New York Knicks: Five winningest head coaches in franchise history

4. Pat Riley: 223

Pat Riley won wherever he went and in almost every season he coached in the NBA. Just four of them were losing seasons, all of which came with the Miami Heat, who fluctuated talent wise during his time there, but they still won the 2006 NBA Championship with Shaquille O’Neal and a young Dwyane Wade.

There was also the stint that made Riley the well-known coach he became in the 1980s, with the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers and Magic Johnson. Four NBA Championships followed him, and this run ended with a 63-win season in the 1989-90 campaign.

Riley sat one year between, before taking the New York Knicks job in 1991-92. A rising Patrick Ewing was not only there, but a solid supporting cast of Marc Jackson, Gerald Wilkins, Anthony Mason and Charles Oakley. He took them to 51 games and a playoff appearance.

The Knicks took another step forward in 1992-93 at 60 wins, before making the 1994 NBA Finals in the first season of the Michael Jordan Baseball era. They took the Houston Rockets to seven games, but dropped the final encounter in Riley’s best chance to win a title since leaving the Lakers.

A 55-win team in 1994-95 still kept the Knicks afloat, until Riley stepped down from his post to become the head coach and president of the Heat, where he has remained in some capacity ever since, as he still leads the basketball operations at age 74.