Jeff Hornacek has always made time for his family, even in the middle of an NBA game when it wasn't all that convenient.
Back when he played for the Utah Jazz, the new Knicks coach was known for being a deadly shooter with a strangely complicated free-throw routine. Before each foul shot, Hornacek would wipe his face three times as a secret signal to his three young kids, Ryan, Tyler and Abby, who were usually back home in their pajamas watching the game on television.
"They were always asking me to wave to them. I couldn't really do that, so this is what I came up with," said Hornacek, a career 87.7 percent free-throw shooter. "I started getting letters from all over the world and people started asking about it and suddenly our secret wave wasn't so secret anymore."
This story bears retelling now because it says volumes about what drives the man whom the Knicks have hired to coach their team. Hornacek has two passions: basketball and family. For the most part, he has managed to carve out an impressive career in one without shortchanging the other.
"I think he might have been the first athlete to bring children into the picture," Stacy Hornacek, Jeff's wife of 30 years, said recently in a phone interview.
