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New York Knicks: Mike D’Antoni Discusses Coaching Past

By Kenneth Teape

Dec 26, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Philadelphia 76ers associate head coach Mike D'Antoni prior to the game against the Phoenix Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena. The 76ers defeated the Suns 111-104. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 26, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Philadelphia 76ers associate head coach Mike D'Antoni prior to the game against the Phoenix Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena. The 76ers defeated the Suns 111-104. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /
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New York Knicks former head coach Mike D’Antoni gave some interesting insight to Linsanity during his tenure with the team.

The New York Knicks and Mike D’Antoni had an up-and-down tenure together. The innovator of the seven seconds or less offense looked like he had something building with the Knicks with Amar’e Stoudemire as the focal point of the offense, much like he had previously with the Phoenix Suns.

While the Knicks didn’t have MVP Steve Nash running the show, they had some solid pieces to build around with Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Landry Fields and Timofey Mozgov. Chemistry was growing with Raymond Felton running the show, and the Knicks were entertaining to watch.

Then the trade for Carmelo Anthony happened, and a shift in scheme had to occur. D’Antoni needed to find a way to make things work with two dangerous offensive weapons at his disposal in Stoudemire and Anthony.

He never truly got that chance, as the lockout occurred and there was no offseason heading into the 2011-12 season. The Knicks got off to a sluggish start as a result, as the point guard position was a mess.

Without any other options to turn to, D’Antoni elected to go with the Harvard graduate, Jeremy Lin. Lin was an unknown player at the time, clinging on to a non-guaranteed deal with his days of being a member of the Knicks looking numbered. But then Linsanity happened and the basketball world was turned upside down on its head.

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Lin was the center of anything basketball, as he became a world sensation. He helped turn things around for the Knicks on the court, as he was knocking down timely shots and taking everyone by storm.

But, the success was short lived. Lin suffered a knee injury in March and we didn’t see him the rest of the season as he entered restricted free agency. Many people thought it was a foregone conclusion that Lin would be back with the Knicks, but things didn’t turn out that way.

The Houston Rockets would offer Lin a poison pill contract, meaning his salary would balloon later on in the deal and strap the Knicks salary cap. That is what many people believed was the reason for him moving on, but if you ask D’Antoni there was more to it.

While he didn’t say that Stoudemire and Anthony resented Lin and Linsanity, he did say that they were both hesitant to change their position and roles to help the phenomenon.

"“The problem that we had was that for Jeremy to be really good, which he was, he had to play a certain way. It was hard for him to adapt,” D’Antoni said in the interview. “Amare, Melo, whatever, kind of had to play a certain way, too, to be really, really good. So there was that inherent conflict of, ‘What’s better for the team? What isn’t? Can they co-exist? Can they not?’“And again, they could have co-existed if Melo went to [power forward], which he really didn’t want to, and Amare came to back up Tyson [Chandler at center], which he didn’t want to. So now it’s like, what are we going to do? We could see how to go, and I didn’t know how to get there, and with losing again and you’re trying to prod them and you’re trying to tell them to play harder and all the coach’s speak, and communication just like deteriorated.”"

It was never a secret that the Knicks struggled to make everything work when Linsanity happened, as there were a lot of moving parts and egos in play. Being established All-Stars like Stoudemire and Anthony were, they probably did not want to cater to a player that came out of nowhere such as Lin.

There is no telling what could have happened had they done it, but it is clear there were chemistry problems. Asking established veterans is not an easy subject for a coach to broach, but D’Antoni tried it and it seemed to derail the team even more.

D’Antoni admitted that there were times he and Anthony couldn’t co-exist with the Knicks, and it complicated things. “I had one vision that I wanted him to play one way, he kind of wanted to go the other way,” D’Antoni said. “I couldn’t get to my way. And then injuries [occurred], we weren’t winning, and then that complicated everything.”

D’Antoni would eventually resign during the 2011-12 season when the Knicks had a record of 18-24. Mike Woodson would take over and finish the regular season 18-6, with the Knicks qualifying for the postseason for the second consecutive season.

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D’Antoni was not out of a job long, as he landed with the Los Angeles Lakers the next season as head coach, but only lasted through the 2013-14 season. He didn’t get another head coaching job until this offseason, when the Houston Rockets hired him to be their head man.

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