The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Mike D'Antoni on Matt Thomas Show-3-13-20

Episode Date: March 13, 2020

Rockets head coach Mike D'Antoni joined The Matt Thomas Show on Friday afternoon to discuss the NBA season being suspended indefinitely and much more, presented by The Billiard Factory.

Rockets. It's good! Rockets head coach, Mike Dan Tony, is heard weekly on the Matt Thomas show. Coach, how goes it? Just doing it. Exclusive insight. That's the biggest takeaway from last night's game. The latest on your Rockets.

Can you assess the general culture in that locker room right now? Coming from the mouth of Coach Dan Tony. We can get it done. If we have a chance to win the championship, this will be here. Brought to you by Billiard Factory and Wingstop. Mike Dan Tony with us on Sports Talk 790. On Sports Talk 790. Home of your Rockets.

And this will be one of our otter visits, I would have to say, 101 on Sports Talk 790. It is our pleasure to have the coach with us for the first time in a couple of weeks and probably for the last time until games get underway. Coach, I would say how are things, but I have a pretty good feel of that. How are things? Well, I was trying to adjust and get through this period. I think everybody is, so we're all in the same boat. Let me ask you this. What has the league told its coaches, its players?

I mean, how much communication are you in contact with the coaches association, the league in general? What kind of updates do you plan on getting over the next handful of weeks? Well, mostly will come from obviously the league. Adam Silver and his group will brief us as soon as they, you know, talk to everybody. They have talked to the players association and owners and everybody else and trying to get a feel of where this, you know, the virus is going. and then try to make best decisions you can make and whatever. And so I would imagine every week or so,

or not every week or so, but when they have information that's pertinent to what's happened, they will definitely get it out, and we'll try to adjust and do what we need to do. I want to get back to the team in a little bit, but I first want to get to a country that you know very well in Italy and the devastation that obviously the Ryan versus had there. Tell me about friends, coaches, acquaintances,

who do you talk to? And what's the scene back there from what the people that you associate with are going through right now? Well, I mean, I have a bunch of friends, obviously, and teammates and coach. And so far, so good for everyone. They are, you know, self-quarantined or whatever. You know, they're staying at home and following the regulations that the government has put into place. And it's tough. It's scary.

And it's been going on now, I think, two weeks that's, they've been kind of housebound. They've got to April 3rd at the earliest that they have to do this, and then they'll see it, but there's no guarantees. And, you know, it's a tough time right now for them. How much will you communicate with the individual players? I know you've got a staff, you've got trainers, you've got assisted coaches. Have you guys put together a little system of just kind of check on each other

to see what the plan is and what you want them doing during this downtime? Yeah, yeah, we met today and trying to go over some plans to just have. out to individually right now we're under the orders of they can individually work out no more than one at a time or one coach or you know everybody's 60

whatever it is that you're following that is going to last until we get another update which will be next week sometimes so for right now individually they have to kind of do it on their own and they know what they have to do anyway

and they do have to do anyway and and they do have you know one trainer that they could see here or whatever. So trying to keep it to a minimum. And just the individuals will have to take care of their own bodies and stay tuned. I'm assuming majorly baseball players have been kind of told to stick close to home. I'm assuming the NBA is kind of the same spot. Yeah, they said that for now.

Then we'll see. But yeah, I think everybody is supposed to be in their home base until the next update. Have you been through anything like this before? Ever I know, for most of us, none of us. The answer is that is no, but is there anything... Well, I wasn't around when there was a black plague, if that's what you're saying. Well, I mean, I know that you're among the elderly. I'm just teasing, but you know what I mean?

Anything is... Because, I mean, we've had hurricanes that have stopped things. We've had 9-11. We've had... I mean, we've had a few things in life that the world of sports has taken a backseat, but anything close to this in your life, no matter of view of as a player, coach, growing up as a kid, anything close to this at all? No, not at all, because most of the things that...

It happened you see an ending date of whatever disrupts and what's going on. You know, so this you don't know. And it's also not like a strike where, okay, you just get through whatever, but this is changing lives and how you live and how you interact with people. And so, yeah, this is so much different. And it's kind of, you know, there's a serious stuff. And you've got to do what the doctors and medical experts are telling you to do, and you better do it. It's serious.

It's not like somebody's trying to overplay it, downplay or whatever. It's time for the community and people to react in the right way, take responsibility as a person in the community that can help stop the spread and not participate in any kind of activity that will help, you know, spread it. So, yeah, it's a serious stuff, but I've never been through it, but we'll get through it, and we'll just have to do what they say to do. What was your initial reaction when the conference basketball tournaments in the March Madness was canceled? That was inevitable.

