In a laughter-filled interview, the new Houston Rockets head coach talks about being from West Virginia, his playing career, which ended with his jersey being retired in Italy, and his coaching philosophy. D’Antoni also goes into the emotional impact of being a basketball player at Marshall when 36 members of the football team died in a 1970 plane crash. D’Antoni, one of the first to regularly use an undersized lineup, says the dominant low-post big man is like a dinosaur in today’s wide-open game, which he helped popularize with the Suns in the early 2000s. He defends his ability and willingness to coach defense, joking that he was a defensive stopper as a player, so clearly he knows a little something about defense. D’Antoni, who describes himself as somewhat of a Forest Gump, had a short NBA/ABA career, but played with a number of people associated with the Rockets, including Moses Malone, and former coaches Don Chaney and Rick Adelman. The 65-year-old says age isn’t an issue – is 65 the new 50? – and his competitive nature is what brought him back to coaching. “I want to win, and I want to get over the hump.”