Kenny Atkinson’s brother on Cavs coach’s rise from LI roots to brink of NBA Finals
It’s nonetheless New York or nowhere for Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson.
He could also be a short lived enemy of the Empire State in the course of the Eastern Conference finals, however Madison Square Garden will all the time be a particular place to the native of Northport, Long Island.
“I’m a New Yorker,” Atkinson mentioned after the Cavaliers trounced the Pistons 125-94 in Game 7 to win the second-round sequence.
“Going back to the Garden, worked for the Knicks — know everybody there. My whole family’s there basically. That’s special.”
After all, the 2025 Coach of the Year’s native roots and nice relationship with former Knicks assistant coach Phil Weber gave Atkinson an unforgettable spot in group lore greater than a decade in the past.
“Phil Weber actually lived literally around the corner from us,” Michael Atkinson, Kenny’s oldest of seven extremely athletic brothers, advised The Post.
“Phil knew Kenny. Phil’s a super personable guy.”
Atkinson performed for greater than a decade abroad as some extent guard — he first dropped jaws at St. Anthony’s High School and later with the 1988 Richmond Spiders, who reached the Sweet 16 — and broke into the NBA as Rockets director of participant growth in 2007.
Michael advised his brother’s work within the Lone Star State rapidly impressed Weber, who knew it was time to get Atkinson again dwelling.
“He ended up recommending Kenny to Mike D’Antoni, and Mike D’Antoni hired Kenny with the Knicks,” mentioned Michael, a former Sachem hoops coach who Rick Pitino pulled to Kentucky.
Atkinson spent 4 years at MSG, from 2008 to 2012, the place “he had the guys towards the end of the roster” to take care of, his massive bro mentioned.
“One of those guys happened to be Jeremy Lin, and so Kenny worked with Jeremy Lin on a daily basis,” Michael added.
“Jeremy Lin even gives Kenny a lot of credit for being ready when his number was called.”
The Atkinson clan was bleeding blue and orange lengthy earlier than Linsanity — or the Knicks’ 1973 title, for that matter.
“We were Knicks fans forever,” Michael mentioned.
The brothers had been additionally simply as intense with each other as Walt Frazier’s group was with the remaining of the affiliation.
“Everybody was competitive, everybody had their own level of confidence,” mentioned Michael, the eldest at 71.
There was one thing about Kenny, the second youngest who’s now 58, that stood out properly earlier than he turned the top coach of the Brooklyn Nets from 2016 to 2020 and gained an NBA Championship with the Warriors as an assistant in 2022.
Mainly, it was self-discipline and work ethic handed down by their Marine officer father Neil, and Pauline, a no-nonsense mother who as soon as chased Kenny with a Wiffle ball bat when he was a 6-year-old.
“When you have eight kids — eight boys — you better have discipline,” Michael mentioned.
“He just took, and I think you saw it [during Game 7]that level of focus and intensity just to another level.”
It was a driving cause Kenny was the one sibling pulled from Northport public faculties for St. Anthony’s, a program led on the time by the late Gus Alfieri, an area basketball legend and St. John’s Hall of Famer.
A middle-school-aged Alan Hahn, who would go on to play for the Friars and LIU earlier than changing into a Knicks analyst with MSG Network, nonetheless remembers being starstruck when he noticed Atkinson play as a helper at a Long Island basketball camp within the Eighties.
“The first player that drew my attention and made me go, ‘Wow,’ was Kenny,” Hahn mentioned.
“It was a counselors and coaches game at lunchtime. He’s such a competitor, dominated the scrimmages, and I was just drawn to him ever since. … He was my first basketball idol.”
Atkinson was all about paying it ahead, and that zeal was palpable in any directions he gave to up-and-coming Long Islanders.
Both Michael and Hahn mentioned Kenny’s basketball “lectures” had been something however educational.
“The guy was dripping with sweat when he was done,” Hahn mentioned.
“When he was a player development guy, he was just as drenched in sweat as the player he was warming up for the game.”
Long Island is proud of the homegrown hoops guru’s success — however locals will simply have a humorous approach of exhibiting it within the subsequent few days.
“Of course I will be rooting for the Knicks,” St. Anthony’s alumni affairs director Denise Creighton wrote on Facebook, “but CONGRATULATIONS to Friar Alum Kenny Atkinson and the Cavs on their defeat of the Pistons.”