Butch van Breda Kolff
Van Breda Kolff, circa 1968
Personal information
Born(1922-10-28)October 28, 1922
Glen Ridge, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedAugust 22, 2007(2007-08-22) (aged 84)
Spokane, Washington, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Listed weight185 lb (84 kg)
Career information
High schoolThe Hill School
(Pottstown, Pennsylvania)
CollegePrinceton (1942–1946)
Playing career1946–1950
PositionShooting guard / small forward
Number11, 17
Coaching career1951–1994
Career history
As player:
1946–1950New York Knicks
As coach:
1951–1955Lafayette
1955–1962Hofstra
1962–1967Princeton
1967–1969Los Angeles Lakers
1969–1972Detroit Pistons
1972–1973Phoenix Suns
1973–1974Memphis Tams
1974–1977New Orleans Jazz
1977–1979New Orleans
1979–1981New Orleans Pride
1984–1988Lafayette
1988–1994Hofstra
Career highlights and awards
As coach:
Stats Edit this at Wikidata at NBA.com
Stats Edit this at Wikidata at Basketball-Reference.com
Career coaching record
College482–272 (.639)
NBA287–316 (.476)
WBL39–28 (.582)

Willem Hendrik "Butch" (sometimes "Bill")[1] van Breda Kolff (October 28, 1922 – August 22, 2007) was an American basketball player and coach.

Biography

Early life and career

Butch was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, son of Dutch soccer player Jan van Breda Kolff. He gained an affection for basketball while growing up in Montclair. He attended The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He then attended Princeton University, where he played basketball for Franklin "Cappy" Cappon, and New York University, where he also played basketball. He also played one season for the Princeton soccer team in 1946 as a midfielder,[2] and was included in the NSCAA All-America first team.[3]

Signed by the New York Knicks in 1946, he spent four seasons playing as a professional. The New York Knicks played in the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which merged with some of the better teams of the National Basketball League to form the National Basketball Association in (NBA) in 1949. In the four years (1946–50) van Breda Kolff played in the BAA and the NBA, he turned in a relatively unimpressive performance, shooting just .305 from the field, .669 from the line, and averaging 4.7 points in 175 contests. He was elected team captain of the Knicks.

After leaving the NBA in 1950, van Breda Kolff began a coaching career. He took over as head coach at Lafayette College, where he remained from 1951 to 1955. He also coached soccer and lacrosse at Lafayette.[4] He then coached for Hofstra University from 1955 to 1962, and Princeton from 1962 to 1967. He is one of four men to have coached both an NCAA final Four team (Princeton, 1965) and an NBA Finals squad (the Los Angeles Lakers, 1968 and 1969). (The others are Larry Brown, Jack Ramsay, and Fred Schaus.)

Van Breda Kolff also spent time running a women's professional team and later coached a high school team in Picayune, Mississippi.[5] "Coaching is coaching", he once told a reporter. "Give me 10 players who want to work and learn the game and I'm happy. I don't count the house."

Pro coaching career

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Van Breda Kolff's success in college attracted the attention of the NBA. The Lakers hired him in 1967, and in his first season guided the team to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics in six games. In his second campaign for the Lakers, his team — with Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, and Wilt Chamberlain — notched a 55–27 record and reached the Finals again, but van Breda Kolff and Chamberlain did not get along at all (the coach thought his star center was spoiled and openly favored Baylor and West over him, while Chamberlain viewed his coach as a loser and barely tolerated him). Van Breda Kolff took tremendous flak for not allowing Chamberlain back in the game for the final minutes of game 7 of the NBA finals against Boston. Chamberlain picked up his fifth foul midway through the fourth quarter, and shortly thereafter asked out of the game with knee pain. With backup center Mel Counts in the game, the Lakers cut a seven-point deficit to two points. Chamberlain then motioned to van Breda Kolff that he was ready to go back in the game, to which van Breda Kolff told him "sit your big ass down" and "we don't need you." The Lakers lost by two points, and van Breda Kolff resigned before he could be fired by Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke. Game 7 marked the last time he would coach an NBA team in a postseason game.

