Mike D’Antoni Blames Everyone Else
Today’s New York Post features a lengthy Peter Vecsey interview with Mike D’Antoni. The gist of it? Mike D’Antoni’s a genius and that everything that went wrong in Phoenix was the fault of others. Ownership, Steve Kerr, pressure from the media, and Shawn Marion, etc. (which is curious, if there’s any truth to THIS)
What we found most interesting though comes at the very end of the article when Mike rips Steve Kerr and Marion for the way they handled Shawn’s contract and eventual trade to Miami. He claims that one of the first things out of Kerr’s mouth to Shawn was that he’s not as good as he thinks he is. Good start:
“Had Shawn’s contract not become an issue, I would not have done it. You cannot tell a player he’s not as good as he thinks he is (Kerr’s message the first time the new and naive GM met Shawn to negotiate an extension) and expect no carryover of negative feelings. We needed Shawn 110 percent. That’s where the unhappiness started.
“Shawn deserves blame, too. He was in a great situation and earning a great salary. At some point you’ve to understand what a great life you have. On the other hand, you’ve got to make him feel important. That’s when we got stale. If he were happy, we wouldn’t have gotten Shaq. We had a great style and players who were perfectly compatible with it.”
Source: NY POST
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December 12th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Sam I Am says:
hmmmm
December 12th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Sam I Am says:
ACHooooooooo
Sorry, I’m allergic to B.S.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:54 am
rodnets says:
Its easy to put the blame on the others. But its not classy. D’antoni’s system will not get a ring EVER. So he has to be blamed too.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Abe504 says:
Well its true, he’s definitely not as good as he thinks he is. Can’t blame dude for being honest.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:59 am
d says:
Kerr did jack up the team. The whole “it’s time for a change” notion is retarded. Don’t get me wrong. I hated the Suns then and I hate the Suns now, but you can’t argue with their success. They were contenders every year. Now they just look like a team without an identity. They look unmotivated and they look like they don’t even really mesh half of the time.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Aqd5Y9q8ZtfVjc8qAs8nGZI5nYcB?slug=jy-sunstrade121108&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
that shows how dysfunctional the team might actually have been. It also shows that the owner is a lunatic.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Phillyfanatic says:
I personally think D’Antoni is overrated. The Suns were a good squad that could never get it done and now he’s trying to put the blame on everyone else. He’s a good coach, but with the talent he’s had around him, he should/’ve been able to do more with it
December 12th, 2008 at 11:02 am
JCARR says:
He’s just as culpable as Kerr and Marion!
D’Antoni deserves a wake up call about Marion because clearly Marion is not that good. Just look at him in Miami, he no longer puts “matrix” numbers. And he’s not recognized as the Heat’s defensive stopper. Marion only got his “phat” contract because of D’Antonis method of coaching.
D’Antoni style of coaching will never win a championship… HIS STYLE OF COACHING ONLY GETS PLAYERS BIG CONTRACTS AND ALL-STAR APPEARANCES.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:10 am
mules says:
I don’t understand how you can say that D’Antoni’s style of coaching will never win a championship after you basically just argued that his coaching style gets the best possible play out of his players. He very well may never win a championship but, given the right circumstances/players, I think he stands a better chance than a lot of other coaches in the League. Hell…if Doc Rivers can win a championship than D’Antoni sure as hell can.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:11 am
MadSammyboy says:
Mike D’Antoni is a euro-soft coach who will never win a title because ALL he wants to do is run.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:14 am
rodnets says:
defense wins championships, d’antoni system doesn´t even know what defense means.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:16 am
justice(knicks fan) says:
give me the right players and ill win a ring…
December 12th, 2008 at 11:16 am
JCARR says:
@mules
Read post 10
December 12th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Dagomar says:
D’Antoni is a wonderful offensive coach. He needed a great defensive assistant coach, like Doc Rivers has in Boston. He also needed to be more open-minded and understand that running, running, running all the time won’t win you series against teams like the Spurs in the playoffs. If you don’t make adjustments a San Antonio or Boston will run over you; those teams can play multiple styles and can make adjustments on every play.
D’Antoni shares part of the blame, but Kerr destroyed the most enjoyable team we’ve had in the NBA since the Showtime Lakers. A team that, at its peak, was another legitimate big and a defensive assistant coach away from winning a title. And Marion let stupid emotions cloud his reason; always a recipe for disaster. As a result he’s gone from being a universally acknowledged top-3 or top-4 SF to being a roleplayer on a mediocre team. He’s probably lost out on millions as a result (this is a contract year).
The person who really deserves the lion’s share of the blame is Sarver, the Suns owner. He refused to go to pay Kurt Thomas; he hired Kerr. And he wanted to let D’Antoni go, plus he pushed for the Shaq trade.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:30 am
hadoken says:
FREE MARBURY YOU DOUCHEBAG!!! and SHAVE THAT RIDICULOUS MUSTACHE TOO!!!
December 12th, 2008 at 11:33 am
JCARR says:
“Cat” Mobley retires due to heart condition.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Spliff 2 My Lou says:
I commend Kerr for “keeping it real” with Marion. Obviously Kerr felt that Shawn was overrated and let him know. Too often people stroke the fragile egos of players instead of being honest. Marion is a great complement player but not the superstar he thought he was. I think his current stint in Miami is showing that he’ll always play second fiddle.
