William "Red" Holzman (August 10, 1920 – November 13, 1998) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He is best known as the head coach of the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1967 to 1977, and again from 1978 to 1982. Holzman helped lead the Knicks to two NBA championships in 1970 and 1973, and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1986.

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Red Holzman

Holzman in the 1970s
Personal information
Born	(1920-08-10)August 10, 1920 New York City, U.S.
Died	November 13, 1998(1998-11-13) (aged 78) New Hyde Park, New York, U.S.
Listed height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Listed weight	175 lb (79 kg)
Career information
High school	Franklin K. Lane (New York City)
College	Baltimore (1939–1940) CCNY (1940–1942)
Playing career	1945–1954
Position	Point guard
Number	10, 16
Coaching career	1953–1982
Career history
As player:
1945–1953	Rochester Royals
1953–1954	Milwaukee Hawks
As coach:
1953–1957	Milwaukee / St. Louis Hawks
1963–1967	Leones de Ponce
1967–1977, 1978–1982	New York Knicks
Career highlights and awards
As player: NBA champion (1951) NBL champion (1946) 2× All-NBL First Team (1946, 1948) All-NBL Second Team (1947) NBL Rookie of the Year (1946) Third-team All-American – Converse (1942) As coach: 2× NBA champion (1970, 1973) NBA Coach of the Year (1970) 2× NBA All-Star Game Coach (1970, 1971) 3× BSN champion (1964–1966) Top 10 Coaches in NBA History Top 15 Coaches in NBA History No. 613 retired by New York Knicks (1990)
Career BAA & NBA playing statistics
Points	2,166 (6.1 ppg)
Rebounds	344 (1.5 rpg)
Assists	721 (2.0 apg)
Stats  at NBA.com
Stats  at Basketball-Reference.com
Career coaching record
NBA	696–603 (.536)
Basketball Hall of Fame as coach

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In 1996, Holzman was named one of the Top 10 Coaches in NBA History.^[1]

William "Red" Holzman was born on August 10, 1920, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City,^[2][3][4] on August 10, 1920, to Jewish immigrant parents, as the son of a Romanian mother and Russian father.^[5][6] He grew up in Brooklyn's Ocean Hill–Brownsville neighborhood^[3] and played basketball for Franklin K. Lane High School in the mid-1930s.

Holzman attended the University of Baltimore and later the City College of New York, where he played for two years until graduation in 1942. Holzman joined the United States Navy in the same year, and played on the Norfolk, Virginia Naval Base team till he was discharged from the Navy in 1945.^[4]

In 1985, Holzman was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The New York Knicks have retired the number 613 in his honor, equaling the number of wins he accumulated as their head coach.^[3] He is also a member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame^[10] and the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame.

Holzman lived with his wife in a home they bought in Cedarhurst, New York in the 1950s. Following his lengthy NBA coaching career, Holzman was diagnosed with leukemia and died at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York in 1998.^[3] In 2000, a clock tower was erected in his honor at the intersection of Central Avenue and Cedarhurst Avenue in Cedarhurst as part of “Operation Downtown,” a project started by Nassau County presiding officer Bruce Blakeman and mayor Andy Parise.

• Source: Basketball Reference

• Holzman, Red (1970). The Red Holzman Pro Basketball Guide 70-71. Aurora Publishers. OCLC 423856.
• Holzman, Red (1971). The Knicks. Dodd, Mead & Co. ISBN 978-0-396-06342-1.
• Holzman, Red; Lewin, Leonard (1973). Holzman's Basketball: Winning Strategy and Tactics (1st ed.). The Macmillan Company. ISBN 978-0-0255-3500-8.
• Holzman, Red (1974). Defense! Defense!. Warner Paperback Library. ISBN 978-0-446-78498-6.
• Holzman, Red (1980). A View from the Bench (1st ed.). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-33623-8.
• Holzman, Red (1987). Red on Red: The Autobiography of Red Holzman. Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-27316-8.
• Holzman, Red (1991). Holzman on Hoops: The Man Who Led the Knicks Through Two World Championships Tells It Like It Was. Taylor Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-878-33745-3.
• Holzman, Red; Lewin, Leonard (1993). My Unforgettable Season 1970 (1st ed.). Tor Books. ISBN 978-0-312-85453-9.

• List of select Jewish basketball players