PHOENIX -  The Phoenix Suns Head Coach Mike D'Antoni, his wife Laurel, and his 12-year-old son Michael went fishing on Lake Pleasant July 27 with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Laurel D'Antoni says the family welcomed a relaxing morning on the water.

"It was great getting back on the water and doing some fishing; or rather, casting," says Mike D'Antoni about his scoreless morning on the water.

Mike fished as a child in West Virginia, but a professional basketball career has meant more time on the court and less on the water in the past 20 years.

D'Antoni joined the Suns coaching staff in 2002, bringing with him a 30 year professional basketball background that included the NBA, ABA and the Italian League. He took the reins of the Suns as head coach in December 2003. Under his charge, the Suns won 62 games last season, advancing to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 1993.

Wife Laurel grew up in Washington State and Puerto Rico, where she fished with her mother and father. Since the fish were on a time-out during her family's visit to Lake Pleasant, Laurel spent much of her morning on the lake admiring Arizona's wildlife.

"We saw a wild burro and a turkey vulture and then watched the sun come up. It was just beautiful," she says. "Catching fish is the gravy, but being on the water was great."

Son Michael fished once before during a trip to Alaska where he scored pretty big, catching a salmon and a halibut. The Lake Pleasant trip was his second fishing experience, but his first with his father. Dad Mike was away signing Steve Nash to the Suns while Laurel and Michael fished in Alaska last summer.

Arizona Game and Fish Department fishing experts taught the D'Antoni family how to use the drop-shot technique and how to fish topwater for largemouth bass and other species. They unfortunately learned, the hard way, that a spectacular morning on the water doesn't always mean catching a lot of fish.