It's About Time

In early January, I called for Mike D'Antoni's head after the Knicks lost an uninspired home game to the Charlotte Bobcats.  Just over two months later, D'Antoni was finally replaced as New York's head coach when he "resigned" this week.  His resignation followed an awful stretch of basketball highlighted by an inability to work "superstar" Carmelo Anthony into an offense that had previously been firing on all cylinders under the direction of point guard Jeremy Lin.  Had Lin not miraculously led the Knicks to an unlikely winning streak in February, D'Antoni would likely have been fired a month ago (and he probably should have been, anyway).  To me, though, D'Antoni was headed out the door as soon as Mike Woodson was brought on as an assistant coach.

I just finished taking a class called "The Paths to Power" in which we discuss what people need to do - and have done - in order to obtain and retain positions of power.  I think we'd all agree that NBA head coach is a pretty powerful position, and that the league's best coaches establish themselves as the leaders of their squads early and often.  When D'Antoni hired former Atlanta Hawks head coach Mike Woodson as an assistant, he relinquished a tremendous amount of his power by admitting weakness and making himself easily replaceable.  Bringing on a defensive-minded guy like Woodson was D'Antoni's way of saying that he couldn't cut it as a coach that could lead a team on both ends of the floor.  And once Woodson, a former NBA head coach, was on the staff, the team had somewhere else to turn as soon as things got a little ugly.

At this point, it's pretty clear that Mike D'Antoni was not the right coach for this team.  Going into the season, however, a lot of Knicks fans were optimistic that the pieces were finally in place to efficiently execute the former Phoenix coach's game plan.  Most of those fans, myself included, didn't see anything wrong with D'Antoni hiring Woodson, and if anything praised the move at the time.  What we missed, however, was what the hiring signalled - D'Antoni had lost confidence in his ability to lead the New York Knicks deep into the playoffs.  And once D'Antoni lost confidence in himself, it was only a matter of time before his team lost confidence in him as well.

According to Stephen A. Smith and others, that's exactly what happened by the end of the D'Antoni reign.  Like many people at the top of organizations, D'Antoni was stubborn, stuck in his ways and unwilling to adjust even when it was clear that his way wasn't working.  As a result, he lost the support of his players and, in particular, his high-priced stars.  Whether or not you like Amar'e Stoudemire (I'm neutral) and Carmelo Anthony (I despise him at this point), you have to acknowledge that they were not being used effectively.  It's too early to say if Mike Woodson - or anyone else - will be able to turn this mess into a basketball team again.  What is clear, however, is that Mike D'Antoni's time as head coach of the Knicks was long past due.