When the Nets packed up and moved to New Jersey, the Knicks became the closest thing we had to a home town team. That's about to change now that the Nets are scheduled to move back into the neighborhood, but this time there will be a battle for Long Island's basketball loyalties, and not just because the Nets are moving to Brooklyn. New Knicks Head Coach Mike D'Antoni has tipped the scales in his team's favor by hiring two Long Islanders as assistant coaches: Northport natives Phil Weber, who starred at Long Island Lutheran before playing at NC State, and Ken Atkinson, who starred at St. Anthony's and then at Richmond. We had the opportunity
to ask Coach Weber some questions about his new job and growing up on Long Island, but first a little background on him. Phil Weber was born and raised in Northport and played his high school ball at LuHi, who he led to a state championship in his junior year. He played his college ball under legendary coaches Norm Sloan and fellow Long Islander Jim Valvano at NC State, and got his first coaching job at the University of Florida under Coach Sloan. He was also an assistant at Chaminade University in Hawaii and at Iona. He and former Knick Kiki Vanderweghe, whose dad was from Long Island, founded a skills academy for NBA players in Los Angeles, working with NBA stars Shawn Marion, Baron Davis, Jalen Rose and Pat Garrity among others. In 1999, Weber was hired by the Phoenix Suns to work with their players exclusively, and he spent the next nine seasons there under head coaches Danny Ainge, Scott Skiles, Frank Johnson and Mike D’Antoni. When D’Antoni took the Knicks job, he asked Weber to join him. We wanted to know how Coach Weber felt about becoming a Knick, and hear more about his formative years on Long Island. Here is what he had to say:
Q: What's it like coaching for your home town team? Is it a dream come true?
A: It is still surreal. I had coached nine games in Madison Square Garden as an NBA and college coach, but when you make the left out of the locker room and a right onto the bench, it’s a whole different feeling than a right and a left onto the visitor’s bench. It is a dream come true that my family gets to experience this with me. They are very excited. I’m very excited about this opportunity and about living in New York City.
Q: Did you get to see many Knicks games growing up?
A: I only went to a couple. The most memorable one I went to by accident. My Dad got tickets to a playoff game because one of his basketball players (he was a coach) had a baseball game and couldn't go. The baseball game ended up getting rained out though, so how lucky was that? It (going to the city) wasn't’ a common occurrence though. I played in the city a couple of times for Riverside Church, and four or five games with Long Island Lutheran.
Q: Where did your interest in basketball come from?
A: I started playing at the age of four. My dad was a high school coach at Cold Spring Harbor High School. I played baseball and soccer from the age of 7-13. Predominately, it was basketball, though. I got good pretty quick. I played basketball every day.
Q: When did you first start playing organized ball, and who did you play for?
A: First team was at the Huntington YMCA. (around 7 or 8 years old)
Q: What is your favorite memory from that time in your life?
A: Winning championships with Huntington. We won a bunch of them!
Q: How did you end up at LuHi instead of Northport High?
A: I was recruited by three schools during the summer of my eighth grade year, and I chose Lutheran because they were nationally ranked at the time. I thought it was my best opportunity. College recruiters were at every game of Lutheran’s and I wanted to be seen.
Q: Tell us about playing at LuHi. When did you make varsity and when did you
start your first game?
A: I played my first varsity game my sophomore year. I can’t tell you how far along in the season it was. We were really good, though. I played quite a bit as a sophomore, but I started as a junior. We had a very good team and finished ranked #1 in the state my junior season. We had a lot of great players. Steve Rivers went on to play at the University of Maryland, and Mike Milligan at the University of Florida. I was a point guard, trying to get everybody involved.
Q: How about memorable games and opponents?
A: Holy Trinity was our biggest rival, and Matt Dougherty, who later starred at North Carolina and played in the NBA, was on the team. I remember making a late game steal against them and beating them right at the end. Scoring six points in the last two minutes to beat them on our home court in a pretty big game. I also played against the McCray brothers, Rodney and Scooter, who played for Mt. Vernon and also went on to play in the NBA.
Q When you wanted a good pick-up game, where did you go to play?
A: I’d go and play anywhere I could. There was a local elementary school that we played games at growing up. I had the key to the gym of my elementary school. I would go there and work on my game every night. And Kenny's family (fellow Knick Assistant Coach Ken Atkinson) was right around the corner. Literally, right around the corner in Northport. If you count the houses, probably about six or seven away. He was younger than me, but he had seven brothers, so you can imagine growing up, we would play all kinds of sports over there. His family’s house was the Mecca. There was always stuff going on over there.
Q: Were you involved in bringing him to the Knicks, or was it an amazing coincidence?
