Sports Business Classroom is excited to announce that Houston Rockets Head Coach Mike D’Antoni will be a featured speaker at the Business of Basketball Virtual Conference taking place August 10-14, 2020!

Designed for those looking to break into the sports business world, the immersive, five-day Business of Basketball Virtual Conference provides registrants the opportunity to learn from top executives while performing real work in multiple in-demand disciplines, including team video, scouting, analytics, social media, digital branding, broadcasting, and the league salary cap.

D’Antoni will join an all-star lineup of sports business executives that will be speaking and teaching the Sports Business Classroom Virtual Conference, including New Orleans Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry, Washington Wizards General Manager Tommy Sheppard, Play-by-Play Commentator NBA on ESPN & ABC Mike Breen, Chief Creative Officer at Momentum Worldwide Omid Farhang, WNBA Champion Renee Montgomery, Bleacher Report Staff Writer Mirin Fader, and the Vegas Summer League co-founders Warren LeGarie and Albert Hall.

+ Click Here to View a Full List of Committed Speakers

Past speakers have included NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, TNT’s David Aldridge, Houston Rockets Head Coach Mike D’Antoni, NFL Network’s Andrea Kremer, Dallas Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle, the cast of NBATV’s The Starters, ESPN’s Mark Jones, Los Angeles Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, and NBA Executive VP of Basketball Operations Kiki Vandeweghe, just to name a few.

 

 

SBC SPEAKER BIO: MIKE D’ANTONI

Mike D’Antoni has over a quarter of a century of coaching experience, including 15 seasons as a head coach in the NBA with a career mark of 628-499 (.557). In three seasons with D’Antoni at the helm, the Rockets have gone 173-73 and have the second-highest winning percentage (.703) of any team over that span.

The Rockets started last season by losing 14 of their first 25 games but went 42- 15 the rest of the way and recorded the second-best winning percentage (.737) of any team dating back to games played on Dec. 11. Houston finished with 53 wins, giving D’Antoni his seventh season recording 50-plus wins as a head coach.

In 2017-18, D’Antoni led the Rockets to a franchise single season record 65 wins and pushed the eventual champion Golden State Warriors to Game 7 of
the Western Conference Finals. It marked the first season in which the Rockets posted the best record in the NBA. Houstonwon17straightgamesfrom1/28-3/7/18,markingthesecond-longeststreakinfranchisehistory.

After guiding the Rockets to 55-27 mark in his initial season with the team in 2016-17, D’Antoni was named NBA Coach of the Year. He became the eighth coach in league history to win multiple Coach of the Year awards. D’Antoni’s first Coach of the Year award came after leading Phoenix to a franchise-high tying 62 wins in 2004-05.

D’Antoni’s previous stint as a head coach came with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2012-13 through 2013-14. He joined the team a few games into the 2012-13 season and led L.A. to its last playoff appearance. The following season saw Kobe Bryant limited to just six games due to injury.

From 2008-09 through 2011-12, D’Antoni served as head coach for New York. In his final full season in 2010- 11, D’Antoni guided the Knicks to their first winning record in 10 years.

D’Antoni joined Phoenix as an assistant coach in 2002-03 and took over head coaching duties 21 games into the following season. After winning just 21 games in 2003-04, Phoenix won 62 games in D’Antoni’s first full season as head coach in 2004-05 while increasing its scoring average by 16.2 points per game. That marked the largest scoring increase from one season to the next by any team since the introduction of the shot clock in 1954-55.

Over a four-season span from 2004-05 through 2007-08, the Suns compiled a 232-96 (.707) mark, including back-to-back trips to the Western Conference Finals in 2005 and 2006.

The Suns play style under D’Antoni was viewed as revolutionary. At the time, Phoenix posted the NBA’s three highest single season totals for 3-pointers made from 2004-05 through 2006-07. Prior to 2004-05, only three teams had more than 700 3FGM in a single season. In 2018-19, all 30 NBA teams hit at least 700 3-pointers for the first time in league history, including the Rockets with a single season record 1,323 3FGM.

D’Antoni’s first NBA head coaching job came with Denver during the shortened 1998-99 season. He then spent a season scouting for San Antonio and another as an assistant coach for Portland before coaching Benetton Treviso to the Italian League title, the Italian Supercup and a spot in the Euroleague Final Four in 2001-02.

A dual citizen of the U.S. and Italy, D’Antoni enjoyed tremendous success as both a player and a coach in the Italian League, capturing numerous titles in both endeavors. In 2008, Euroleague Basketball named him one of the 50 Most Influential Personalities in European Club Basketball history. Prior to embarking on his international career, D’Antoni spent parts of four seasons playing in the NBA and ABA during the mid-70’s.

ABOUT SPORTS BUSINESS CLASSROOM

Sports Business Classroom is dedicated to creating immersive educational and training experiences designed by leading industry professionals to develop the sports business stars of tomorrow.

Sports Business Classroom creates one-of-a-kind learning opportunities for those interested in the business of basketball and jobs in sports. Our goal with every program we produce is to combine the best of all worlds into a single package – great academics, hands-on experience, immersion into the subject matter and interaction with some of the best minds working in and around the NBA.