Michael "Mike" Dean Woodson (born March 24, 1958 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is a retired American Basketball player and current head coach of the NBA's Atlanta.
Woodson took over the job from Terry Stotts prior to the 2004-05 NBA season. He came to the Hawks after a stint as an assistant coach on the 2003-04 Detroit Pistons NBA Championship team and was a long-time assistant under Larry Brown. Woodson was known for getting the most of defensive players, allowing teams coached by him and Brown to limit opponents to just under 42% shooting. Woodson played college basketball at Indiana University and was a protege of legendary coach Bob Knight. He was the leading scorer on the 1979 Indiana team that won the NIT championship.
He was selected 12th overall by the New York Knicks in the 1980 NBA Draft and played in the league from 1980 until 1991. He spent two years in New York, before being traded to the Kansas City Kings. He enjoyed great success with the franchise, leading the team with 18.2 points per contest during a 1983 playoff run. He averaged 12.2 points over his career with the Kings (moving with the team to Sacramento). After success with that franchise, he finished his career by moving between several teams, making contributions in New Jersey, Los Angeles (with the Clippers), Houston, and Cleveland.
Prior to working with Brown, Woodson was an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks for three years beginning in 1996. He later took a coaching job in Cleveland before being invited to join Brown's staff.
Coaching record[]
|- | align="left" |Atlanta | align="left" |2004–05 |82||13||69||.159|| align="center" |5th in Southeast||—||—||— | align="center" |Missed Playoffs |- | align="left" |ATL | align="left" |2005–06 |82||26||56||.317|| align="center" |5th in Southeast||—||—||— | align="center" |Missed Playoffs |- | align="left" |ATL | align="left" |2006–07 |82||30||52||.366|| align="center" |5th in Southeast||—||—||— | align="center" |Missed Playoffs |- | align="left" |ATL | align="left" |2007–08 |82||37||45||.451|| align="center" |3rd in Southeast||7||3||4 | align="center" |Lost in First Round |- | align="left" |ATL | align="left" |2008–09 |4||4||0||1.000|| align="center" |—||—||—||— | align="center" |— |- | align="left" |Career | ||328||106||222||.323|| ||7||3||4