D’Antoni seeks first NBA title
HOUSTON >> In his first trip to the playoffs since 2013, Mike D’Antoni knows the rub on him is that he’s never won a championship.
The 65-year-old first-year coach of the Houston Rockets doesn’t spend much time worrying about that criticism.
“That’s cool,” he said. “I know a lot of golfers that didn’t win a major and they said: ‘Oh he can’t win the big one.’ And then he wins five. It’s hard to win a championship.”
It’s been one playoff disappointments after another for the innovative coach.
D’Antoni shook up the game by introducing his fast-paced offense to the Phoenix Suns in the early 2000s. His Phoenix team in 2004-05 that was led by Steve Nash won 62 games before losing in the Western Conference finals. A year later the Suns won 54 games but were sent home in the conference finals again. In 2006-07 the Suns won 61 games, but were ousted in the conference semifinals.
In 2005 and 2007 they were eliminated by the San Antonio Spurs, who went on to win the title.
The 2007 season is the last one in which D’Antoni advanced past the first round. In his last three trips to the postseason, 2008 with Phoenix, 2011 with the Knicks and 2013 in Los Angeles, he’s managed just one win combined .
He isn’t daunted by his postseason misfortune, and is looking forward to changing things this year.
“We’d like to put that to rest,” D’Antoni said. “I would personally, but everybody would, too. So that’s what we’re going to work for.”
The Rockets good start.
Houston rolled to a 1-0 lead in their first-round series against Oklahoma City with a 118-87 win on Sunday night . are off to a
The series-opener was a reflection of D’Antoni’s success this year.
He has revived his coaching career and put the Rockets back in contention in his first head coaching stint since resigning from the Lakers after going 27-55 in 2013-14. Under his tutelage, Houston shook off last year’s disappointing season where it finished eighth in the West and was eliminated in the first round. This year they have the third best record in the NBA.