New York Knickerbockers President and General Manager Scott Layden announced today that the organization has extended the contract of Head Coach Don Chaney. Terms of the contract were not revealed, per team policy.

?Don has shown exemplary on and off-court leadership and we are very pleased to give him this opportunity,? Layden said. ?We feel extending his contract at this time gives Don and the team the opportunity to concentrate on basketball for the long term.?

?We have great confidence that Don is the right person to lead the Knicks,? said James L. Dolan, chairman of Madison Square Garden and president and CEO of Cablevision Systems Corporation. ?We appreciated his willingness to step into a challenging position last December and believe that he has shown all the qualities that the Knicks need to succeed.?

?I am very grateful to the Knicks organization, and am looking forward to the future,? Chaney said. ?As a player and a coach, New York has always been a very special place to me, and I am determined to lead the team through this transition and back to NBA prominence.?

Overall, Chaney has 23 years of coaching experience, including 10 as a head coach. He enjoyed his best success at the helm of the Houston Rockets from 1988-92, posting a 164-134 (.550) record (second-best in franchise history), including NBA Coach of the Year honors in 1991. He also had head coaching stints with the Los Angeles Clippers (1984-?87) and Detroit Pistons (1993-?95) and has an all-time head coaching record of 276-409 (.403). He has spent the last eight years with the Knicks organization, serving as top assistant for both Don Nelson and Jeff Van Gundy, before taking over the head coaching reigns on December 10, 2001. He is the 19th head coach in the Knicks? 57 years of basketball.