Background and career
Michael Andrew D'Antoni (born May 8, 1951) is an American-Italian professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as a coaching advisor for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). 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. 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. 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.
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.
D'Antoni was selected 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 a two-game stint with the NBA San Antonio Spurs in 1976–77 before being released and joining the Italian team Olimpia Milano. By the time he retired after 13 seasons with the club, he had become its all-time leading scorer, and had been voted (in 1990) the Italian LBA league's top point guard of all time. Along the way he had 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. In 2015, Olimpia Milano retired his No. 8 jersey.
Having an Italian heritage, the American-born D'Antoni sought dual citizenship, and was selected to play on the senior men's Italian national team for the EuroBasket tournament in 1989.
D'Antoni became head coach with Olimpia Milan after his playing career with the club ended in 1990. 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.
