New York Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni knows that during the team's recent six-game losing streak there were calls for his job -- including by SB Nation New York Knicks writer Chris Celletti. The Knicks have won two straight now after a narrow defeat of New Jersey on Wednesday, but that doesn't mean D'Antoni is out of the woods.
The coach joined Michael Kay recently on ESPN Radio in New York to discuss the state of the Knicks and -- of course -- those calls for his head.
"That’s fine. Rightfully so in the sense of you know I’m guiding the ship and the ship right now is taking on some water, so you know obviously that would be the easy thing to do," D'Antoni said. "I’ve got to do a better job like everybody else, but I’ve got to figure it out first."
D'Antoni told Kay he was worried about the transition the Knicks would have to make after the trade for Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups. His worries, of course, have been for good reason.
"I was really worried about it because of the time constraint and you know literally they just took a physical and went out on the floor and played. Than we just started as I said 12 games in 18 days, but you know getting time off and we had very few practice days and no training camp. Normally you go through a training camp in a month, month and a half, and you try to figure it out, but I felt the way we started it looked great. Then Chauncey [Billups] got hurt and we still looked good. I was getting a little more comfortable thinking okay maybe we’ll be alright," D'Antoni said. "And then we hit a skid that I was worried about before. Now just with the pressure on and all that we’re just trying to hold it steady and just trying to figure out some problems."
-- Sports Radio Interviews has the full transcript