Mike D’Antoni was named the NBA’s Coach of the Year twice -- a dozen years apart with different teams. His system fueled two of his players, Steve Nash and James Harden, to combine for three MVPs. D’Antoni’s 672 career wins ranks in the NBA’s top 25. He was an assistant coach for USA Basketball and won two gold medals.
Still, D’Antoni knows he is entering into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend not because of his coaching accomplishments but for his philosophical infusion into the sport as a contributor to the game.
The high-octane offense that he brought with him from Italy and that surged through the Phoenix Suns franchise in the early 2000s inspired Jack McCallum’s classic sports book “:07 Seconds or Less.”
The phrase, which was D’Antoni’s directive to those Suns teams to attempt a field goal in the first ticks of the 24-second shot clock before the defense could settle in, became synonymous with the skilled, floor-spaced game that replaced the post-up battles of the 1980s and isolation-heavy possessions of the 1990s.
And the phrase became the two-time Italian League championship-winning coach’s calling card when he came back to the NBA nearly 30 years after his playing career was limited to just two games with the San Antonio Spurs.
“That’s the reason why I’m getting in the Hall of Fame,” D’Antoni told ESPN.
D’Antoni’s 2005-06 Phoenix Suns ranked second in the league in offensive efficiency, scoring 111.5 points per 100 possessions. Twenty years later, that offensive rating would have been 26th.
The entire league is playing the way his Suns did two decades ago.
“I’m proud of that and proud of the team we had and the run we had there,” D’Antoni said. “I’m not stupid enough to think it was just that [team that sparked today’s teams]. There’s so many other factors. Every year the players got better. They shoot the 3 better.
“Probably the biggest regret that I have coaching is that -- because we were first to go through the door, first of all, you take a lot of bullets. And ... it makes you hesitate. We didn’t go as far as we could have pushed the envelope back then because we didn’t know. We’d shoot 30-something 3s and we’re going, ‘Is that too many? Can we do that?’ While other people were saying, ‘You can’t win that way.’ And so instead of going, just revving it up like they do today and going after it ... we just didn’t quite maximize what we could have done.”
D’Antoni, 75, who spent 16 seasons on the NBA sideline with the Denver Nuggets, Suns, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets, caught up with ESPN before heading to Springfield, Massachusetts, for his induction.
The following Q&A was edited for length and clarity.
ESPN: You were 21-40 in your first season as interim head coach in Phoenix. Second year, 62-20. Was it as simple as adding Steve Nash?
I think that was the missing piece.
We were young the year before. And also, I took over halfway through the year ... didn’t really have a lot of time. [But] we were missing a point guard. And so when you plug into maybe the best point guard --- not maybe, but the best point guard in the league -- and you got Amar’e [Stoudemire] and you got Shawn Marion and Joe Johnson, and we added Quentin Richardson later, it was just a combination of those guys and Steve together that made that big jump.
It surprised us. We didn’t think we’d do all that. We were just trying to make the playoffs.
I remember when you were with the Lakers. We were in Detroit and the Pistons were hovering around .500 and we were at a shootaround and you made an offhanded remark like, “This is the type of the game that Steve just wouldn’t let us lose.”You’ve coached a lot of great players, but what was it about Nash and you that worked so well?
Well, Steve was going to be good no matter what team he was on. I do think that the way we played and the talent surrounding him made him an MVP, but he was a great player no matter what.
One of the reasons why I took the Laker job -- the biggest reason, other than I wanted to coach -- was that Steve was going to be there. So I’m thinking that if Steve and I can get this and put this together, we could be really good. And I remember asking them before I signed, “I know Steve’s hurt, when’s he coming back?”
And they go, “Well, he’ll be back by Friday. And if we can get you to sign and you get in here, he’ll be almost ready to go right when you get here.” That kind of pushed me over the hill.
Well, Steve never really came back. And even when he did come back, he was about half himself. And so it was doomed from the start.
What is the story behind the photo with you, Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard? It was early January in that 2012-13 season. The Lakers had just lost three games in a row, and then you guys posed for this photo. Kobe put it on his social media.
How did it happen?
There were rumors that they had really gotten into it and they hated each other, and this was not going to work.
I was on the training table rehabbing my knee and Kobe was there, and Dwight and I go, “Can you believe this?” I don’t know how, but we just started talking and all of a sudden [the photo was shot].
Was it Kobe’s idea? Because obviously he posted it.
I think it was. I think it was Kobe. But it wasn’t an idea that, “Oh, let’s pose for a picture and get this out.” But it was more of a joke. And I guess maybe the trainer [Gary Vitti] had a phone camera or something.
Gary might have said something like, “You guys stand there and look like you’re fighting, which everybody thinks you’re doing every day, anyway.” Something like that. It was off the cuff. It wasn’t planned.