Van Breda Kolff then went on to Detroit, where he coached the Pistons for just over two seasons. In 1970–71, he guided the team to a 45–37 mark, Detroit's first winning season in fifteen years. He left the team ten games into the next season, stating in a 1984 Sports Illustrated article that he quit after being cursed at repeatedly by frustrated fans. Van Breda Kolff coached the Phoenix Suns for the first seven games of the 1972–73 campaign before being fired and replaced by Jerry Colangelo. He did a stint with Memphis of the American Basketball Association in 1973–74. From 1974 to 1977, van Breda Kolff coached the New Orleans Jazz, taking over in the middle of the 1974–75 season and departing with a 14–12 record part way through the 1976–77 season.

While van Breda Kolff was coach, he pushed for New Orleans to relinquish the rights to Moses Malone in exchange for a #1 draft pick, and then traded that pick and two other #1s to the Lakers for Gail Goodrich. Malone would later become a superstar but Goodrich suffered an Achilles' tendon injury that would end his career in 1979. The Jazz' #1 pick in 1979 (the first overall choice) was used by the Lakers to select Magic Johnson. Breda Kolff left the NBA ranks for good in 1976, taking with him a career NBA coaching record of 266–253 and a .513 winning percentage. That also marked the year van Breda Kolff's son Jan entered the NBA, with the New York Nets; he coached one game against his son's team.

While in New Orleans, van Breda Kolff also coached the New Orleans Pride in the Women's Professional Basketball League (WBL) from 1979 to 1981.[6]

In 1996, van Breda Kolff coached the Tampa Bay Windjammers for the first six games of the 1996 United States Basketball League (USBL) season.[7]

Coaching style

Van Breda Kolff often clashed with other strong egos. After leaving the Jazz, he remained in New Orleans and returned to the college coaching ranks with the University of New Orleans, where he spent two years. In 1985, Lafayette, the team he had coached 30 years earlier, asked him to return. Van Breda Kolff stayed four seasons at Lafayette before leaving to coach Hofstra once again. His second stint with the Flying Dutchmen lasted five seasons and ended after the 1993–94 season. In 28 years as a college coach, he compiled a 482–272 record.

Death and legacy

Van Breda Kolff died August 22, 2007, at a nursing home in Spokane, Washington, after a long illness.[8]

"All I know is life isn't much different than that game on the court", he said in an article in the New York Daily News in the early 1980s. "If it's run right — with precision, with good, honest effort — it's a thing of beauty. I know what it looks like and that's what keeps me going."

His son Jan van Breda Kolff was also a basketball player and coach.

BAA/NBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played  FG%  Field-goal percentage
 FT%  Free-throw percentage  APG  Assists per game
 PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season

Year Team GP FG% FT% APG PPG
1946–47 New York 16 .206 .647 .4 1.6
1947–48 New York 44 .276 .617 .7 4.1
1948–49 New York 59 .317 .671 2.4 7.0
1949–50 New York 56 .329 .716 1.4 3.7
Career 175 .305 .669 1.5 4.7

Playoffs

Year Team GP FG% FT% APG PPG
1947 New York 5 .219 .538 .8 4.2
1948 New York 3 .375 .714 .7 7.3
1949 New York 6 .375 .826 1.2 8.2
1950 New York 1 .000 .000 .0 .0
Career 15 .318 .720 .9 6.1

