Wednesday,
October 04, 2006
Adoring
The ANNOTICO Report
Mike D'Antoni and the Phoenix Spurs
are in
Mike D'Antoni is loved, adored and
revered by basketball fans from
SUNS MIXING
CULTURE, FOOD, AND PRACTICE
KVOA-Phoenix
The Phoenix Suns have cruised the
canals of
It's
been a mixture of tourism and training for the Suns in
"All
you have to do is take a taxi through
Nash
is an avid soccer fan, and will watch the
World Cup champion Italian national team play on Saturday night.
Nash
has traveled the world. This is his second trip to
"Generally,
when I travel, I seem to love the people the most, then the cultural
differences come next," he said. "In
The
Suns play their first preseason game Friday night against Virtus
Lottomatica Roma in
D'ANTONI HONORED IN RETURN TO
Paul
Coro
The
Oct. 2, 2006
D'Antoni and his wife Laurel walked into the Palaverde like the king and queen of
D'Antoni is loved, adored and revered by basketball
fans from
"He was like an Italian for us when he was in
"Three days ago I called him, and he said he was emotionally excited to
come back. I told him I was excited, too, because it was a great moment for me,
too."
Fans like Christian Bucciol, 22, came from more than
an hour away for D'Antoni as much as the night's Supercoppa Italiana. Locals see
about 75 games per NBA season, so they still get their fill of D'Antoni's fun-and-gun teams.
"He's a great coach and has the drive to take the Phoenix Suns to the
Finals," Bucciol said. "For
The locals share some of the same sentiment for D'Antoni
that those around the Suns franchise appreciate most. There is the coaching,
but his daily co-workers are more impressed with the person who is as decent as
he is driven.
"The way he acts with people and fans, he's been the most
friendly coach," said Alberto Buz! zavo, a scout for Benetton.
"We never had a guy like that. He left a big mark behind. Everybody was
going crazy for him."
Flavio Tranquillo, called "the Voice of
Italy" for his basketball broadcasting, recalls the legendary player who
would give fans a treat with a behind-the-back dribble as the time during a win
wound down. But he knows the man who matched his playing success with his work
on the sideline.
"It doesn't happen much that you have a chance to meet your idol and he's
a nice human being," Tranquillo said. "Of course, I'm biased. On a
scale of 1 to 10, he's 300."
After two days of training at La Ghirada's practice
facility, D'Antoni's Suns team moves to the Palaverde for practice today with 50 members of the Italian
media credentialed to attend.
"I had four years here that were just fabulous," D'Antoni
said. "I enjoyed every minute of it. Great people, good
teams. To come back with the best team in the world, that's just too
good."
Suns Director of Player Personnel Vinny Del
Negro, who played on
SUN'S BIG QUESTION
By Steve Kerr. Yahoo! Sports
October 3, 2006
The question now,
as the Suns conduct training camp here in northern
The last time Stoudemire was on the floor in a contest that mattered was
during
Without
him, the Suns made a remarkable run back to the West finals, ultimately losing
to
The
ANNOTICO Reports
Can
be Viewed, and are Archived at:
Italia
Italia Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com
Annotico
Email: annotico@earthlink.net