That summer Woodson won a gold medal as captain of the United States basketball team at the 1979 Pan American Games.

His senior year, Woodson and Isiah Thomas led the 1979–80 Hoosiers to a conference title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet Sixteen.

Woodson was named the 1980 Big Ten Player of the Year, an NABC All-American, and awarded the Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball.

He also played for the New Jersey Nets, Kansas City/Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Clippers, Houston Rockets, and Cleveland Cavaliers.

He worked as an assistant for the Milwaukee Bucks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Larry Brown's Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Clippers, and New York Knicks.

He subsequently spent three seasons as head coach of the New York Knicks, where he reached the playoffs twice and secured an Atlantic Division title.

Woodson lived for a year with his oldest sister before eventually moving back in with his mom to help support her, giving her half of each pay check.

[2] Growing up in Indiana, Woodson felt the Hoosier Hysteria that permeated the state, which helped prepare him for a career in basketball.

"[3] He was also able to practice with a large number of talented basketball players in the Indianapolis area, including professionals such as George McGinnis, Roger Brown, and Rick Mount.

Reflecting on that year, Woodson remarked, "My freshman year I only weighed a buck-85 playing small forward, and I could never keep anybody off the boards, and Coach told me early on, I kept missing block outs, and Coach was like 'Dammit, you miss one more block out and you're gonna run them stairs until I get tired.'

During the final game that season, against Illinois, word leaked out that Big Ten coaches had left Woodson off their all-conference first team, despite averaging 21 points and 5.7 rebounds while shooting 50 percent from the field.

Following that season Woodson was selected to play for the United States in the 1979 Pan American Games on the basketball team coached by Indiana's Bob Knight.

1 in the polls after a rare 78–50 blow-out of the Soviet Union men's national basketball team and then went on to four straight college victories.

But Hoosier star Randy Wittman broke his foot and Woodson was forced to miss seven weeks due to back surgery on a herniated disc.

After winning the 1984 NBA All-Star MVP, Isiah Thomas was asked if that was his biggest basketball thrill, to which Thomas replied, "No, my biggest thrill was my freshman year at Indiana when Mike Woodson came back from back surgery and hit his first three jump shots at Iowa.

There, Woodson alternated between starter and sixth man in five seasons with the Kings, averaging a career-high 18.2 points per game in 1982–83, including a 1983 playoff run.

With the Pistons during the 2003–04 season, Woodson worked closely with head coach Larry Brown to help win an NBA Championship.

In the 2008–09 season, the Hawks went 47–35 (.573), defeating the Miami Heat in the first round playoffs before advancing and losing to Cleveland in the conference semifinals.

After the loss, general manager Rick Sund announced that the team would not attempt to re-sign Woodson, whose contract expired on May 17, 2010.

Woodson's 206 career wins are fourth-best in Hawks franchise history, trailing only Richie Guerin (327), Mike Fratello (324), and Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens (310).

He was a coach and mentor to Knick all-stars Carmelo Anthony, Baron Davis, Jason Kidd, Amar'e Stoudemire, and Rasheed Wallace.

Additionally, Woodson's contract provides bonuses of $100,000 for finishing in the top three in the Big Ten standings, as well as another $100,000 for an APR score above 950.

Woodson and the Hoosiers snapped nine-game losing streaks against Purdue and Michigan and advanced to the semifinals of the 2022 Big Ten men's basketball tournament, their first appearance since 2013.

[20][21] Indiana was selected to play in a 2022 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament First Four game, which they won, before losing in the first round.

[24] Woodson played and assisted under well-known coaches such as Bob Knight, Red Holzman, Cotton Fitzsimmons, and Larry Brown.

[2] In games, Woodson "exudes Knight's steely discipline," but in language uses Larry Brown's "philosopher-coach persona, speaking earnestly of 'playing the right way' and the need to 'teach' his players.