On that note D’Antoni is taking the low road by placing blame everywhere and anywhere else. It’s too late to reflect on what went wrong in Phoenix. He should just move on and concentrate on how he’s going to win in NY where the media is tougher and the egos are bigger.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:43 am
mules says:
@JCARR
Read post 13
It’s not like I’m saying he’s a lock to win a title but I don’t think you can say there’s no chance he will…not when you say in the same breath that all he does is get the best out of his players. And if NY can pull off getting Lebron and another superstar (Bosh?) in ’10 I think they could become the favorites.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:47 am
DJ Go Go Gomez says:
The Knicks are 10-12. THE NEW YORK KNICKS ARE 10-12. THERE’S ONLY 8 OF THEM AND THEY ARE 10-12!!! D’Antoni is overrated????? Shit…he deserves coach of the DECADE for having any kind of success with this Knicks team!
December 12th, 2008 at 11:54 am
JCARR says:
@mules
I dont think the Knicks are smart enough to bring players like James and Bosh. The Knicks already gave the Warriors their best player (crawford).
Its the defense that doesnt help him win championships. He already had all-stars in Nash, Amare and Shaq. The ” Blurr” barbosa, joe johnson, Q-Rich, and so on…. Did they win the title?
December 12th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Illmatic says:
Hmm.. Sounds like D’Antoni is turning into Larry Brown 2.0
December 12th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
it aint easy being green says:
So did this article have anything in regards to Mike Douche-toni not being able to spell defense? No, thats not important anyway.
So we got Stat blaming Dantoni, Dantoni blaming Kerr and Matrix, Kerr blaming Dantoni. WOW.
Im exited though, just got C’s Suns tickets for January. Never seen the Big Ficus live before!!!!!
December 12th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
it aint easy being green says:
I love watching this Lebron firesale in NY, God I hope it backfires on them. “oh no, we suck again!!!!!”
December 12th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Heckler says:
Steve Kerr made a mess in phoenix, but mike d’antoni started it. he doesnt know how to coach. he doesnt know how to handle players.
how dare steve kerr tell shawn marion he aint as good as he thinks he is? shawn marion is(was) a consistent all star. stever kerr never was. shawn marion was(is) a solid defensive player; steve kerr still cant guard my little sister. shawn marion averaged double doubles. steve kerr was lucky to get on the court in chicago.
steve nash was the mvp in 2005/2006….but in that year, shawn marion lead the suns in: points, rebounds, steals, FG%, blocks and minutes.
December 12th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Max says:
Seems like no one here understands just how good a coach D’Antoni is. It’s only becoming clearer now with the Suns struggling, and a patchwork Knicks team with 10 wins despite two major personnel changes in the first 20 games that weakened an already sorry team.
D’Antoni’s mistake was allowing himself to be interviewed by a hack like Vescey, who has no appreciation for nuance…the interview makes him sound whiny. A more knowledgeable and capable writer like McCallum would have put D’Antoni’s words in better context and helped Knicks fans better understand the coach.
Marion got what he deserved, unfortunately — the guy is just too much of a self-absorbed prima donna, even by the standards of NBA players.
December 12th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Max says:
@Heckler: It’s nice to mouth platitudes about how players need tough love, but if you knew anything about the Suns, you would have known that Marion is notoriously sensitive. The point D’Antoni made in the interview is that you don’t just go ripping a player — without understanding the dynamics of communication that the COACH has established –and not expect it to have consequences for the team.
What Kerr did was like what Steinbrenner used to do with the Yankees — march into the locker room like a tough guy and start giving the players a rah rah speech, or get on certain players to up their game. Fortunately, a manager like Joe Torre knew how to keep that BS at bay, but D’Antoni shouldn’t have had to deal with it at all.
December 12th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
JZ says:
I have been a Suns fan since the late 70′s (I know, feel sorry for me) and I can tell you that:
A) D’Antoni is a good coach, but not a great coach. He doesn’t believe in Defense, and as boring as defense “can” be, it still wins rings. Unfortunately, he also keeps his rotation short so, I think he also puts a lot more wear and tear and hi players then he should. I can see that happening w/ the Knicks right now, even though they are scoring at a high clip and are much more competitive.
B) Shawn Marion is an All-Star, and a very good player, like that or not. I don’t know where all these opinions are coming from about him being a primadonna….as much as I like Amares game, I think he’s the bigger primadonna. I don’t know that the Suns would have ever had the kind of success that they have had w/o a player like Marion to facillitate their style. I mean, the guy averaged in the doubles on rebounds for a string of years. You might not be impressed w/ that however, for a guy playing out of position because he’s really a SF, I think it’s impressive. And as far as blaming D’Antoni for Marions contract, Marion actually got that contract before D’Antoni was on the scene.
C) Sarver & Kerr are the 2 most at fault…..it always starts at the top…trust me, I know….I’m a Detroit Lions fan as well. Merry X-Mas!
December 12th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Heckler says:
@ MAX
u must be a NY’er.
yall suck and so does the coach. i have never seen a coach put his team in position to LOSE to way dantoni does.
no height. no length. no defense philosophy. too short a rotation. too many minutes on the starters. has everyone playing out of position except a point guard…
and the list goes on. mike d’antoni is the worst coach i’ve ever seen.
how dare he blame others for the letdown in phoenix? he aint praise them when he stole COY
December 12th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Lee says:
I think the main problem was the owners giving up on guys like joe johnson and Q RICH.
If it weren’t for a Robert Horry shoulder charge and not being able to stop Nash bleeding (Game 1 ??) they might have had their Championship ….
December 12th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
jnuh says:
Let’s not forget the Suns were snakebit a number of other times in the playoffs.
They likely would have beat the Spurs if Amare & Boris Diaw had stayed on the bench.
If Joe Johnson didn’t break a fall to the floor with his face they would have likely advanced.
They had some incredible teams that met with some unlucky turns in the playoffs – that’s the difference between winning and losing a title.
Great coach, great system with great players – it’s just unfortunate that they don’t have a title to show for all their regular season success.