Rumors

It started, excuse me, earlier in my career and I thought in Europe when I was coaching in Europe, that's the best way to play and was working. Obviously then you come to the NBA, you have better players to do what I always thought that needed to be done. But again, a big driving force was Shaquille O'Neal was the center in Los Angeles, which is in our division. And we always said among ourselves, you can't out Shaq Shaq. You can't just trot somebody out there and think you're gonna get the best of Shaq. So we had to figure out a way to beat him. And that was to speed the game up, take more 3s and spread them out, and then they give us a chance to win. CHAKRABARTI: That's so interesting. I had no idea that Shaq was that influential in shaping the way other teams played. D'ANTONI: Yeah. He is actually the cause of the 3-point shot.

WBUR

Coach D'Antoni respond to what [she] is saying. She says the offense has taken priority over, or 3-point-based offense has taken priority over defense. What do you think? MIKE D'ANTONI: No, never takes priority over defense. Defense, every coach knows you have to have a good defense to win, but all offenses are designed to attack the weakest part of your defense. So a lot of teams, like we played the Milwaukee Bucks and they had a center that hung around the rim. Or Rudy Gobert, who likes to stay back. And normally, so you're not, your offense is going to be designed to take a lot of 3s because they've clogged up the middle. They won't let you get to the rim, which is always the first priority of any good offense, is to make layups. So you have to change up your philosophy or your point of attack. What I disagree with. I don't think it's made the game bad. It makes it exciting. There's a lot of, Steph Curry is Stephen Curry, yeah. Becomes a 3-point shot, that would be a crime not to have him in the league or no lead is safe, which is a good thing. Or there's no repeat champions in the last five or 10 years because it opens the game up and gives everybody a chance to be that dominant team.

WBUR

Conversely, the Pelicans will not retain coaching advisor Mike D’Antoni, league sources told HoopsHype. D’Antoni has been with the Pelicans in that role since 2021.

HoopsHype

LeBron James: I don’t think that you—and I don’t think Mike—get enough credit for revolutionizing the game to where it is today. They always talk about players. They talk about how transcendent a player can be: Magic, Bird, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe, Michael, Steph Curry, yourself. I don’t think that you—and first of all, your style of play, how you and D’Antoni mirrored so easily to transcend the game—that is the game today. You guys were before his time. The true essence of before his time."

YouTube

I saw that you were an unofficial assistant coach with the Suns during the 2005 preseason. How did that come about? Jack McCallum: I had this idea for a preseason story that I would be as close to a coach as I could. That was my only idea. Let me get behind the scenes of an NBA team, and see what it’s like to be a coach. Meetings, practice, strategy sessions, sitting on the bench in a practice game. I knew the PR lady Julie Fie, and Julie kind of trusted me. She said, yeah, let me ask Mike and Mike said, yeah come on. And that was sort of it, and I wrote this story, and people just loved it because it was inside. Like it was inside the sport. They just really, really, really responded to it and I’m so stupid that I didn’t even do anything about it, and a week later, the story comes out and I was just like, OK, let’s start the season and my agent says, ‘Well, why don’t you turn this into a book?’ It was such a popular story and I go, that’s a good idea. So I call up D’Antoni, and I’m going into this long explanation of how it could be a great book and a way to talk about blah blah blah, 20 seconds into it, Mike goes, ‘Yeah, yeah come on out. Who gives a shit.’ [Laughs] And that was sort of it. And then it was a book, so I wasn’t even smart enough really. I thought of the original story idea, but I didn’t think of it being a book.

HoopsHype

Tim Reynolds: A pregame tribute here at Summer League to the great Jerry West. Some of West Virginia's finest are here as well -- including the great Rod Thorn and the great Mike D'Antoni.

Twitter

David Hardisty: Former Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni in the house

Twitter

Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson: On why there was so much friction is between Mike D’Antoni and other players around the league… Tim Thomas: Oh I don’t know… I mean, I had a great relationship with him and I just think with my game and my skill set I could fit in anywhere, right? So many other guys that you might be talking about might’ve had trouble based off of their skill set and not being able to flourish in that type of offense but, with his offense if you could handle the ball, shoot the ball and run the floor? You should be fine, right? You should be fine. But I don’t know. I just had a great relationship with most of my coaches. The only one that I had a headache with was Larry Brown and come to find out later, he just never really liked rookies, you know? So that was basically the problem with myself and Larry Hughes not being able to help Allen Iverson out in Philly.

Youtube

That song, which features Kendrick raising the stakes of rap competition to the point of him sounding like a lecturer, has a lyric that made Phil Jackson publicly comment on rap, perhaps for the first time ever. Kendrick, in the middle of his three-minute verse, name-drops the coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers dynasties: "If Phil Jackson came back, still no coaching me." Jackson, who was rumored to be coming back with the Lakers that season before they decided to hire Mike D'Antoni, responded on Twitter, a sign that the methods of celebrity communication were changing. We were closer to getting a soundbite than we were if paparazzi asked a question on the street. Jackson's tweet read: "@kendricklamar it's okay to be cocky and sure, but we all need to someone to lean on. Let's call it mentoring."

ESPN

Quietly, there has been a belief for a while that Mike D’Antoni would be a coaching candidate for Philly if Rivers is relieved of his coaching duties while Harden was a Sixer. In Houston, D’Antoni built an offense around Harden that helped him become a three-time scoring champion in three straight seasons under Morey in Houston.

HoopsHype

Christian Clark: The Pelicans would like someone with head coaching experience on their bench next season. Willie Green's relationship with coaching advisor Mike D'Antoni is strong. Green emphasized at exit interviews he's still learning too.

Twitter

Adrian Wojnarowski: Mike D’Antoni is set to meet with Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan on the franchise’s coaching job today, sources tell ESPN. D’Antoni was the other Charlotte finalist before Kenny Atkinson changed his mind on accepting position and stayed in Golden State on Saturday.

Twitter

Adrian Wojnarowski: ESPN Sources: Kenny Atkinson has decided he won’t become the Charlotte Hornets’ head coach and will remain with Golden State as top assistant. After being offered job during the NBA Finals, further conversations led Atkinson to believe it would be best to remain with Warriors.

Twitter

Adrian Wojnarowski: Mike D'Antoni and Terry Stotts were the other two finalists for the job, sources said. Charlotte will have to restart process now.

Twitter