Consider Dallas Mavericks basketball coach Rick Carlisle a Mike Woodson fan, one of the few Woodson has left.
Carlisle rushed to Woodson's defense, after the embattled coach after the Knicks beat the Mavericks 92-80, saying Woodson's most glaring problems aren't on the court.
"If I could make one statement about Mike Woodson, I just marvel at the job he's doing with this team right now, given the circumstances, given all the ridiculous rumors about his job security and all the nonsense that's being stirred up in that media cesspool in New York City," Carlisle said, as reported by Mavsmoneyball.com.
"This is a man who is one of the top coaches in the league and a man of great integrity and substance," Carlisle said. "He proved that tonight. They easily could have swept this road trip and this is supposedly a team that is dysfunctional and everything. He has got a great touch with that team and I got a lot of respect for the job that's he's doing."
The Knicks are 11-22 in the season and were a half-game ahead of Cleveland in the Eastern Conference in 12th place. They are playing better of late, having won two of three and going 8-9 in their last 17 games.
Last season, New York finished the regular season with a 54-28 record, won the Atlantic Division for the first time since the 1993-94 season and won a playoff series for the first time since 2001.
Last month, Woodson himself reminded the media of the limitations of the team because of lingering injuries to Tyson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Amar'e Stoudemire and Kenyon Martin.
"We've had so many injuries, coming out of camp, I don't know what this team is about if we had a full deck and everyone was playing. ... I don't know," ESPN reported Woodson as saying last month. "I've never got to experience that (this season)."
Besides the record, two late-game situations in which first Andrea Bargnani and then J.R. Smith didn't even know the score in the last minute has helped keep Woodson on the hot seat for his inability to keep his players' attention.
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