05-14-2008, 04:48 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Moderator
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Tampa, Florida
Age: 25
Posts: 15,783
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D'Antoni on leaving the Suns
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Quote:
Mike D'Antoni opened up Tuesday about his departure from Phoenix on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption.
His response to what went wrong:
"That's a mystery. I don't know how it got there that quick. Honestly, before the jump ball with the San Antonio series, I thought that I would finish my career in Phoenix. I was already to start to fishing around for an extension. Things happened during that series that we got on a different page. There was a trust in my mind, and I could be the cause of it, but there was a trust broken. I didn't think it was fair to the fans and it wasn't fair to the players and it definitely wasn't fair to Robert Sarver, who was paying me a lot of money to come back, to not have the feeling I had before. Once it got to that point emotionally, I just decided, 'You know what? This is better for everybody if I just go.'
"I didn't want to take the money, make it where they had to fire me. I wanted to find a way that I could coach and exit gracefully, get the money that is due to me, and it worked out. I didn't want to leave anybody with a bad taste in their mouths. I thought we had four great years, but this is best for me and best for Phoenix that I'm in New York.
"That (Game 1 vs. the Spurs) is probably the crux of it. There's so much frustration over the previous years - the suspensions; the year before we thought we were the better team; Joe Johnson having his face broken four years ago, not being able to play against the Spurs. It really got to the point where we had them. We could've beat them in Game 1. We blew it. I'll take responsibility for it. We blew the game. But from there it unraveled, and it unraveled in different ways. Maybe I was paranoid. Maybe people were out to get me.
"I do know there was a trust broken. Once it's gone, it's like a divorce, it's hard to go back. I didn't think it was fair to anybody that I went back there and did a job I didn't feel I could go back and do my best. I don't know if it's a personality conflict (with Steve Kerr). Maybe difference of opinion on certain things that happened. He even said he made some mistakes he would do over. I made some mistakes I should do over. We just got on different pages. He didn't hire me, and I didn't have that comfort level that he hired me.
"The situation wasn't the greatest to start with, and it kind of went south. It looked good and I thought it was fine toward the end of the year, but that Game 1 threw a wrench into the works, and here we are."
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D'Antoni on leaving the Suns
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