Mike D’Antoni walked into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday as a contributor, and the timing fit. The longtime NBA coach got in for the “Seven Seconds or Less” offense that changed the league’s rhythm, pushed the pace, and helped make modern basketball look a whole lot more like what he once put on the floor in Phoenix.
The Hall of Fame made a game out of it with the 75-year-old D’Antoni. He was told to “break the stick” if he heard an offense he thought was better than SSOL.
It never happened. Not with the Flex offense.
Not with motion. Not with post-heavy sets.
And definitely not when the triangle came up.
D’Antoni didn’t blink.
Q: “Flex Offense.”
Mike D’Antoni: “No, no, not even close. Inefficient.”
Q: “Motion offense.”
D’Antoni: “Motion’s not bad, but again, probably inefficient.”
Q: “Dribble drive motion offense.”
D’Antoni: “I like that. I don’t think it’s better, but it’s a part of what we do, so yeah.”
Q: “Small ball.”
D’Antoni: “Actually, that should never be small ball. Somebody coined that term.
It’s Skilled Ball. And the taller they are, the better it is.
But they have to all have skills like small guys.”
Q: “Princeton Offense.”
D’Antoni: “No.”
Q: “Triangle offense.”
D’Antoni: “Yeah, right. Give me Michael Jordan and [Scottie] Pippen. It’s good, but I think in today’s game, it’s pretty inefficient.”
Q: “Post-centric offense.”
D’Antoni: “Nah. You can use some of it, you can incorporate it, but it’s again a little bit inefficient.”
Q: “Steve Nash and Amar’e [Stoudemire] pick-and-roll.”
D’Antoni: “Probably done as well as anybody. [John] Stockton, [Karl] Malone, you could make it.
So other than that, those two duos, but it’s really good. This is not going to break.
You know that!”
And he was right. The stick stayed intact.
That confidence comes from what D’Antoni built with the Suns starting in the 2004-05 season. After Phoenix finished 29-53 in 2003-04, he took over during that season and then, once Steve Nash arrived that offseason, turned loose the version of the Suns that ran, spread the floor, and fired threes at a pace the league wasn’t used to seeing.
The results hit fast. Phoenix opened 2004-05 with a 31-4 record and finished 62-20.
Nash was at the center of it all and went on to win MVP. The offense was built around his playmaking and shooting, and it took the Suns all the way to the Western Conference Finals before San Antonio eliminated them in five games.
That was as far as they got that year, but it wasn’t the only time D’Antoni’s Suns came close. Over his four seasons in Phoenix, the team won 232 regular-season games, an average of 58 wins.
They reached the Western Conference Finals again in 2006, then lost to Dallas in six games. In 2007 and 2008, the Spurs ended their runs in the Western Conference Semifinals and the first round.
D’Antoni left after the 2007-08 season, and the title that seemed to be within reach never arrived. Injuries and controversial suspensions in 2007 were part of the story, but the end result stayed the same. He also came close later with the Houston Rockets and still fell short.
So he enters the Hall without a ring, while the triangle’s biggest champion, Phil Jackson, built a resume that includes 11 championships with the Bulls and Lakers. Jackson had Jordan, Pippen, and Dennis Rodman in Chicago, then Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles.
That’s the crux of D’Antoni’s argument. Give him Jordan and Pippen, and he likes his chances.
It’s a debate people have had for years when it comes to Jackson’s legacy, because every one of his titles came with all-time talent. At the same time, Jordan, Pippen, and Bryant never won a championship without Jackson on the sideline.
Former NBA player John Salley believes Jordan wouldn’t have won championships without the triangle. No one can prove that either way. What can be proved is that D’Antoni’s offense left a mark, and he made sure everybody in Springfield heard it.
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