Seven years ago Boki Nachbar went from being a promising young player in Europe to a vital component of Mike D'Antoni's highly successful, fast-paced offense for Benetton Treviso.
Nachbar still loves D'Antoni as a coach and a friend, and no wonder. In their one year together D'Antoni made Nachbar a starter and they won the Italian League and the Italian Cup, and went to the European final four.
So as much as he wants to return to the Nets, Nachbar, who is a free agent this summer, couldn't help but notice that the Knicks just hired the one coach who was so instrumental in his development. A reunion, he said, would be tempting.
"Who wouldn't want to play for Mike?" Nachbar said yesterday from Koper, Slovenia. "For me, playing with Mike again would be like a dream come true, honestly. But I'm extremely thankful for what the Nets gave me. As much as what Mike did for me in Europe, they did for me in the NBA.
"They totally helped me with redirecting my career and getting me going again, and I don't forget that easily. From that aspect, I do want to stay with the Nets, definitely. But then just over the river, having one of the best coaches in the NBA, and a guy who's not just a coach but my friend, that also is going to be a factor, too."
Nachbar, a 6-9 shooting forward, said he hasn't spoken to the Nets since his exit meeting a month ago, when both sides professed a desire to keep Nachbar in East Rutherford.
Nachbar and D'Antoni left Italy after their one season together. Nachbar was drafted by the Rockets in 2002 and D'Antoni joined him in the NBA as an assistant coach with the Suns. When D'Antoni eventually took over as head coach in Phoenix the next year, Nachbar knew what was coming.
The same roadrunner brand of up-tempo basketball that D'Antoni made popular with the Suns was just what he taught at Treviso. Benetton had the speedy Tyus Edney playing the role of Steve Nash, while D'Antoni had Nachbar, then just 21, sweeping in from the wing.
"We played almost exactly the same way," Nachbar said. "We played extremely fast. Organized, but fast. It was something he did from the beginning when he got there, and that's why we won a championship and why we were one of the most successful teams in Europe.
"We pushed the ball and never stopped playing that way the whole season. We were extremely successful at it. By the end of the season we were impossible to stop."
Nachbar said that at Benetton there was no specific team rule to shoot within seven seconds, which became a popularized tenet of D'Antoni's offensive philosophy in Phoenix. But any open shot was considered a good shot.
"When a person had an open shot, if he didn't take it, then he would hear from him," Nachbar recalled. "It would be totally opposite from the other coaches. If you had an open shot in the first five seconds of the offense and didn't take it, you would get talked to. He wouldn't yell, but he would say, 'Listen, you've got to take that shot, that's the type of shot we want.'
With that exciting style and his success as a former star player and coach for Milan, and later coaching at Benetton, D'Antoni became more than just a star in Italian basketball.
"He's like a god over there," Nachbar said. "They love him. It's almost impossible to believe. You have to go over there to see it."
Nachbar described Benetton practices as a fun combination of five-on-five scrimmages and fast-break drills, and said that the players tend to love D'Antoni just as much as the Italian fans.
"He shows tremendous trust in his players and I guess I fit perfectly into his system and his vision," he said. "Even though I struggled at times as the youngest guy on the team, he let me play through it. The confidence and trust that he shows in players is something I'll never forget."
David Waldstein may be reached at dwaldstein@starledger.com.
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