Before this season, Mike D’Antoni’s reputation was not in a good place. After disappointing stints with the Lakers and the Knicks, his forward thinking coaching style felt surprisingly ancient. Despite many in the league picking up the pieces of his formula and using it to win championships, it seemed as many pundits were against his return to the NBA.
Then, the Rockets hired him as head coach and he turned what many people believed to be an average roster, into an elite one. With his coaching reputation all but restored, he decided to rid of another, his mustache. D’Antoni has had a mustache as long as most NBA fans have been alive. But, it is now gone and according to Tim Keown of ESPN, the reason for his now naked face is his wife.
They engage in good-natured arguments over just about everything. Before Mike was hired by the Rockets last May, one dispute revolved around the spelling of a word. Laurel can’t even remember the word, but she remembers Mike’s stubbornness. “He was convinced he was right,” she says, “but I knew I was right.” She proposed a bet: If Mike was wrong, he would have to shave his mustache. Mike, so convinced of his rectitude that he was willing to put his most famous physical attribute on the line, accepted the bet, and that’s why Mike D’Antoni’s mustache has a Twitter account but Mike D’Antoni doesn’t have a mustache.
D’Antoni’s mustache may be gone but his winning ways have returned, I’m sure that’s a trade he is happy to make.
