Mike D’Antoni, who served as head coach of the Houston Rockets from 2016 until 2020, is headed to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
The news was first reported by John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98 in Phoenix, where D’Antoni coached the Suns from 2003 until 2008.
“An important figure in the evolution of modern basketball who elevated the game through his uptempo, space and pace philosophy that helped redefine offensive strategy… emphasizing ball movement, shooting, and efficiency and shaping the analytics-driven
era of the sport — known as Seven Seconds or Less,” Hall of Fame officials wrote in the announcement.
In the previous 2016-17 season, D’Antoni won NBA Coach of the Year honors after leading the Rockets to a 55-27 record — a 14-win improvement relative to the previous season under a different coaching staff.
D’Antoni finished his Houston tenure (2016-17 through 2019-20) in the No. 2 spot in both categories, trailing only Hall of Fame coach and two-time NBA champion Rudy Tomjanovich. He’s easily the top coach in Rockets history by winning percentage (217-101, .682). D’Antoni holds the best winning percentage in Houston Rockets history at .682 (217–101).Dantoni led the Rockets to a franchise-best 65-17 record in the 2017-18 season, where he was named NBA Coach of the Year for the second time in his career, and during his four seasons with Houston, the Rockets reached the playoffs each year, often battling as a top contender in the Western Conference.
Those Houston years included a memorable 2017-18 campaign in which the Rockets (65-17) finished with the most wins of any NBA team, and it remains a franchise record to this day. As the star player and centerpiece of D’Antoni’s high-powered offense, James Harden easily won league Most Valuable Player (MVP) honors.
Although none of D’Antoni’s teams won an NBA championship, they were close on several occasions. The 2017–18 Rockets, who were possibly just one Chris Paul hamstring injury away from overthrowing the Golden State Warriors, were on that list.
As it stands, they did enough to ensure that D’Antoni’s legacy would be honored and acknowledged in Springfield, Massachusetts, as a member of the 2026 Hall of Fame class. The dates of the enshrinement weekend are August 14–15, 2026.
