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First we must start with the image. All the best photos of NBA Hall of Fame coach Mike D’antoni feature him with a mustache. I would call this a Mike D’Antoni Mustache Mandate. With that out of the way, we can discuss these results.
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Mike D’Antoni has defeated Rick Adelman by a fairly wide margin. I wouldn’t call it a D’Antoni voter mandate, but it’s close to one. I think this is a fair result for two reasons.
One, the Houston Rockets best ever season in terms of wins, 65, came under MDA’s coaching. Adelman’s best season only saw the Rockets notch 55 wins. That’s good for a tie (with D’Antoni) for 4th highest regular season wins by the Rockets (57 is 2nd under Rudy T, 56th is 3rd, under Kevin McHale). A ten win margin is pretty significant, but you might look to post season performance as your standard. Again, MDA wins, with his teams reaching the NBA Western Conference Finals in a series most of us (and MDA in a recent interview) remember painfully. If you are going by titles, well, it’s Rudy T and no one else.
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Two, I’d pick MDA because he utterly changed how NBA basketball is played. Rick Adelman was an excellent coach, with a deep well of NBA stratagems in his bag. So excellent he, too, is in the NBA Hall of Fame. His motion offense could be a wonder when it was working well, and it was a good offense for getting more out of limited players.
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MDA did something else. He broke the NBA paradigm of fixed positions, and inside, post dominant, play. Even if Mike D’Antoni didn’t win an NBA teams that bear his imprint (particularly the Warriors with MDA disciple Steve Kerr) have wib quite a few. The “No Jump Shooting, Small Ball, Team Can Win A Title” mantra is long dead. I’ve always thought of MDA as the basketball equivalent of Earl Weaver.
Earl Weaver was a Baltimore Orioles manager long ago when the Baltimore Orioles fairly regularly won World Series. Weaver essentially intuited almost all of the basic,…
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Publish date : 2026-08-21 19:05:00
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