Mike D’Antoni will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend largely for the offensive philosophy he brought to the sport, not solely for on-court achievements, according to ESPN. He was a two-time NBA Coach of the Year, accumulated 672 career wins — among the league’s top 25 — and served as an assistant with USA Basketball, earning two gold medals.
D’Antoni’s high-octane approach, imported from his time coaching in Italy and refined in Phoenix, was captured in Jack McCallum’s book “:07 Seconds or Less.” The phrase reflected his instruction that teams attempt a field goal in the opening ticks of the 24-second clock so defenses could not settle, a tactic that shifted the NBA away from post-up and isolation-heavy offenses, according to ESPN.
His 2005-06 Phoenix Suns rated second in the league in offensive efficiency, scoring 111.5 points per 100 possessions; ESPN notes that rating would rank 26th two decades later as the entire league moved toward that style. D’Antoni said he is proud of that influence but also rued that his teams did not fully push the envelope at the time, in part because being first invited more criticism and made it harder to experiment, according to ESPN.
D’Antoni spent 16 NBA seasons on the sideline with the Denver Nuggets, Suns, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets, and his system helped two of his players, Steve Nash and James Harden, combine for three MVP awards, according to ESPN. He took over as Phoenix interim coach and went 21-40 in that partial season before the club went 62-20 the next year after adding Nash.
Speaking about Nash, D’Antoni called him the missing piece for that Suns turnaround and said Nash would have been an outstanding player regardless of team, according to ESPN. The 75-year-old coach also noted his background as a two-time Italian League champion and that his brief NBA playing career lasted just two games with the San Antonio Spurs, according to ESPN.
