It was quite a week for state native Mike D'Antoni.
First, the Mullens native and former Marshall star was named the NBA Coach of the Year for the 2016-17 season. Then his Houston Rockets improved their chances of competing for a NBA title by trading for former Wake Forest star Chris Paul.
Having spent my early childhood years in McDowell County, I grew up watching and following the D'Antoni family, which lived in nearby Wyoming County. My father was an Italian who always followed with pride the exploits of other Italian athletes and coaches.
In the southern coalfields he liked to follow former Mullens coach Lewis D'Antoni (1950s) and former Welch coach Frank Marino (1960s).
This past week, when Mike D'Antoni won Coach of the Year honors, I could not help but flash back to several memories of the former Mullens and Marshall star.
n March of 1968: In the days before interstates and Internets, many basketball fans did not get to see the best players in the state as often as they do now. Thus, the city of Charleston got its first look at D'Antoni in his junior year of high school. He led his Mullens team to the Class AA state tournament at the old Civic Center arena. It seemed as if the whole town of Mullens was there as a young Rebels team played Charles Town. Mullens got off to a rocky start and found itself in a big hole early, but staged a furious comeback before falling in a tight game.
n Summer of 1969: Charleston got another look at D'Antoni when he played for the all-state senior all-stars in a game against senior all-stars from the Kanawha Valley Conference. The all-state team featured D'Antoni, Henry Dickerson from Woodrow Wilson, Greg Hawkins from Huntington, Tommy Pritchett from Bluefield, Dave Merchant from Clarksburg and others. The all-KVC team featured Gordie McClanahan from Nitro, Skip Mason, Larry Harris and Levi Phillips from Charleston High as well as others. Phillips remembers D'Antoni well. "I had never seen a better ballhandler than Mike prior to that game," remembers Phillips. "I was used to being able to force most ballhandlers to where I wanted them to go, but I could not do that with Mike. The game was close most of the way and then Mike and Tommy Gun [Pritchett] took over down the stretch and they beat us."
n 1969-70 season: D'Antoni was a freshman at Marshall at a time that freshmen were ineligible to play on the varsity. No matter. Fans in Huntington still flocked to the old Memorial Fieldhouse to see him play when the freshmen played preliminary games before the varsity. The Marshall freshman team featured Mike and highly touted Tyrone Collins. They played in front of big crowds who made sure to get to the arena early. Interestingly enough, that team was the first coaching gig for current Marshall coach Dan D'Antoni.
n August of 1972: I moved into Hodges Hall, the athletic dormitory, as a wide-eyed freshman at Marshall. As I struggled to get my belongings up the stairs and into my dorm room, two people offered some assistance. One was D'Antoni and the other was dorm resident advisor Mike Kaufman. I thought Kaufman was the coolest guy I had ever met. He was a 27-year-old sophomore, a Vietnam vet, 10 years older than most of us and more wise to the ways of the world. He was a 1963 Stonewall Jackson grad, a baseball player and had the Joe Namath Fu Manchu mustache.
n March 1, 1973: Marshall's final regular -season game vs. Samford and the final home game for D'Antoni in a Herd uniform. As he introduced the starting lineups, Marshall's legendary public address announcer Budd Dailey's voice cracked with emotion as he said slowly with emphasis, "ONE LAST TIME, starting at guard, number 10, a senior from Mullens, West Virginia, Mike D'Antoni." Dailey's introduction was perfect.
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Before the days of the McDonald's All-Star games, the most prestigious high school all-star game in the country was the Dapper Dan Classic in Pittsburgh. In 1969, D'Antoni was the first player from our state to be invited to play in the game. In 1972, former Greenbrier East star and WVU Hall of Famer Warren Baker was also invited, but could not play due to a baseball conflict.
Contact Frank Giardina at flg16@hotmail.com.