It was more or less just us responding with, “It’s not as bad as people say it is.”
Obviously, Kobe tore his Achilles in the third-to-last game in the 2012-13 season, but you guys still finished that season 28-12. Is that a “What if?” for you?
Had that injury not happened, have you wondered whether you guys would have been able to keep that going?
I don’t know. We put ourselves in such a hole.
We had to play San Antonio in the first round. I don’t know if we’re going to beat San Antonio or not, but anytime you got Kobe on the team, you got a hell of a chance.
So I would’ve loved to have played them straight up. But without Steve, without that extra guy to kind of blend everything in the way I wanted to play and the way that Dwight wanted to play, I don’t think we could have made a long run in the playoffs.
I just hated it for Kobe. It was toward the end of his career and that happens. That sucks.
During Las Vegas summer league last month, you mentioned how happy you were for the Knicks’ fanbase to get to experience the championship in June. When you look back at your New York chapter, what do you think about?
Well, it was an incredible city. I could just feel the energy walking into the Garden. Even the year when we won maybe 30 games, we’d win two in a row and the energy was off the charts. It’s crazy.
Then the energy that we had with Linsanity, that was -- I’m sure, not as much as it was this year at the Finals -- but it was pretty much as good as it gets. And I think that’s what stands out mostly about New York, because it’s such an exciting place to be.
But missed opportunities in the sense that the third year we’re trying to get LeBron there.
We dismantled the roster for the first two years to get all our contracts right so we could sign LeBron and one other superstar hopefully to come in with a nice, young core of talent. We missed out on that, and then we also missed out on drafting Steph Curry by one spot.
So there were some heartbreaks. But other than that, a really good experience. I love New York.
Then you get to Houston. You win even more games with the Rockets than you ever won with the Suns -- 65 in 2017-18. You win Coach of the Year. Your system and your coaching helps another guy win an MVP in James Harden.
You just mentioned you wished you’d pushed the pedal a little bit harder with the Suns. What allowed you to do that with the Rockets?
I think analytically it had progressed to where we knew that the more we do what we want to do, the better it was.
And then we also built a team where it was suited for that. We had a lot of players that could shoot 3s. And James being the point guard was probably the key moment when it all kind of fell into place.
The pace wasn’t the same. The pace is usually dictated by your point guard. And they run at their own pace. So James ran at his, which was good, but we worked on throwing the ball up so that our pace was faster than what it could have been because we stressed it so much.
When there was no question that if we missed 3s or whatever that day and we were taking good shots, analytically they could kind of analyze everything and go, “Well, you played the way you need to play. Just, we lost. We didn’t make shots, or it just didn’t happen or the other team played better.”
So it just gives you confidence to keep going down the path you want to go.
I have to ask you about Game 7 of the 2018 Western Conference finals against the Golden State Warriors ...
We only missed 27 3s.
It was actually 37. You were 7-for-44.
No, but 27 in a row. And I think that’s a record that could stand. That’s hard to beat.
What was it like in the moment seeing the second half unravel like that, and what’s it been like processing it since?
We thought in Game 5, before Chris [Paul] pulled his hamstring, we thought we had them. And even Game 6, I think we’re up 10 or 12 at halftime. And then Game 7, we’re up.
Chris was so proficient from the 2 and running the team when James wasn’t in there, that we had to have that little burst from him to get over the hump. And without him, we couldn’t do it.
They were too good.
If you’d gotten through them, do you think Chris Paul would have a ring in the NBA and you’d have a ring in the NBA?
I think so. I mean, of course I think so. That keeps me going. That way, I can live peacefully for the rest of my years. But I don’t know for sure.
I thought Phoenix, the first year and we won 62 games with Joe Johnson, I thought we were the best team then. And then Joe Johnson breaks his orbital bone in his face. And so we get by Dallas 4-2 and get to San Antonio without Joe Johnson, who would’ve been matched up against Tony Parker. And Joe’s 6-7. And Joe was a workhorse where we could play him 44 minutes and he wouldn’t bat an eye. And so without him, we couldn’t get by San Antonio.
And maybe in reality, we wouldn’t have gotten by them anyway. I don’t know that. But I thought we had a really good chance.
So that’s the Suns team you think about more when it comes to San Antonio, rather than the one a couple years later where suspensions affected the series?
That one too. I thought we had them there, also. Especially because we won Game 4. And so we evened up the series going back to Phoenix. Because we had home-court advantage, I thought we could beat them.
But they got Tim Duncan and Ginobili and Parker. There was no sure thing, but we thought we had them or we could have them. And then the suspensions came into play.
Have you ever had a moment with Robert Horry since then? A chance to discuss it?
