CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Former Marshall basketball standout and 2026 Naismith Hall of Fame inductee Mark D’Antoni will never forget his roots.
The Mullens, W.Va. native will be enshrined for his contributions to the sport of basketball in August. D’Antoni was a guest Monday on MetroNews “Midday.”
D’Antoni said the news is still sinking in.
“It’s just an incredible honor to be with my other inductees, but also the people that have come before me, just to be mentioned with them, is something I could never, back in Mullens, West Virginia, dream of being able to be in that position. A lot of emotions, a lot of good times, it’s been a great road so far.”
D’Antoni spent more than 40 years in professional basketball as a player and coach. He is a two-time NBA coach of the year (2004-05 with the Phoenix Suns and 2016-17 with the Houston Rockets),
Before all that, he was a young boy with a dream in Mullens. D’Antoni attributed much of his success to how he was raised.
“We’ve always been in hard workers in West Virginia as a whole. You always hear the phrase, ‘you gotta pull yourself up by your bootstraps.’ But you know what, somebody’s gotta give you the boots. You just can’t do it by yourself, and that’s what the whole community of Mullens, my family, my dad, mom, brothers and sisters, fathers of Mullens, West Virginia, they created an environment where anything can happen.”
“Whatever you can dream, it can become reality in Mullens,” D’Antoni continued. “We’ve had so many successful people, so many people went on to become head coaches, players, and in other fields also. It’s just a great community to grow up in, as I’m sure there’s many around West Virginia, and I was just lucky to be where I was at the time I was.”
D’Antoni is known for his signature “Seven Seconds or Less” up-tempo offensive scheme. He said the style came together over his career.
“There’s never really one ‘a-ha’ moment, it’s an accumulation of ideas and experiences,” D’Antoni said. “Mullens always played fast. I went to Marshall, I always played fast, we have a different-type team where the forward was the tallest guy on the team. We had a small forward Russell Lee, and we ran up and down. I go to Europe for 21 years, and got the chance to experiment and do things, and it just seemed natural to migrate to the philosophy that we had in Phoenix, ‘seven seconds or less.’ With all that, if you don’t have the players, it doesn’t work. I had great players, and it just exploded, and this is where I am today.”
While D’Antoni was overseas, he taught a wide variety of players from different backgrounds.
“There were so many players there that I coached: Serbians, Croatians, Russians, everybody. There’s so many different ways to look at the game and create different things. It starts over there with Sasha Djordjevic, who’s one of the best point guards I’ve ever coached. From them, you gather some information.”
D’Antoni said there are several players in particular who stood out over the years.
“We got lucky when I got to Phoenix that we had Steve Nash, who came from Dallas. He worked so hard and was so good that it was breathtaking. He made it all work, and he, with Amar’e Stoudemire who is also going into the Hall with me, same time, and Sean May, different guys, it’s just every day. I coached Shaq for one year, he’s beyond belief. He’s so funny and just bigger than life. We had “Linsanity” up in New York [with] Jeremy Lin, and that in games when he exploded onto the scene was something to behold. I’ve never been around that much excitement and that much publicity in New York, which is the capital of all that.”
The Hall of Fame ceremony will take place August 14th and 15th in Springfield, Massachusetts. The 2026 Hall of Fame class includes Doc Rivers, Candace Parker, and Mark Few.
D’Antoni said he is well aware of the West Virginians who paved the way.
“One of my presenters for the Hall of Fame will be Rod Thorn, who grew up in Princeton. So, it’s just so many people, it’s just an honor to be mentioned with them. I’m proud to be a West Virginian, and I’m lucky that’s where I was born.”