Nelson Runs to Knicks’ Job : Pro basketball: Veteran coach promises fast-break game despite aging New York team.

Don Nelson, achieving one dream and renewing his quest for another, officially became coach of the New York Knicks on Thursday, the move uniting a man and a team both looking to prove they are more than barely hanging on.

Nelson, the only man named NBA coach of the year three times, signed for a reported salary of $2 million a year, then pledged renovation. The plodding, physical style he had criticized is out, up-tempo is in, even with an aging team that was built with the intention of staying in second gear.

Patrick Ewing will be 33 by next season, Derek Harper 34, Charles Oakley 31 and Charles Smith and John Starks 30. The Knicks lost backup point guard Greg Anthony in the expansion draft, did not have a draft choice last month and don’t have a first-round pick in 1996.

But they’re going to run.

Nellie the innovator strikes again.

“Anybody can run in the open court,” he said at a news conference in New York. “If I make some changes, I’d like to score a little more and play a faster tempo. Every player I’ve ever had, regardless of their speed or their size, has enjoyed the running game. I think we have to do that and get easy baskets.”

Nelson inherits a team that won three division titles under Pat Riley, who resigned in June, but got only as close to the top as Game 7 of the championship series in 1994 before losing to the Houston Rockets. Considering the advancing age, it would seem to be now or never for the current group.

Nelson, meanwhile, is regarded as one of the best coaches in the game. But, for all the praise, he has never won a championship on the sidelines after having been part of five titles as a player with the Boston Celtics.

He is also coming off a season in Golden State that can best be described as an implosion, his public feud with Chris Webber having started a downward spiral that led to the trading of Webber and Nelson’s midseason resignation. Nelson, faced with questions and criticism for one of the few times in his coaching career after the trade, dealt with viral pneumonia and the sulking of Latrell Sprewell before quitting just after the All-Star break.

He spent a lot of time in Hawaii after that, planning to take a year off. Then the Knick job opened when Riley quit in another acrimonious split over partial ownership, and Nelson aggressively pursued a job he had long coveted, contacting General Manager Ernie Grunfeld himself rather than waiting for the phone to ring. Grunfeld had played for Nelson with Milwaukee.

“Nellie is highly competitive guy,” said Laker Coach Del Harris, a longtime friend and former assistant in Milwaukee. “It’s hard for him to just sit back and watch them build this house they’re putting together in Maui. I think the urge to get back at this level was very strong because he’s as competitive a person as I’ve ever known. I think it only takes you so long to get rejuvenated, After that, the rest is extra.

“I know this: This has been a dream of his to coach in New York. This is not something that came along and he said, ‘Oh, OK, I’ll take it.’ When I was his assistant, he said that was where he wanted to coach. . . . Naturally, the money is a pull, but I think, beyond that, he wants to try this challenge.”

Nelson, 55, is 817-604 in 17-plus seasons with the Bucks and Warriors, making him the coach with the most victories never to reach the finals. That also puts him behind only Lenny Wilkens, Red Auerbach, Jack Ramsay, Dick Motta and Bill Fitch on the all-time victories list. He led the Bucks to seven division titles.

“What burns inside of me is, I’ve done almost everything there is to do in coaching and playing, but I’ve never won a title as a coach,” said Nelson, who coached the United States to a world championship in 1994. “That burns inside of me. That’s something I want to do before I hang up my coaching sneakers. I think I have that opportunity here.

“It was going to be a special job for me to come back. When I read in the paper this one was going to be available, I made the call to Ernie. I feel great now and I’m ready to go.”

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Back in the Game

The career record of Don Nelson, who was named coach of the New York Knicks on Thursday:

Season Team W L Pct 1976-87 Milwaukee 540 344 .611 1988-95 Golden State 277 260 .516 Total 817 604 .575 Playoffs 51 61 .455

* Division Titles: 7

* Coach of the Year: 1983, 1985, 1992

ALL-TIME VICTORIES

Coach W L Pct Lenny Wilkens 968 814 .543 Red Auerbach 938 479 .662 Dick Motta 892 909 .495 Jack Ramsay 864 783 .525 Bill Fitch 862 942 .478 Don Nelson 817 604 .575 Cotton Fitzsimmons 805 745 .519 Gene Shue 784 861 .477 Pat Riley 756 299 .717 John MacLeod 707 657 .518