Quotes from Mike D'Antoni

The big thing about coaching is, however you are, that's how you've got to do it.

Defense is always collective. You have to do it collectively.

Swagger's big. We have to have confidence to go ahead and play our game in who we are and not get away from it.

I've got a motto. When the posse's chasing you out of town, you just act like you're the head of a parade.

When you open up the court, now the point guards can see, they can score, and they're not afraid to take shots. Before it was like, 'No, don't take that shot. That's a bad shot. Pound it inside. Pound it inside.' And the philosophy has gone a little bit away from that, because it makes sense to do it the other way.

The only thing I try to do as a coach is just stay on message and pound the points home.

I don't want to go with conventional thinking.

My dad was a principal and coach. My sister was a superintendent of schools in West Virginia.

You don't have to be the greatest of friends off the floor. But on the floor you have to be able to play without any kind of hesitation for all your teammates. Whether you like the guy or not, you can still do what's right.

When you don't make the playoffs, or you're not producing a product that you're proud of, then, yeah, it's tough on everybody... it's tough on the fans all the way down.

When you go into a high-pressure game, and you've got a guy that's fearless, it helps you.

You know what's fun about basketball? It keeps evolving, and it keeps changing a little bit. And the older guys want to try to hold it back to how they grew up, and it's not the same. You've got to change with the times, and some of the guys you've got to drag across the finish line.

You coach long enough, you're gonna get fired.

Some coaches get fired even after the best years they've ever had.

Why not play the most possessions you can play if you're the best defensively and offensively? Any time possessions are cut down, then a bad call, a missed shot then you have a chance to lose.

When his football and baseball careers ended, my dad became an accomplished marbles player. Then dad got really good at pitching horseshoes. And to show you how athletic our bloodlines really were, my mom was a wonderful tennis player.

I was a much better player in Europe than I was in the N.B.A., and lot of that had to do with feeling comfortable psychologically and believing in myself.

We believe in public education. We think it's important in our country to have it and for us to support it.

Sometimes those labels that the league puts on players aren't right.

Chemistry on the floor - without it, you can't win.

Every ship gets rocked sometimes.

The big men aren't going away, they're just getting better.

You have to play offense and defense without thinking, and react like you know what to do, but if you're thinking of where to be and 1,000 other things you can lose focus. You're trying to play hard, but you're overthinking.

The defense can be affected by certain guys not being comfortable in the offense, and then not just playing and reacting on the other end.