Mike ‘Antoni, No D

by Ethan Messina

The Los Angeles Lakers hired coach Mike D’Antoni. They hired him instead of their former coach Phil Jackson, an 11 time NBA champion. Do you know how many championships Mike D’Antoni has? I’ll give you a hint: Not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5…NONE!!!

I think that Lakers owner Jim Buss doesn’t like Phil Jackson and that had something to do with the final decision. Phil Jackson has coached the best player ever, Michael Jordan, to six NBA titles. I think he can coach Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant. Mike D’Antoni coached Nash and the Phoenix Suns and he had a decent run there. Then he coached the NY Knicks and they played terrible under him. They never made it past the first round of the playoffs while he was a coach. In the 2008-2011 seasons, when D’Antoni was coach, they didn’t even make the playoffs! D’Antoni coached two star players on the Knicks (Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire) and he completely failed, so how can we expect him to do coaching three stars for one of the biggest franchises in NBA history?

Mike D’Antoni isn’t the right fit for the Lakers because their problem is defense and he is an offensive coach. The Lakers have two 7 footers in Pao Gasol and Dwight Howard. They can use their size on offense, but on defense the more athletic teams in the league will run right past them. Lakers’ fans expect to see their team win championships and Phil Jackson has a record 11 rings, 5 of those with the Lakers. Mike D’Antoni has none and has never even been to an an NBA championship. He lacks the experience to coach this team. Phil Jackson has been a head coach for 19 1/2 years! D’Antoni has been a coach for 10 years but also coached 8 years in Italy. The best choice for the Lakers and for Lakers’ fans was Phil Jackson. Apparently that was obvious to everyone but the Lakers’ ownership.

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