Mike D’Antoni’s trademark mustache has been noticeably absent for the duration of his tenure as Houston Rockets head coach, and now we know why.
In a feature on D’Antoni that was published on Tuesday, ESPN’s Tim Keown shared the story of how the Coach of the Year frontrunner had to shave off the mustache after losing a bet with his wife Laurel over the spelling of a word.
Per Keown:
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.
Of course, the ‘stache had been a staple of D’Antoni’s look from his playing days back in the 1970s and ’80s to the start of his coaching career in Italy all the way through his rise to NBA prominence as head coach of the Phoenix Suns and other teams. But he, of all people, probably should have known that facial hair bets are a no-fly zone, as we’ve seen in the past in other sports.
