Mike D’Antoni’s mustache was a signature part of his look from back in Phoenix through is days in Los Angeles. Not that he was exactly a fashion icon on the sidelines, but whatever his look was — a bit frumpy with a touch of overworked? — it included a mustache.
Watch Mike D’Antoni on the sidelines in the playoffs and no mustache. So what gives?
D’Antoni’s wife Laurel explains in Tim Keown’s story on the couple for ESPN the Magazine.
They engage in good-natured arguments over just about everything. Before Mike was hired by the Rockets last May, one dispute revolved around the spelling of a word. Laurel can’t even remember the word, but she remembers Mike’s stubbornness. “He was convinced he was right,” she says, “but I knew I was right.” She proposed a bet: If Mike was wrong, he would have to shave his mustache. Mike, so convinced of his rectitude that he was willing to put his most famous physical attribute on the line, accepted the bet, and that’s why Mike D’Antoni’s mustache has a Twitter account but Mike D’Antoni doesn’t have a mustache.
It doesn’t matter who you are, you are not going to win a bet with your wife.
