Woodson talked to Billups before taking the job

Woodson called Billups again and told him he was going to take the job.

"When he told me he was coming," Billups said, "I was pumped, man."

But, in the midst of a lockout and the resulting no-contact rule the NBA has strictly enforced, that also meant one other thing: "Of course now I can't talk to him."

But he doesn't need to. You don't win a championship ring with someone and not know what they're all about. Billups said Woodson is "going to add so much to our team" and, yes, though the specific role will be downplayed, most of it will be at the defensive end.

"He had a lot of responsibility to our defense in Detroit and what we did," Billups said of Pistons teams that were annually one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. "A lot of film work we did with him, a lot of on the court drills and going through different situations, Woody led the charge with a lot of those things."

Woodson's philosophy, Billups said, was based on a simple attitude: "We're going to make people work to score. Help side is always going to be available and we're going to make them take the shot they don't want to take."

Billups suggested things will be better for the Knicks, who were routinely criticized for their defense, now that Mike D'Antoni has someone who can handle that responsibility and allow him to focus on what he does best: offense.

"More than anything, [D'Antoni] is a great coach, I've said that many times," Billups said. "Mike is an offensive guru, I think he's one of the best in the business. I think Woody coming in is just going to add to his staff because he's going to be able to continue to worry about how the offense is running and know he has a guy on the staff who is really in tune with what's going on at the other end of the floor."

But will D'Antoni, who doesn't subscribe to the Pat Riley School of three hour practices, give ample time for Woodson to work on the defense in practice?

"I don't think that will be an issue at all because one thing I know about Mike," Billups said of D'Antoni, "he wants to win."
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The left knee, which he injured in Game 1 of the series with the Celtics, is fully healed. Billups has been working out full court for two weeks. If camp was to open on time "I'd be ready," he said. But the fact that it took so long to heal was a concern. "If you remember, I thought I'd be able to come back and play in that series, man," he said. "Something I thought would take four days took four months."