Oh yeah, yeah. I don’t have any [animosity]. I think I probably told him he owes me a ring, just jokingly. But stuff happens.
We didn’t have to come on the floor, so our fault as much as theirs. But it’d have been better if we could have played them with our full roster.
When you did come over to be the head coach of the Suns, what inspired your style of play?
Italy. My third year in Milan. We had, I thought, a really good team, a lot of talent. And we were middle of the pack, kind of mediocre. We lost six games in a row. I’m playing a traditionally back-to-the-basket guy. My leading scorer was a back-to-the-basket guy at the 4.
And I just came in one day and I have Antonio Davis from the Pacers, he was my center. And I got Saša Đorđević, who was one of the best point guards probably ever in Europe. A really good point guard. And I got those two guys and I got Ricardo Pittis, an Italian guy, and I got some Italian guys that are really good, like Antonello Riva.
And I’m going, “We’re better than this. What’s wrong?” ...
So I went into the coaches meeting on Monday saying, “Hey, we’re benching our leading scorer. He’ll be our sixth man. But we’re moving Ricardo Pittis, he’s a 3 to 4, and moving Antonio to center. We got Saša, we’re spreading the floor, putting in a little guy that can shoot 3s. And guess what? We’re going to shoot 3s and run pick-and-rolls and get up and down the floor.”
And luckily we won 21 of the next 22 games.
When the Lakers hired you, they picked you over Phil Jackson last-minute on a Sunday night a few weeks into the season, to replace Mike Brown.
Phil Jackson is the same guy who ran the triangle offense, and at your opening press conference, with Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol on your roster, you say, “I think the post-up is one of the least efficient plays in basketball.”
Where did you get the balls to say that?
It’s probably not balls; it’s probably more stupidity.
Because obviously it didn’t work the way I thought it might have. It just didn’t go well. It’s nobody’s fault. I don’t blame anybody because everybody was getting paid a lot of money to do what they do. And when I’m trying to change your game and make you do something else, they’re going, “Why? I’m making a lot of money doing this other way and it’s effective.” I get it.
It’s just the roster wasn’t quite set up the way we wanted to do it, but it was worth a try. And again, I think that because Pau was multitalented, he could have played any place he wanted to play. But I think with Steve, if he would’ve been healthy and been just anything of the way I remembered him in Phoenix, we could have made it work. And we would’ve adapted.
I mean, it wouldn’t have been no post-ups whatsoever. You have a philosophy, but you have to adapt your philosophy to what you have on your roster. You can’t just be, “No, this is my way or the highway.” It can’t ever be that way. And we just tried to blend different concepts in, and it didn’t work as well as it should have -- or as well as it could have. And that’s just the way it is.
Then personalities get involved, egos get involved.
And then L.A.’s not an easy place. Like New York, it’s not easy. You’ve got to win. And so you’re running against the wind all the time, and it just didn’t work out.
Clearly one of the most successful parts of your coaching career is your time as an assistant coach with USA Basketball. You’re actually getting into the Hall of Fame now for a second time because you got in with the 2008 Redeem Team.
How did that opportunity come about?
Well, I didn’t know Coach [Mike] Krzyzewski at all. But we had such a great year in Phoenix. And then obviously Jerry Colangelo being the head of USA Basketball and Bryan [Colangelo]. I mean, all of that.
And I’m sure they talked me up to Mike and I just got lucky. Right place, right time.
Coach Krzyzewski is an unbelievable coach, and it was just a great group of coaches. We were the best in the world, the best coaches in the world. And so it was just eight years of just fun hanging around those guys and watching those guys and just trying not to screw it up.
It was a great, great experience for me.
Is there a part of that experience -- maybe a scout on a team that you tried to pass on to the coaching staff -- or even just a personal memory you had with one of the coaches or the players that sticks out to you?
We’re in a coaches meeting and we’re playing Argentina. And so they’re looking at me and going, “OK, Mike, what do we do to stop [Manu] Ginobili?”
And I go, “Stop Ginobili? Didn’t you guys pay attention to the playoffs? I don’t have any way to stop him. Are y’all serious?”
A lot of the European players, because I coached and played so long in Europe, I’d chime in about just how they were going to play or what they’re thinking. So I think I contributed a little bit that way. But again, Coach Krzyzewski did such a great job of managing the players, and that’s more than X’s and O’s. It’s more managing people. Because the talent is overwhelming.
There are very few people as qualified to answer this: Team USA 2012 or Team USA 2008, which was the better team?
I think the 2008 team. They were even more in their prime -- LeBron, Kobe, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade. Dwyane was awesome. He saved us against Spain in that final game.
They shot about 75% and we had to shoot about 80 to beat them. It was unbelievable. That was basketball at a very, very high level.
