When Mike D’Antoni was hired by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2012, he received an opportunity to coach Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and Steve Nash. Obviously, D’Antoni has a history with Nash dating back to their days with the Phoenix Suns, but there were personalities and high expectations to manage in L.A.
Despite Bryant entering the latter stages of his career, he remained an alpha personality and Howard was acquired in a blockbuster trade where he went from being the No. 1 option with the Orlando Magic to Bryant’s co-star. Speculation surrounded whether this tandem would work and how they would get along with polar opposite personalities, which D’Antoni knew about when he took the job.
There was a famous photo that Bryant posted at the time of him on the training table with Howard pretending to fight and D’Antoni in between them. As the coach gets set to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, he explained how that photo came to be, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
There were rumors that they had really gotten into it and they hated each other, and this was not going to work.
I was on the training table rehabbing my knee and Kobe was there, and Dwight and I go, “Can you believe this?” I don’t know how, but we just started talking and all of a sudden [the photo was shot].
The former Lakers head coach revealed that it was Bryant’s idea to take this iconic picture:
I think it was. I think it was Kobe. But it wasn’t an idea that, “Oh, let’s pose for a picture and get this out.” But it was more of a joke. And I guess maybe the trainer [Gary Vitti] had a phone camera or something.
Gary might have said something like, “You guys stand there and look like you’re fighting, which everybody thinks you’re doing every day, anyway.” Something like that. It was off the cuff. It wasn’t planned.
It was more or less just us responding with, “It’s not as bad as people say it is.”
Unfortunately, that Lakers squad was never able to reach their expectations as Howard dealt with a back issue all year and then Bryant tore his Achilles at the end of the regular season when they were starting to put things together.
That’s not even to mention that Nash hardly played due to injuries, leaving D’Antoni wondering what could’ve been in L.A. if he ever had a full squad to work with.
Mike D’Antoni says Shaquille O’Neal led to revolutionizing Suns offense
D’Antoni is known for his seven-seconds-or-less offense during his time with the Suns and he admitted that he wanted to speed the game up due in part to Shaquille O’Neal being a dominant force.
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