Mike D'Antoni

Michael Andrew D'Antoni (born May 8, 1951) is an Italian-American professional basketball coach and former player who is a coaching advisor for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

After playing high school basketball at Mullens High School, in Mullens, West Virginia, D'Antoni played college basketball at Marshall University, with the Thundering Herd, from 1970 to 1973.

After a college basketball career at Marshall University, D'Antoni was drafted by the Kansas City-Omaha Kings in the second round of the 1973 NBA draft.

After playing three seasons for the Kings (1973–1975), he played for the Spirits of St. Louis of the American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1975–76, and for the San Antonio Spurs (again in the NBA) in 1976–77.

His Spurs career lasted just two games, before he found an opportunity to play overseas.

D'Antoni was signed by the Italian team Olimpia Milano, starting a career that saw him become the club's all-time leading scorer.

Being of Italian origin with American and Italian dual citizenship, D'Antoni was also selected to play on the senior men's Italian national team for the EuroBasket tournament in 1989.

D'Antoni began his career as head coach for his most loyal club, Olimpia Milan.

He was voted the Italian LBA league's top point guard of all time in 1990, and paced his team to five Italian League titles, two FIBA European Champions Cup (now called EuroLeague) titles, two Italian Cups, one FIBA Korać Cup, and one FIBA Intercontinental Cup.

During his playing career in Italy, D'Antoni earned the nickname "Il Baffo" (Italian for "The Mustache"), in reference to his ever-present facial hair.

He also earned the nickname "Arsène Lupin" because of his ability to steal the ball.

He remained there for four seasons, from 1990 to 1994, leading the club to a 1992 FIBA EuroLeague Final Four appearance, and a 1992–93 season FIBA Korać Cup title.

D'Antoni was then chosen to coach Benetton Treviso, another major Italian league basketball club.

During his tenure with Treviso (1994–1997), the team captured the FIBA European Cup (later renamed Saporta Cup) and Italian Cup (in 1995), and won the Italian national domestic league title in the 1996–97 season.

D'Antoni's Italian club teams went to the Italian League's playoffs each season.

D'Antoni's first NBA coaching job was with the Denver Nuggets in 1997–98 as the club's director of player personnel.

He also did some broadcasting work with TNT that season.

The next year, he became the Nuggets' head coach, but was fired after a poor performance during the lockout-shortened 1998–99 season.

D'Antoni then became a scout for San Antonio Spurs during the 1999–2000 season.

He was also an assistant for the Portland Trail Blazers in 2000–01.

In 2001, D'Antoni returned to Italy for a second stint as the coach of Benetton Treviso.

In his one-season back in Europe, he led Treviso to a 28–8 regular season record in the Italian League, an Italian League championship, and to a 2002 Euroleague Final Four appearance, coaching a team filled with many former NBA stars.

In 2002, D'Antoni made his return to the NBA as a Phoenix Suns assistant under Frank Johnson.

In 2003, he replaced Johnson with 61 games left in the season as the Suns' head coach and, despite the team's failure to improve in the second half of the season, received a vote of confidence for producing inspired play from the injury-riddled team.

While head coach of the Phoenix Suns, he won NBA Coach of the Year honors for the 2004–05 NBA season after the Suns posted 33 more wins than the previous season.

With the acquisition of free agent Steve Nash before the 2004–05 season, an incredible turnaround began for the team.

Nash was experienced in the run-and-gun style from his previous stints with the Dallas Mavericks and the Suns.

He excelled running D'Antoni's pick-and-roll offense.

D'Antoni won the NBA Coach of the Year Award after his Suns went 62–20 to finish first in the regular season.

His style, dubbed "Seven Seconds or Less", was described in a book of that name.

Overall, his Suns won 50 or more games in four consecutive seasons, while Nash earned NBA MVP honors in 2005 and 2006.

In addition to Nash, D'Antoni's Suns also featured All-Star power forward Amar'e Stoudemire and high-flying All-Star small forward Shawn Marion.

They made consecutive appearances in the Western Conference finals in 2005 and 2006, losing to the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks, respectively.

D'Antoni became the Suns' GM after Bryan Colangelo's departure and passed on the post to Steve Kerr in 2007.

He coached the New York Knicks starting in 2008 before resigning in 2012.

He was hired by the Los Angeles Lakers seven games into the 2012–13 season.

In 2015, Olimpia Milano retired his No. 8 jersey, in order to honor him.

On June 1, 2016, D'Antoni was named head coach of the Rockets, and he received his second NBA Coach of the Year award for the 2016–17 season.

D'Antoni is known for favoring a fast-paced, offense-oriented system.

Guards Steve Nash and James Harden would win the NBA Most Valuable Player Award playing under D'Antoni's system.