D'Antoni over Jackson?

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News broke out earlier today that the Los Angeles Lakers hired a coach.

Everyone who is a basketball fan including myself, believed the Lakers would hire legendary coach Phil Jackson over Mike D'Antoni.  Jackson, a former Lakers coach, was open to returning as a head coach for the Lakers.  He retired from coaching after the 2010-2011 basketball season after the Lakers lost in the Conference Semifinals to the Dallas Mavericks, who went on to win the NBA Championship.

D'Antoni last coached for the New York Knicks last season before resigning as head coach.  While with the Knicks, D'Antoni and superstar Carmelo Anthony did not see eye to eye.  The style of coaching D'Antoni coaches is "west coast."  He never fit in well with how the Knicks ran their team; he was too harsh on his players as teams were not thrilled to play for him.  D'Antoni only had experience coaching one players on the Knicks when he took over: Amar'e Stoudemire. 

Do I think that D'Antoni belongs in Los Angeles?  I'm on the fence, I think the way he coaches will work, but with all the egos on the Lakers, I don't know if he will succeed.  He will definitely do better than previous coach Mike Brown, but I don't think he will do better than the legend Phil Jackson.  One thing that D'Antoni has is that he has coached a few players on the Lakers already during the Summer Olympics.  He also coached Steve Nash while Nash played for the Phoenix Suns.  Maybe D'Antoni can help the Lakers, he does have 76 games left this season.  Hopefully he can make some chemistry that the team is desperately looking for.

Only time will tell.  Until then!

Sporty Nikki