During episode #350 of The Bootleg Kev Podcast, Al Harrington looked back at his time playing for Mike D’Antoni’s New York Knicks from 2008-10.
(via Bootleg Kev):
Al calls D’Antoni a phony:
Bootleg Kev: “Why Mike D’Antoni? What was your experience with Mike? Because I have heard very mixed things, mostly very negative things about Mike.”
Harrington: “I don’t want to go into hella detail, but I just respect coaches that tell you the truth all the time. You know what I’m saying? Don’t talk s*** behind my back. Don’t tell me one thing, and then tell somebody else another. You know what I’m saying? So that’s the phony part of it.”
Al tells a wild story about D’Antoni getting mad when the team wanted to improve defensively:
Harrington: “I just felt like we could’ve been a better team if we attempted to play defense. We literally never did anything for defense. Nothing. Never practiced a rotation. Like nothing. So I’m just like, ‘How do you expect us to win if we can’t defend?’ You understand what I’m saying? And we used to tell him that. One time, Larry Hughes fell out of the rotation because me and Larry went to him before practice one day and was like, ‘Yo coach, listen. We understand defense isn’t a priority, but we talked to all the players, and we’re all willing to come in 30 minutes before practice.’”
Bootleg Kev: “To work on defense.”
Harrington: “Because we wanted to f****** win, bro. We the Knicks! We in New York, bro! And he got all emotional and upset and offensive. Like, ‘You think it’s defense!’ This is how he talks, ‘You think it’s defense! You think it’s defense that’s the problem!’ We’re like, ‘Yes. We can’t defend nobody. We don’t know rotations. We don’t communicate. Yes!’ He got all pissed off, and that just really frustrated me and it just made me not like him as much as a coach now. Obviously, I got numbers under him. You know what I’m saying? Which is his style.”
Bootleg Kev: “Seven seconds or less.”
