The New York Knicks officially lifted Mike Woodson's interim title on Friday and signed him to a multi-year contract.

Knicks general manager Glen Grunwald also confirmed they want to keep Jeremy Lin in New York.

Woodson, who led the Knicks in the final 24 games of the season, said he was honored to be given the opportunity to coach the team that he started his NBA career with in 1980.

 "I'm humbled and honored to continue coaching the franchise where I started my career," Woodson said. "Our goal is to build off the success we had at the end of last season and to continue our quest of bringing an NBA championship to Madison Square Garden."

Woodson coached the Knicks to a 16-8 record and seventh place in the Eastern conference, after taking over from Mike D'Antoni. Under Woodson, the Knicks snapped a 13-game playoff losing streak before going down to the Miami Heat in the first round.

"Mike took over the team under challenging circumstances and made it clear, starting on day one, that he was going to make every player on our roster accountable," executive chairman James Dolan said. "We saw a significant improvement since Mike took over and believe our team will only keep improving under Mike's direction."

Woodson has been supported by the players ever since taking over, especially the team's two superstars Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire.

"Coach Woodson is a player-coach," Stoudemire said. "He is a guy that played in the NBA for several years. He knows what we go through as players, which is the first step for us relating to a coach. Secondly, he has a great gameplan for the offense and defense.  He articulates what he wants on both ends of the court and as players we tend to gravitate to that. So if we can continue to build with him and let him lead us, we will be a solid team."

When D'Antoni stepped down, the Knicks were linked with former Bulls and Lakers coach Phil Jackson and Kentucky coach John Calipari. Grunwald said they did not consider any other coach for the position. "I think Woody earned the right to be the first person we talked to and turned out to be the only person we talked to," Grunwald said. "We thought he was the right guy for this team at this time. Obviously there are some great coaches out there that, had we opened up the search, we would have been called. Namely Phil Jackson, who was the most successful coach in NBA history. We felt Woody was our guy, he showed it during the season and in our discussions after the season."

The next big move for the Knicks will be to keep Lin, who is a restricted free agent. "We're happy with our roster," Grunwald said during his conference call. We have two guards (Lin and Landry Fields) who are restricted free agents, so we will be able to retain them."

"We can keep him if we want him and we do want to keep him, and i believe Jeremy had a great experience here. I believe he wants to come back."

As Lin is a restricted free agent, the Knicks will have the right to match any offer,  with no team allowed to offer Lin more than $5 million in starting salary as the guard has played only two NBA seasons.

Asked if there was any chance of the Knicks losing Lin, Grunwald said. "No, not at this time."