A biography for Mike D'Antonihasn’t been written yet.
“I think the thing is you always play with what you have in high school. It was always very fastbreaky-type basketball. And then when I went to Marshall, we did the same thing. We had a weird team. Our center was 6'5' and the forward was about 6'10', but he shot from the outside.”
“I was blessed to have a lot of good point guards throughout.”
“Pau's a great guy.”
“Give me one coach in any sport that's not always on the hot seat. You're just as good as your last game... You're always on a hot seat.”
“Players, if you give them the freedom, then they will do remarkable things.”
“I like the offense to flow.”
“I think any criticism bothers anybody. I get my back up when I hear stuff that I think the people don't know what they're talking about - understanding that I can improve in a lot of different areas and the team can improve.”
“Nobody wants to go into the season going, 'OK, if you have a really good year, you can come in third.'”
“Nash was a purist. Steve's a Hall of Fame point guard. He was unbelievably good.”
“Teams win championships.”
“I was a much better player in Europe than I was in the N.B.A., and lot of that had to do with feeling comfortable psychologically and believing in myself.”
“If you think something's right and the numbers prove it's right, then go all-in. You can't muddy the waters. You can't just go halfway.”
“Old coaches, I think everybody will tell you, you got to be who you are, because you try to be somebody you are not and it'll get you. It might work for five minutes but it's not going to work in the long run.”
“Some people say, with my name, they call me Antoni and no D.”
“Being rested and playing bad is not going to be a good formula going into the playoffs. That's not good.”
“To take a team to win a championship, there's so many things that have to happen.”
“I try to stick to who I am and try to make it work.”
“I know who I am: the Forrest Gump of basketball.”
“The defense can be affected by certain guys not being comfortable in the offense, and then not just playing and reacting on the other end.”
“Swagger's big. We have to have confidence to go ahead and play our game in who we are and not get away from it.”