A: It wasn't a coincidence. We knew what we wanted for that position, and I mentioned Kenny to Mike. I thought he’d be perfect for it because of what we were looking for. We wanted a guy that was going to get guys excited about getting better, working on their skills and fundamentals. We have a core of really good, young players that we want to develop. It was my opinion that Kenny would be perfect. When Mike met him, and got to know him, I think he shared my feeling.
Q: When did colleges start recruiting you, and what colleges were they?
A: I got a couple of letters the summer of my sophomore year, but most of it started my junior year. I visited Davidson, Florida, Georgetown and NC State. When NC State came in the picture and Norm Sloan came, it was kind of over.
Q: How was recruiting different in those days then it is now?
A: Having been a college coach, I know that recruiting is done during the summer with AAU. It was more prevalent where you went to high school back then. AAU was nowhere near what it is now. It changed the whole landscape.
Q: Why did you decide on NC State?
A: It was the best program from a basketball standpoint that I could try and see what I could do at.
Q: What is your fondest memory from your college days?
A: I didn’t have a lot of success in college as a player. My fondest memory was being a part of a championship team and seeing what it took. The hard work. As a coach now, seeing that our guys knew that they could do it. We won a bunch of close games. I tell everyone that I’m two trivia answers in the annals of NC State history. Who was the fourth signee with Sidney Lowe, Dereck Whittenburg and Thurl Bailey? Phil Weber. And, who was the only player to be redshirted the year NC State won the national championship? Phil Weber !
Q: Jim Valvano, another Long Islander, became the coach while you were at NC State. What was he like to play for?
A: Ironically, I think it might have hurt me that he became the coach. Norm Sloan recruited me. Norm left, Jim took over and I wasn’t one of Jim’s recruits. I did learn a great deal from him though. He was a tremendous motivator. It was fun. He made the game fun.
Q: When did you know that you wanted to coach?
A: It was funny because Norm Sloan – I had kept in contact with him because he recruited me – went down to the University of Florida, and I wanted coaching to pay for my masters. I wasn’t necessarily going to be a coach. My first year, I call Coach Sloan, who had a job open on his bench, and I get a job at the University of Florida that I didn’t even have to apply for! I told him I would love the job and I got it with one phone call. I was going to take some classes and then I started to coach and realized I had a knack for the whole process. When you are limited athletically and go through the process of becoming the best player you could be, you learn why and what you have to do. Not having success as a player has helped me as a coach, in many ways. I felt very comfortable right away and decided that if I was going to be a coach, I was going to be the best that I could be.
Q: What is your role on the Knicks staff? What's a typical day like for you ?
A: Mike (D’Antoni) is great. Everybody kind of does everything. We go over everything. I get up and prepare for practices. We meet as a staff and we talk about what we are going to do that day. Then we have practice. At practice, we break up into different drills. We have certain players that are under each of our tutelage. We also split up the NBA teams four different ways. We are each assigned teams that we prepare for. We all prepare for each team, but we each have teams. I will watch my team, Boston, a whole lot more. My preparation for my eight teams will be more, and I will look at Herb’s (Williams) teams less than he does. We break things up that way. During the game, I chart our offense. I’m kind of an offensive coordinator. I monitor to see what plays are working and why. I’ll give Mike suggestions, but we all give Mike suggestions.
Q: What do you like most about coaching pro players?
A: College and pro players are very similar. I love dealing with very talented players. The ones we get (in the NBA) are the best in the world. The biggest difference is that basketball is pure in the NBA. We only have to worry about what we have to do on the floor: building a team, a cohesive unit. It’s not about dealing with boosters and chasing kids to class. We don’t have any non-basketball issues.
Q: What advice do you have for someone that wants to go into coaching as a career?
A: How I got to be an NBA coach is a crazy path. I’m one of those stories, turned down so many times, and finally I hit the professional lottery. I went from out of coaching to on the Phoenix Suns bench within a year. I don’t know how many guys have done it. I have a couple of beliefs that I stand by. Believing in yourself is the number one thing. Believe in yourself and make sure that you are always ready to get better. Always look to improve. That sounds like general stuff, but it really is the truth. You have to reach a certain level of expertise. As I worked with players in Los Angeles, many of the best players in the NBA, I learned from them too. When you give without any expectation of receiving, magic happens. I tried to be a magnet for drills and fundamentals. To sum it all up, there are levels of acceptance. If you work with the best and people see that you are capable of doing it at that level, it is easier than when you are at that level and have been accepted.
THANKS COACH!
Interview With:
Phil Weber
New York Knicks Assistant Coach
