NEW YORK — Just a few short hours after Carmelo Anthony publicly denied having requested a trade, news broke Wednesday afternoon that Mike D’Antoni has resigned as the head coach of the New York Knicks.
After being denied a contract extension by Knicks owner James Dolan last offseason, this news should not come as a surprise.
D’Antoni was hired in May 2008 by then team president and general manager Donnie Walsh. He came to New York with the hopes of luring LeBron James to the Big Apple and bringing the franchise its first NBA championship since 1973.
Instead, with less than four months remaining in the 2011-2012 NBA Season, D’Antoni resigned with his club sporting an 18-24 record and sitting in a tie for eighth place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.
Although his career win/loss record with the Knicks is a disappointing 121-167, D’Antoni never had the opportunity to coach one group of guys for an entire season in New York. Coming into the 2011-2012 season, the Knicks were hoping to attain a top four seed in the Eastern Conference, but struggled to find leadership at the point guard position after amnestying Chauncey Billups in order to sign free agent center Tyson Chandler. Since then, the Knicks sputtered out of the gate, discovered Jeremy Lin, and added both Baron Davis and J.R. Smith to a team that struggled to find its identity.
The Knicks will host the Portland Trail Blazers tonight at Madison Square Garden. They will look to end a six game losing streak that has been marked by poor effort and bad body language.
The D’Antoni-Anthony marriage was one that many expected to ultimately fail. The ledger on Anthony marked him as a “ball stopper,” and as a player that wouldn’t be happy unless the offense ran through him. Meanwhile, D’Antoni’s system puts the ball in the point guard’s hands, preaches constant ball movement, and encourages any player on the floor to take shots they think they can make.
Ultimately, the apparent struggle between Anthony and D’Antoni was all about philosophy and system. The bigger issue for the Knicks, however, is that a fair amount of players in the locker room are loyal to D’Antoni and believed in his offensive system. Whether or not that will prevent the Knicks from coming together and ending their losing streak remains to be seen. Privately, I’ve been told that Anthony didn’t like playing for D’Antoni and was hoping that the head coach wouldn’t be brought back.
Recently, his play has suggested that was true, despite Anthony’s public proclamations of support for D’Antoni.
With Tuesday night’s trade that resulted in Monta Ellis being sent to the Milwaukee Bucks, the road back into the playoffs in the NBA’s Eastern Conference just got a bit tougher.
Mike Woodson will succeed D’Antoni on an interim basis. And for both he and Anthony’s sake, I hope he can find a way to inspire better play from the Knicks.
That was Mike D’Antoni’s struggle, and he ran out of time.
With only 24 games remaining in the season, the Knicks are, too.
Moke Hamilton covers the New York Knicks for SheridanHoops.com and is the lead NBA Writer for CHARGED.fm. For the latest on the New York Knicks and all things NBA, follow him on Twitter.
i have a love hate relationship with d’antoni’s coaching .but with the starters out. and lin running the team he made me a believer.melo stopped the flow and chemistry.good luck to mike woodson ,i hope it works out
It’s clear that Mike D”Antoni, as with most coaches in the NBA, doesn’t know nearly as much about basketball as sportswriters and commentators on blog sites. They really need to go to the web to learn about rotations and the correct way to use players. Now Knicks fans can enjoy years of mediocrity and have the leading scorer in the league. I’m sure that will make them happy.
–A bemused b-ball fan from Denver
If you like him so much, please take him to Denver with you. Its amazing that George Karl can run the SAME offense; PG, 3 shooters, and a C and get such astoundingly different results. Hmmm maybe it DOES have something to do with personnel and coaching? Just a hunch.
Actually Matt, D’Antoni was a coach at Denver long before Anthony was holding the ball for 20 seconds and then shooting an off balance jump shot while every one else stood around and sucked their thumb. He actually didn’t play the style that was so successful for him in Phoenix, cuz he didn’t have the kind of players to make it work. That style was a consequence of looking at his players, seeing Nash and Stoudamire and coming up with an appropriate offense for the players he had. George Karl, who is an excellent coach, although I am sure he doesn’t know nearly as much about the game as commentators on blogs (I met George Karl when he was a college guard at North Carolina and Bob McAdoo was the star, and I was on a recruiting trip for an athletic scholarship) was successful cuz he surrounded Anthony with players willing to work hard in a ridiculous offense that Karl was forced to play if he was going to keep his job. Now the Knicks have a five game winning streak and you have the team that you so richly deserve.
I love how this is being made a Melo vs MDA thing but in reality this should have happened two months ago. With Melo out, the win streak the Knicks went on was vs teams that had 2 winning records between them. Now they face SAS-Dallas-Philly-Mil-Chicago teams that for the most part have winning records and they get killed.
The substitution pattern D’Antoni used was atrocious at best. The second game vs Dallas is a prime example. The NYK had just closed the deficit from 15 to 7 and then he goes with Lin-Baron-Melo-Novak-Stoudemire and the lead balloons to 20 after he brings in Stoudemire and Lin for Fields and Chandler. So glad MDA is gone.