NEW YORK – Houston Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni and his staff will coach Team Stephen in the 2018 NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 18 (8 p.m. ET) at Staples Center in Los Angeles.  D’Antoni joins Rudy Tomjanovich (1997) as the Rockets’ only All-Star Game head coaches.

A two-time NBA Coach of the Year, D’Antoni earned All-Star Game head coaching honors for the second time.  As the Phoenix Suns’ head coach, he led the Western Conference past the Eastern Conference 153-132 in the 2007 NBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas.

The Rockets (34-13, .723) tonight clinched the best record in the West through games played on Sunday, Feb. 4 among the 14 conference teams with a head coach eligible for the 2018 All-Star Game.  Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was ineligible because he coached the West in last year’s All-Star Game.

Under a new All-Star Game format that replaces the traditional matchup between conferences, each 2018 All-Star Game coach will lead the team that includes the captain from the same conference.  D’Antoni and his staff will coach the All-Star team that features Golden State’s Stephen Curry as captain.

The eligible head coach of the team with the East’s best record through games of Feb. 4 will coach the All-Star team captained by the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James.  Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens is ineligible to coach Team LeBron because he led the East in last year’s All-Star Game.

D’Antoni, in his second season with Houston, has an 89-40 record (.690) as the Rockets’ coach.  Last season, he was named the 2016-17 NBA Coach of the Year after guiding Houston to a 55-27 record and the No. 3 playoff seed in the West.  He was also voted Coach of the Year with Phoenix in 2004-05, when the Suns tied a team record with 62 victories.  His career coaching record is 544-466 (.539) over 14 seasons with the Denver Nuggets, Suns, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers and Rockets.

The 67^th NBA All-Star Game will air on TNT and ESPN Radio.  The game will reach fans in more than 200 countries and territories in more than 40 languages.