The remarkable basketball career of Italian legend Mike D’Antoni

Mike D’Antoni has lived a full basketball life, whether it was starring at Marshall University as a college player, or leaving an indelible impact on Italian hoops as a point guard in Europe. As a coach, D’Antoni came up with a system for playing basketball that lives on to this day. All statistics are sourced from Basketball Reference.

Michael Andrew D’Antoni was born on May 8, 1951 in West Virginia, but the beginning of his story also has strong Italian ties.

D’Antoni told America Domani that his grandfather made a business decision to come to the United States in the early 1900s. “A lot of Italian immigrants followed the railroads and coal mining was a stop for many of them. My grandfather started in the mines, then had a grocery store.” D’Antoni’s grandfather lived in Umbria before making the overseas journey.

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As a child, D’Antoni was introduced to the game of basketball at a young age. His father Lewis was a teacher and coach, and his brothers were also very into the sport.

Mike D’Antoni would stay local by playing his college ball at Marshall University in West Virginia. As the school website notes, the team’s greatest successes came when D’Antoni was running the show at point guard in the early 1970s. He averaged 15 points and nearly nine assists per game during his time with the Thundering Hurd.

D’Antoni played 130 career games in the NBA, and 50 games in the ABA. His production was not much to write home about, as he was a fringe part of the rotation in those days. However, still in his mid-twenties, D’Antoni knew he had a lot of juice left as a player.

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D’Antoni admitted to America Domani that when he decided to play professionally in Italy in 1977, he didn’t have much knowledge about his homeland. He said he “had never been to Italy and did not even know where Milan was,” but knew this was an important decision because “that was his heritage.”

As Hall Pass Hoops noted, the course of D’Antoni’s life would change dramatically in the next 13 years. He played for Olimpia Milano from 1977-1990, leading the club to five Italian League championships.

The Olimpia Milano website calls the D’Antoni the greatest point guard in Italian basketball history. They also cited his quick hands and anticipation as a defender, which earned him the nickname “Arsenio Lupin.”

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As D’Antoni was at the peak of his powers as a player in Italy, a young boy growing up in the country idolized his play. The child was none other than Kobe Bryant, who was living in Italy, since his dad was playing professional basketball in the country. While Bryant told the New York Post later in life that he did not wear the number eight because of D’Antoni, he did admire the way he played the game.

After his playing career ended in Italy, D’Antoni went on to coach Milano and later Treviso, where he would win two Italian championships according to Milano’s website. Despite the success he was having, D’Antoni had ideas of implanting a system that had not been widely accepted in the sport.

D’Antoni told Business Insider, “I one day just decided to do it the way I wanted to do it, and be damned the consequences.” This was in reference to a style that would emphasize pushing the pace, shooting the first good shot that became available, and tiring out the other team in the process.

D’Antoni’s NBA coaching career didn’t get off to a flying start. During the 1999 lockout shortened season, he was the head coach of the Denver Nuggets, who posted a ghastly 14-36 record. Things would change dramatically when he was named head coach of the Phoenix Suns.

In D’Antoni’s first full season as Suns head coach in 2004-2005, the team won 62 regular season games, playing the way he had envisioned back in the mid 1990s. He finished with a career 253-136 record in Phoenix. The Score wrote about his time there, “These Suns never won it all, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t have won it all.”

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told Business Insider, “There’s usually a few key figures who change the way everybody else thinks… I think what makes Mike unique is he is one of those innovators.” D’Antoni is a two-time NBA Coach of the Year, having won 672 games in his coaching career.

Sam Amico of Sports Illustrated wrote a piece in 2016 giving D’Antoni one of the highest possible compliments with regard to his impact as a player and coach in Europe. He wrote, “Mike D’Antoni is to Italy what Michael Jordan is to America.” Former NBA player Wally Walker played with him in Italy, and told SI, “People would just genuflect when they saw Mike coming. It was pretty funny, definitely something to see.”