Current Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike D'Antoni is known for his high offensive system and his strategic decision making, but recently he's opened up about how one decision turned out to be one of his biggest regrets.
D'Antoni admits that his move from Phoenix to New York in 2009 was one of the biggest mistakes he's made in his coaching career.
"I shouldn't have gone to New York," he said. "I should have stuck in there and battled. You don't get to coach somebody like him [Nash] too many times. It's pretty sacred and you need to take care of it. I didn't."
D'Antoni has never told Nash this.
"I think we got frustrated and I got frustrated. That's why I left. We were there, it seemed like we deserved it, and then it seemed like something happened all the time. Maybe we weren't good enough either. We have to understand that.
"I probably irrationally made a decision right when the season was over. You should take a month to figure it out. I shouldn't have left. That was my fault."
When D'Antoni arrived to the Knicks, they weren't much of a playoff team to begin with, but still managed to start off 8-3 to their season. It was expected for D'Antoni's offense to help players raise their stats in order to look interesting to other teams when being shopped around.
The idea was for the Knicks to clear cap space in order land possibly a LeBron James or another player of his caliber entering free agency.
"We had a three-year plan and it was good," D'Antoni says. "There were good aspects of it. But it was better the other way [in Phoenix]."
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