephon [Marbury].”

Said Marbury: “It does calm things down. We don’t have to hear [chants of] ‘Fire Chaney.’ It will make things easier.”

Wilkens was coach of the gold-medal winning United States team at the 1996 Olympics. He was elected to the Hall of Fame as a player in 1988 and as a coach 10 years later. He and John Wooden are the only members of the Hall of Fame to be enshrined as players and coaches.

Thomas, who was hired to replace Scott Layden late last month, completed an eight-player trade Jan. 5 with the Phoenix Suns.

Said Thomas of Wilkens at Madison Square Garden: “I think he’s a perfect fit. We never thought we would be able to get a Hall of Fame coach to come and coach the team.”

Times wire services contributed to this report.

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NBA Coaching Carousel

Teams that have changed coaches for the 2003-04 season:

*--* Team Previous New Miami Heat Pat Riley Stan Van Gundy Orlando Magic Doc Rivers Johnny Davis Chicago Bulls Bill Cartwright* Scott Skiles Phoenix Suns Frank Johnson Mike D’Antoni New York Knicks Don Chaney Lenny Wilkens

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* Pete Myers took over as interim coach Nov. 24-27