Yeah. I mean, the NBA probably led the way of canceling, and they're on top of things, and if they came to that conclusion, then it was, in my mind, it was like everybody else is going to follow, too, because you can't, you know, They had the information, and they acted upon it, and everybody else acted upon it to it. But it didn't surprise me. Were you mentally preparing before this situation with Rudy and the league suspending operations? Were you mentally preparing yourself and your squad to be in games with no crowds?

Is that something that had been talked about amongst you as a team? Not really. No, I mean, there's nothing mentally preparing that you can do. just once you do it and you then you react to it maybe for the second game you try to get yourself psyched up but you know since you're going to unknown and I've never played a game

without any fans so it's you know how do you prepare for that if you don't know what in the individual guys are individuals they would have been professional and they would have done the best they could have done but obviously didn't come to that yeah Mike Dan Tony with us a couple more minutes

here on the Matt Thomas show do you feel like when we all get together again and games resume that there'll be some noticeable changes? You know, I feel like, and again, I don't spend a lot of time in your locker rooms, but I don't feel like that there's areas of danger. I think that all NBA arenas do a really good job of making sure everything as clean as possible. But do you envision things permanent being changed once we all get back together again? You know, I really don't know. I don't know what the data will show or the the, you know, whether or not, I don't know that.

That's a good question, and then we will see. But as always, I'm sure there will be things that they probably pick up on that, yeah, we could do a better job here, maybe it does change it. So, yeah, I would think some things change permanently. Obviously, the victory against Minnesota was well needed before this break. Where is the squad collectively mentally? I mean, not that there's anything good out of this, and I want to make sure I'm very careful of this, but a little time.

away? Will that give some of the guys a chance to reflect on what's gone right and what's gone wrong and what has to happen when you guys get back together? No, I don't think so. I don't think it's a factor one way or the other. We know that we had a little period there where we just messed up. We got, you know,

like I said it was out in time. One game we came out, we didn't have the energy. The other game we came out and they busted us because they were a really good team and we didn't play very well. And then we got shook a little bit. We went up against two teams that were playing pretty good. We had to play great, and we didn't.

But they understand what we have to do, and I think mentally they're ready to start back up when we can and get after it. But we're not in a bad place. It's just, you know, it's too bad. We stumbled a little bit, but so be it. How long does it take? And maybe you don't know the answer to this.

If Adam Silver says in 45 days we're playing basketball games again, I mean, do you need a little mini-camp? Do you need just a couple of days or practices? What ultimately, just as a pure guess on your part, you would need for your guys to kind of pick up where they left off and finish the season off and figure out where things are going to go come playoff time? I have no idea. That's something that I'm sure the NBA will try to make a good estimate or a good guess

and give you enough time to do us and whatever time they give us. That's what we'll do. but you know I've had a had a guy a couple weeks you know at least

you get ready but you know that'll depend on each individual guy as he is by himself right now you know how hard they work at it you know it's one thing about working out then the other thing is how hard

you work out you know I can work out every day not do anything or I can work out every day and do a lot so that'll that'll each individual player just have to get mentally and get his body ready.

And then as a team, we're doing the same concepts. We're not teaching anything. We're not teaching. They're not going to forget the plays. So it's just a matter of a little bit of timing, and that timing comes back pretty quick. All right, I have to ask this. My wife has got a list of honey-dews for me to do since I'm going to be home for a while.

Has Laurel asked you the same sort of list? You know, I'm sure. We will get into that. But it'll, you know, I'm definitely hanging out at the house, that's for sure. So whatever day to be done, we'll get done. All right. Well, tell Laurel, we send our best and to you as well, and we look forward to resuming these shows in the next few weeks

once everything gets the dust settle and we get ourselves back in the spot, we can start playing some basketball again. That's good, man. All right. Thank you, Mike. Mike, Dave Tony, with us here on Sports Talk 7-90. That's the rough thing about this, Ross, is a man who likes to travel like I do.

I can always push the honey-do list off. That ain't going there. anywhere for a while. I'm sorry, Matt. What kind of things are on your list? What do you need to be doing? We're cleaning out the laundry room this weekend. Oh, okay.

Then we're working on closets. Oh, it's spring cleaning for you. Yeah. That's good. You roll your sleeves up. Get your elbows a little dirty, fancy old Matt. I'd rather go on a five-game road. Like the rest of us.

Five-game Roady. None of this pampering at five-diamond hotels. Fancy shrimp cocktails. Speaking of hotels, there's a story about Rudy Gobert. that he and the hotel needs to be discussed when we returned. That is, of course, Mike Daytona. Did you lick every water fountain or like a doorknob in the entire?

I don't want you to guess. But it does involve Rudy Gober in a hotel room. Oh, geez. Let me tell you about the billiard factory who brings you Mike to Antonio every week.