Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni had pressure on him ever since being chosen over Phil Jackson for the job, and after a disappointing season that ended in the team barely making the playoffs, he's been the recipient of tons of criticism as well.
D'Antoni was even surprised at the outcome because he never considered that a team featuring Kobe Bryant, arguably the greatest player of his generation, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard would fail to live up to expectations. He was more surprised at how the Nash-Howard pick-and-roll also failed to reach it's full potential.
"Steve Nash and Dwight Howard on the pick and roll, and that's what I do?" D'Antoni remembers, wistfully. "I just thought, 'Boy, that's gonna be a staple.' "
After Howard abandoned to join the Houston Rockets, D'Antoni and his offense has been widely speculated as being the cause of his decision. However, D'Antoni says Howard, who was never fully healthy, refused to buy into his role in the offense, insisting he saw himself being a dominating low-post force that the offense should run through.
"There was just a lot of conflict, emotionally," D'Antoni said. "People were not settled in their roles. But it's funny because a lot of times players will say 'I don't know my role.' It's not that you don't know it, you just don't accept it."
D'Antoni added that running an offense through Howard wasn't practical at the time while he was still recovering from back surgery from the offseason.
"The only thing that cracks me up is (the question) 'Why didn't you go through him more?' " D'Antoni said. "Well, he was hurt. Why would we go through him if he's hurt? You have to (factor) that in. Why would we do that with Kobe and Nash and (Pau) Gasol on the floor? That doesn't make a lot of sense."
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