For one of the NBA’s veteran and most respected coaches, Jim Cleamons is enjoying a long-awaited homecoming, as he spent two-and-a-half seasons in a Knicks uniform in the late ‘70s. Three-plus decades and nine coaching championships later, he hasn’t lost his taste for the Big Apple.
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“You’d have to be from Mars to not want to play or coach in New York City,” says Jim, currently in his 24th season as an NBA coach. “It is the Mecca of Basketball, and you’d have to have a pretty low threshold of emotion if you didn’t get enthusiastic about the opportunities you get just by being associated with a pro basketball franchise in New York City.