thegrahamcrackr
Registered User
I saw Joe use a snippet from this article, but I don't think anyone posted the full thing. It was posted earlier today on Insider.
Can Mike D'Antoni turn around the Suns?
It's May, 2002, and I'm sitting in the city center of Treviso, Italy, in an outdoor cafe, eating pizza and pasta with Mike D'Antoni and his wife Laurel.
In my mind, there isn't a more picturesque place in all of Europe. Children are playing soccer in the streets. The air is clean. The sun is out. Locals don't hesitate to stop, put their arms around D'Antoni and tell him how much they love him.
Eighteen months later, with that Treviso cafe now half a world a way, D'Antoni is feeling an entirely different kind of warmth as the new head coach of the Phoenix Suns. Call it heat, if you will. After one brief, disastrous outing as head coach of the Denver Nuggets, D'Antoni is back in the NBA hot seat in Phoenix. Does he have what it takes to turn the disappointing Suns back into a contender?
If his European credentials translated directly to the NBA, the answer would be a resounding yes. D'Antoni is, by all accounts, a legend in European basketball, both as a player and a coach. In 20 years as a player and coach in Milan, D'Antoni had set the club record for career scoring, was voted the Italian League's all-time top point guard and coached Milan to five Italian League titles.
He was lured back to the NBA briefly in 1997 and took over as head coach of the Nuggets during the lockout-shortened 1998 season. The team was terrible, and its 14-36 record that season was considered a triumph by most. However, at the end of the season, Dan Issel got the itch to coach again, and D'Antoni eventually went back to Italy looking for redemption.
In just one year in Treviso he led Benetton to a berth in the Euroleague Final Four. Life was good for Mike D'Antoni.
On this day, an older man walks up to D'Antoni, all smiles, and embraces him. There is a warmth in this place that I've never felt. As we walk back to Benetton's beautiful practice facilities, we are constantly stopped by locals cheering him on.
Inevitably, the topic of returning to the NBA comes up. D'Antoni pauses.
"I don't know," he said. "A lot of the problems that you have to deal with there, you don't have here. Players rule the NBA. Coaches still have some say here. They still have the players' respect. That's tough to get and easy to lose in the NBA. I just don't know."
Three months later, D'Antoni made his decision. He took a job as an assistant for the Suns with the goal of becoming an NBA head coach someday. He told me at the time that he did it for his kids, who preferred to be in U.S. schools, and for the Colangelos, who own the Suns. The Colangelos have a deep fondness for all things Italian, and as far as basketball is concerned, D'Antoni might be the country's finest import. It was just a matter of time before he took over the reigns of the Suns.
It's ironic that he takes the helm at a time when the exact forces he feared are swirling around his team.
Five months ago, Frank Johnson was a hero in Phoenix. He led a team that many considered the worst in the Western Conference into the playoffs, then pushed the World Champion Spurs in the first round. Just six weeks into the new season, however, a slow start, a lack of effort, and the outright quitting by several of his players led to his dismissal.
D'Antoni will have his hands full. The Suns are loaded with young talent, but the roster is capped out. GM Bryan Colangelo claims there won't be any trades or personnel changes in the near future. His best interior player, Amare Stoudemire, is out four weeks with an ankle injury. Rookie Zarko Carbarkapa, the Suns' other talented big man, has a broken wrist.
It's going to take great coaching to turn the Suns around this season. D'Antoni is capable. But will the Suns listen?
"Some of the players have quit," Colangelo told Insider on Wednesday, evening after Johnson's firing. "The guys all have a high level of respect for Mike. He's a tremendous coach. We hope those two go hand-in-hand and we can see the results."
Colangelo claims the players never really lost respect for Johnson, but they had tuned him out. Their lack of response meant it was time for a change.
D'Antoni won't be the disciplinarian or defensive guru some think the Suns need. He likes to play wide-open basketball and relies heavily on the pick-and-roll. He loves small ball, and without Stoudemire, the Suns will need it. The team is pretty small up front and won't have any semblance of a low-post offense.
But X's and O's aren't the issue. It's the players. D'Antoni has to find a way to get them to tune in.
"It's a tough day, in the sense that I feel sorry for Frank," D'Antoni said today. "I was part of the staff that didn't get it done. ... We just weren't all on the same page at the same time. We've had a couple of players go AWOL on us this season, and I think it cost us games. ... The talent is there. They're the ones that have to play. They're the ones that are going to have to make us win."
