Stan Novak

Stanley Novak ( – October 21, 2006) was an American professional basketball player, coach and scout. He was a longtime fixture of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA), starting his career as a player with the Lancaster Red Roses in 1948 and spending the following four decades as head coach of various teams until his coaching retirement in 1980. Novak won four league championships and was a six-time Coach of the Year selection. He worked in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as director of scouting for the Detroit Pistons from 1980 to 1992 and Minnesota Timberwolves from 1992 to 1997.

Early life Novak was a native of West Philadelphia. He was a childhood friend of Jack McCloskey; the two would go on to be teammates on the Penn Quakers and Sunbury Mercuries, and worked together with the Detroit Pistons. Novak attended West Philadelphia High School where he led the team's basketball team to the Public League championship in 1941. Novak's collegiate career was interrupted by a stint as an officer in the United States Navy.

Playing career Novak played four games for the Lancaster Red Roses of the Eastern Professional Basketball League (EPBL) during the 1948–49 season. He played 70 games for the Sunbury Mercuries of the EPBL from 1949 to 1957 while he also served as the team's head coach.

Springfield Township HS Novak served as the head coach of the basketball team at Springfield Township High School in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, from 1949 to 1967 while he was also employed as a teacher. He stepped down as head coach in 1959 due to "family ties, teaching-coaching chores ... and officiating duties." Novak returned to the same position from 1960 to 1963. He was head coach of the Scranton Apollos of the renamed Eastern Basketball Association (EBA) from 1970 to 1977. He had his final coaching stint as head coach of the Lancaster Red Roses in the renamed Continental Basketball Association (CBA) during the 1979–80 season. He was named Coach of the Year six times: 1971, 1972, and 1977. The CBA honored him by renaming the award to the "Stan Novak Coach of the Year Award".

Novak was inducted into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2000. He officiated a game between the Temple Owls and Saint Joseph's Hawks – coached respectively by "two of [his] best friends", Harry Litwack and Jack Ramsay – and made a decision that resulted in the outcome of the game; Novak reflected in a 1988 interview, "I felt so badly that I never refereed again." Novak served as director of scouting for the Minnesota Timberwolves from 1992 until his retirement in 1997. He had two children. of complications from a stroke at the age of 82.