Report: Former Suns coach Mike D’Antoni in talks to join Jerry Colangelo-led 76ers
Dec 11, 2015, 11:39 PM | Updated: 11:43 pm
Days after the Philadelphia 76ers hired former Suns owner Jerry Colangelo to aide the current front office, another familiar Phoenix face could be on the way to Philly.
Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reported late Friday that former Suns head coach Mike D’Antoni is in talks to join the Sixers as an associate head coach.
D’Antoni and Colangelo have a relationship dating back to their days in Phoenix, where the Seven Seconds or Less Suns put together a string of competitive and entertaining teams. The two also worked together with USA Basketball, where D’Antoni was an assistant coach under Colangelo’s leadership of the program.
Despite Philadelphia sitting at a 1-23 record on the season, it would not appear D’Antoni could be in a coach-in-waiting position.
The Sixers this week also announced they extended current coach Brett Brown’s contract. Brown, who coached under Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs, has worked with a roster of borderline NBA talent under general manager Sam Hinkie, whose tanking strategy of compiling high lottery picks has come under fire.
Wojnarowski reports D’Antoni could use an associate head coaching opportunity to return to a head job in the future.
D’Antoni, who coached the Knicks and Lakers after his tenure with the Suns, has not coached since he left Los Angeles in 2013-14.
He has, however, not strayed far from the coaching profession. He’s made practice appearances at several levels of basketball, including dropping by the Stanford women’s basketball team and the New Orleans Pelicans.