And if they don't, it's just a matter of time before he'll be back in Italy wondering why he ever left.
Can Mike D'Antoni turn around the Suns?
It's May, 2002, and I'm sitting in the city center of Treviso, Italy, in an outdoor cafe, eating pizza and pasta with Mike D'Antoni and his wife Laurel.
In my mind, there isn't a more picturesque place in all of Europe. Children are playing soccer in the streets. The air is clean. The sun is out. Locals don't hesitate to stop, put their arms around D'Antoni and tell him how much they love him.
Eighteen months later, with that Treviso cafe now half a world a way, D'Antoni is feeling an entirely different kind of warmth as the new head coach of the Phoenix Suns. Call it heat, if you will. After one brief, disastrous outing as head coach of the Denver Nuggets, D'Antoni is back in the NBA hot seat in Phoenix. Does he have what it takes to turn the disappointing Suns back into a contender?
If his European credentials translated directly to the NBA, the answer would be a resounding yes. D'Antoni is, by all accounts, a legend in European basketball, both as a player and a coach. In 20 years as a player and coach in Milan, D'Antoni had set the club record for career scoring, was voted the Italian League's all-time top point guard and coached Milan to five Italian League titles.
He was lured back to the NBA briefly in 1997 and took over as head coach of the Nuggets during the lockout-shortened 1998 season. The team was terrible, and its 14-36 record that season was considered a triumph by most. However, at the end of the season, Dan Issel got the itch to coach again, and D'Antoni eventually went back to Italy looking for redemption.
In just one year in Treviso he led Benetton to a berth in the Euroleague Final Four. Life was good for Mike D'Antoni.
On this day, an older man walks up to D'Antoni, all smiles, and embraces him. There is a warmth in this place that I've never felt. As we walk back to Benetton's beautiful practice facilities, we are constantly stopped by locals cheering him on.
Inevitably, the topic of returning to the NBA comes up. D'Antoni pauses.
"I don't know," he said. "A lot of the problems that you have to deal with there, you don't have here. Players rule the NBA. Coaches still have some say here. They still have the players' respect. That's tough to get and easy to lose in the NBA. I just don't know."
Three months later, D'Antoni made his decision. He took a job as an assistant for the Suns with the goal of becoming an NBA head coach someday. He told me at the time that he did it for his kids, who preferred to be in U.S. schools, and for the Colangelos, who own the Suns. The Colangelos have a deep fondness for all things Italian, and as far as basketball is concerned, D'Antoni might be the country's finest import. It was just a matter of time before he took over the reigns of the Suns.
It's ironic that he takes the helm at a time when the exact forces he feared are swirling around his team.
Five months ago, Frank Johnson was a hero in Phoenix. He led a team that many considered the worst in the Western Conference into the playoffs, then pushed the World Champion Spurs in the first round. Just six weeks into the new season, however, a slow start, a lack of effort, and the outright quitting by several of his players led to his dismissal.
D'Antoni will have his hands full. The Suns are loaded with young talent, but the roster is capped out. GM Bryan Colangelo claims there won't be any trades or personnel changes in the near future. His best interior player, Amare Stoudemire, is out four weeks with an ankle injury. Rookie Zarko Carbarkapa, the Suns' other talented big man, has a broken wrist.
It's going to take great coaching to turn the Suns around this season. D'Antoni is capable. But will the Suns listen?
"Some of the players have quit," Colangelo told Insider on Wednesday, evening after Johnson's firing. "The guys all have a high level of respect for Mike. He's a tremendous coach. We hope those two go hand-in-hand and we can see the results."
Colangelo claims the players never really lost respect for Johnson, but they had tuned him out. Their lack of response meant it was time for a change.
D'Antoni won't be the disciplinarian or defensive guru some think the Suns need. He likes to play wide-open basketball and relies heavily on the pick-and-roll. He loves small ball, and without Stoudemire, the Suns will need it. The team is pretty small up front and won't have any semblance of a low-post offense.
But X's and O's aren't the issue. It's the players. D'Antoni has to find a way to get them to tune in.
"It's a tough day, in the sense that I feel sorry for Frank," D'Antoni said today. "I was part of the staff that didn't get it done. ... We just weren't all on the same page at the same time. We've had a couple of players go AWOL on us this season, and I think it cost us games. ... The talent is there. They're the ones that have to play. They're the ones that are going to have to make us win."
And if they don't, it's just a matter of time before he'll be back in Italy wondering why he ever left.
