Suns' D'Antoni to be named coach of year, sources say

PHOENIX -- Mike D'Antoni is the NBA's coach of the year for unleashing the Phoenix Suns to a league-best 62 wins, a league source said on Monday.

The outcome of the vote first was reported by the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, and was confirmed by a source speaking on condition of anonymity.

The selection is to be announced at a news conference on Tuesday, two days after Suns point guard Steve Nash of Canada was named the league's most valuable player.

"Mike's been unbelievable this year," Nash said on Monday before Phoenix met Dallas in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. "He's extremely bright and finds a terrific balance that's so important in this league of holding guys accountable and at the same time giving guys the freedom to use their tools to help the team win."

D'Antoni, a duel U.S. and Italian citizen, spent 20 years in Italy as a star point guard for Milan and Italy, then as a highly successful coach for Milan and Treviso. His first stint as an NBA head coach was with Denver, where he went 14-36 in the lockout-shortened 1999 season.

Mike D'Antoni is making the most of his chance in Phoenix after being fired in Denver. (Getty Images)

He was fired at the end of the season and general manager Dan Issel named himself coach. D'Antoni was a scout with San Antonio and an assistant to coach Mike Dunleavy in Portland before returning to Italy in 2001, coaching Treviso to the Italian League championship.

A year later, he was lured back to the NBA to become an assistant to Suns coach Frank Johnson. When Johnson was fired in December 2003, D'Antoni took over.

The young team finished 20-41, but the seeds of this year's turnaround were sown when Phoenix traded Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway to the New York Knicks.

That cleared salary cap room for the signing of Nash and Quentin Richardson before this season. D'Antoni, who loves a fast-paced game, decided to go with a small, speedy lineup because those were his five best players and they all wanted to start. The result was a 31-4 record to start the season, and a 33-win turnaround.

"It's an honor, no doubt about it," D'Antoni said of the impending award. "I mean, (Suns president) Bryan Colangelo had the vision. He's the one who put all the pieces together and held true and got the players on the floor. From there, the players took over and did a heck of a job.

"Hopefully, I helped out and tried to get them going in the right direction, tried to put them where they could perform the best. But those are two pretty big pieces that have to be in place before I get any kind of award."

Nash said D'Antoni's easygoing style, and lack of ego, meshed perfectly with the team.

"That's a huge part of him," Nash said. "He's willing to kind of relinquish the reins sometimes. That's gutsy in this league. He does it for the betterment of our team, but it takes a guy who's not worried about his own ego."