Head coaching record

College basketball

Statistics overview
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Lafayette Leopards (Middle Three Conference) (1951–1955)
1951–52 Lafayette 15–9 1st
1952–53 Lafayette 13–12
1953–54 Lafayette 17–10
1954–55 Lafayette 23–3 NIT First Round
Hofstra Flying Dutchmen (Middle Atlantic Conference) (1955–1962)
1955–56 Hofstra 22–4 NCAA College Division Regional Runner-up
1956–57 Hofstra 11–15
1957–58 Hofstra 15–8
1958–59 Hofstra 20–7
1959–60 Hofstra 23–1
1960–61 Hofstra 21–4
1961–62 Hofstra 24–4 NCAA College Division Regional Runner-up
Princeton Tigers (Ivy League) (1962–1967)
1962–63 Princeton 19–6 11–3 T–1st NCAA University Division First Round
1963–64 Princeton 20–9 12–2 1st NCAA University Division Regional Fourth Place
1964–65 Princeton 23–6 13–1 1st NCAA University Division Third Place
1965–66 Princeton 16–7 9–5 4th
1966–67 Princeton 25–3 13–1 1st NCAA University Division Regional Third Place
Princeton: 103–31 58–12
New Orleans Privateers (Sun Belt Conference) (1977–1979)
1977–78 New Orleans 21–6 8–2 2nd
1978–79 New Orleans 11–16 3–7 5th
New Orleans: 32–22 11–9
Lafayette Leopards (East Coast Conference) (1984–1988)
1984–85 Lafayette 15–13
1985–86 Lafayette 14–15
1986–87 Lafayette 16–13
1987–88 Lafayette 19–10 1st
Lafayette: 132–85
Hofstra Flying Dutchmen (East Coast Conference) (1988–1994)
1988–89 Hofstra 14–15
1989–90 Hofstra 13–15
1990–91 Hofstra 14–14
1991–92 Hofstra 20–9
1992–93 Hofstra 9–18
1993–94 Hofstra 9–20
Hofstra: 215–134
Total: 482–272

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

NBA/ABA

Legend
Regular season G Games coached W Games won L Games lost W–L % Win–loss %
Playoffs PG Playoff games PW Playoff wins PL Playoff losses PW–L % Playoff win–loss %
Team Year G W L W–L% Finish PG PW PL PW–L% Result
Los Angeles 1967–68 82 52 30 .634 2nd in Western 15 10 5 .667 Lost in NBA Finals
Los Angeles 1968–69 82 55 27 .671 1st in Western 18 11 7 .611 Lost in NBA Finals
Detroit 1969–70 82 31 51 .378 7th in Eastern – – – – Missed Playoffs
Detroit 1970–71 82 45 37 .549 4th in Midwest – – – – Missed Playoffs
Detroit 1971–72 10 6 4 .600 (resigned) – – – – –
Phoenix 1972–73 7 3 4 .429 (fired) – – – – –
Memphis (ABA) 1973–74 84 21 63 .250 4th in Eastern – – – – Missed Playoffs
New Orleans 1974–75 66 22 44 .333 5th in Central – – – – Missed Playoffs
New Orleans 1975–76 82 38 44 .463 4th in Central – – – – Missed Playoffs
New Orleans 1976–77 26 14 12 .538 (fired) – – – – –
Career 603 287 316 .476 33 21 12 .636

See also

References

  1. ^ "Van Breda Kolff Leaves Princeton to Coach Los Angeles Lakers; SCHAUS IS MOVING TO FRONT OFFICE Pilot of Los Angeles Five to Succeed Ailing Mohs as General Manager". The New York Times. April 27, 1967. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  2. ^ "Men's Soccer Letterwinners". Princeton Tigers. Archived from the original on July 12, 2023. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  3. ^ "All-America Awards: Div SC (1946)". National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Archived from the original on November 15, 2006. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  4. ^ "They're Pushing Too Far". Los Angeles Times. March 2, 1989.
  5. ^ "Sports People; Van Breda Kolff Back". The New York Times. April 4, 1984. Retrieved October 2, 2010.
  6. ^ Porter, Karra (2006). Mad seasons : the story of the first Women's Professional Basketball League, 1978-1981. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 40. ISBN 0803287895. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
  7. ^ Page, Rodney (May 22, 1996). "Six games enough for USBL coach". Tampa Bay Times. p. 55. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
  8. ^ "Ex-Lakers, Princeton coach van Breda Kolff dies". ESPN.com. August 23, 2007.
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