Butch van Breda Kolff

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

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, and was included in the NSCAA All-America first team. 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. 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, where he taught world history after passing the National Teacher Examination. 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, albeit with a slow start that saw Chamberlain and van Breda Kolff bicker. 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 there

In Their Own Story

The tension between van Breda Kolff and Wilt Chamberlain reached its peak during the decisive Game 7 of the NBA Finals against Boston. With the Lakers cutting a seven-point deficit to two points, backup Mel Counts was playing while Chamberlain, having picked up his fifth foul earlier in the fourth quarter, motioned from the bench that he was ready to return despite knee pain. Van Breda Kolff refused, telling the center to stay seated. The local newspapers took sides in the dispute, with the coach supporting the Times and Chamberlain the Herald-Examiner. Following this loss, Chamberlain later labeled van Breda Kolff as the worst coach he ever had. On May 19, van Breda Kolff resigned before owner Jack Kent Cooke could fire him, marking his final postseason NBA game.

Reader's Guide

Butch van Breda Kolff played soccer as a midfielder in 1946 at Princeton University, not NYU. After leaving the Lakers, he coached the Detroit Pistons for just over two seasons, guiding them to a 45–37 record in 1970–71, their first winning season in fifteen years. He departed ten games into the next season after being cursed at by fans. His subsequent stops included the Phoenix Suns (fired after seven games in 1972–73), the Memphis team in the ABA (1973–74), and the New Orleans Jazz from 1974 to 1977. While with the Jazz, 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. That pick eventually helped select Magic Johnson.

Did You Know?

• He played soccer as a midfielder at Princeton University in 1946 and was named to the NSCAA All-America first team.
• He is one of four men to have coached both an NCAA Final Four team and an NBA Finals squad.
• He once told a reporter, 'Coaching is coaching. Give me 10 players who want to work and learn the game and I'm happy.'
• His son Jan van Breda Kolff also played and coached in the NBA.