Red Holzman: The Life and Legacy of a Hall of Fame Basketball Coach

Zachter (Gil Hodges: A Hall of Fame Life) offers a comprehensive, if workmanlike, look at the life of New York Knicks coach Red Holzman (1920–1998), who guided the team to its only two NBA championships. The book benefits from Zachter’s interviews with many of Holzman’s players and his extensive reliance on the transcript of a four-hour interview Holzman gave in 1978 on condition that its use be extremely restricted (Zachter found the transcript, part of a series of interviews with Jewish notables, in the New York Public Library); Zachter believes that, when he “stumbled upon it in 2018,” the transcript had not been previously read. Holzman was born in 1920 in New York City to European Jewish immigrants, and by the end of junior high school was devoted to playing basketball. His skills landed him a spot on the City College team, and, eventually, in the professional league that preceded the NBA. His coaching career began in 1953, with the then–Milwaukee Hawks, but his reputation for emphasizing selfless play, hard work, and the fundamentals was established when he took over coaching the Knicks in 1967. While Zachter makes clear how important Holzman’s wife, Selma, was to him, Holzman’s personal life is given much less attention than his basketball career. NBA fans curious about the league in its earlier decades are most likely to find this solid biography of interest. [em](Sept.) [/em]