Mike D’Antoni is officially a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
The former coach of the Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets was one of the night’s main figures alongside his former pupil Amar’e Stoudemire, and his fellow inductee Doc Rivers.
D’Antoni claimed the NBA Coach of the Year Award twice, spread across a 12-season span.
He championed the famous Run & Gun style and the “7 seconds or less” philosophy, and throughout his career he had two signature players. One was Steve Nash in Phoenix, and the other James Harden in Houston.
In his 16 seasons as an NBA head coach he accumulated 672 wins and 527 losses, placing him in the Top-25 for most victories in history.
He never earned a championship ring, but he did collect two Olympic gold medals as an assistant coach for Team USA.
“That is the reason I have entered the Hall of Fame,” he acknowledged to ESPN.
In today’s NBA the gameplay resembles what the Suns were doing two decades ago. Undoubtedly, he was ahead of his time.
“I’m very proud of that. Of the team we had back then and of how we played,” he pointed out.
“I’m not naive enough to think that only that team inspired today’s players. But there are many other factors. Every year the players improved a lot. They shot triples better,” he added.
“Probably my greatest regret in the league is that, being the first to arrive, we faced a lot of criticism… And that makes you doubt. We didn’t go as far as we could have because we didn’t know. We were launching 30 three-pointers and we wondered, Are they too many? Can we do this? While others told you, ‘That’s not how you win.’ So instead of speeding up the pace and doing what is done today… We simply didn’t know how to unlock all of our potential,” he concluded.
2026 Hall of Fame Members
- Mike D’Antoni
- Doc Rivers
- Amar’e Stoudemire
- Candace Parker
- Chamique Holdsclaw
- Elena Della Donne
- Mark Few
- Joey Crawford
- Team USA women’s team of 1996
