Optimistic Orlando Antigua counts blessing helping Illinois

HOUSTON – Hearing a loud argument on Halloween night in 1987, Orlando Antigua rushed to see what all the commotion was about. Once he and a friend arrived at the scene in their Bronx neighborhood, he saw a gun pointed at his head. 

Antigua made eye contact with the gunman before suffering a gunshot wound near his left eye as an innocent bystander. Amid the chaos, the then-14-year-old kept telling himself not to close his eyes as he rushed to find an ambulance. No matter how tired he got, he vowed not to close his eyes.

“I chased an ambulance down and jumped in it,” said Antigua, who is now the associate head men’s basketball coach at the University of Illinois. “My comment to the EMTs was to tell my mom I’m not dead.”

Antigua spent a week in the hospital recovering. Although the bullet remained in his head, he was back on the basketball court for St. Raymond’s Catholic School a few months later.

He became one of the best boys basketball players in New York in the late 1980s and early 1990s before receiving a basketball scholarship to Pitt. Six years after the shooting, the bullet finally maneuvered toward the soft tissue near his ear canal, where it was safely extracted.

A special calling

“My mom always said that God left me on this earth for a reason,” the former McDonald’s All-American says. “I think I’m fulfilling that calling.”

Basketball has proved to be Antigua’s calling. With a friendly demeanor and optimistic personality nurtured through a near-death experience, he has played a pivotal role in building the roster that has No. 3 seed Illinois one win away from the Final Four.

The Fighting Illini will face No. 9 seed Iowa on Saturday night at Houston’s Toyota Center in an Elite Eight game. Head coach Brad Underwood credits Antigua with playing a major role in recruiting the Eastern Europe stars who anchor Illinois’ roster. 

Moreover, Antigua’s outlook on life is a healthy counter to Underwood’s.

‘The GOAT’

“Yeah, he’s the GOAT,” Underwood says of Antigua, 53. “And I mean that. He is as good as there is. He’s great for me. I have a tendency to want to coach the glass half empty. I strive for perfection. I want the perfect game. He’s got a tremendous way of looking at it as the glass is half full.”

Antigua’s mother Damaris Fernandez settled into the Bronx before bringing her three sons from the Dominican to live with her when Orlando Antigua was 4.

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With only a seventh grade education but plenty of drive and determination, Fernandez raised three boys as a single mother. It wasn’t easy. Orlando Antigua admits that he and his brothers weren’t saints by any means. They learned lessons and mostly stayed out of trouble, though.

More importantly, they capitalized on their opportunities. Hernandez’s three boys all graduated from college. 

Orlando Antigua is ‘fortunate and blessed’

“We could have gone a number of ways, as you can imagine, in the Bronx,” Antigua said. “We were fortunate and blessed that we had the prayers from grandparents and aunts in the D.R. to protect us. And we were able to make the right decisions.”

Through basketball, Antigua moved beyond his humble beginnings and travelled all over the world. He made history while building the connections that have paid off for Illinois. He helped recruit starting forward David Mirkovic from Niksic, Montenegro. Antigua also helped land starting center Tomislav Ivisic and his brother Zvonimir Ivisic from Vodice, Croatia.

“He knew that we are pretty connected on the court and that on the court we’re going to bring will for winning,” Mirkovic said of Antigua. “I think that was such a great idea from Orlando and the other people on the staff to bring (Mirkovic and the Ivisic brothers) all together.”

Antigua built countless international connections over seven years as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters. He made history as the Globetrotters’ first Latino player in December 1995.

He actually couldn’t make his initial tryout opportunity with the Globetrotters because it was scheduled at the same time as his finals at Pitt. Antigua was taking 18 credit hours to fulfill the promise he made his mother to graduate.

Trailblazing Globetrotter

The Globetrotters held a special tryout in Pittsburgh for him. A few days after graduating from Pitt, he debuted with the Globetrotters on Dec. 26, 1995.

The 6-foot-7 wing is fittingly nicknamed “Hurricane.” He has definitely been a force of nature on and off the court. He visited 49 countries with the Globetrotters. 

“That also birthed my understanding of the global span of basketball, my reach in terms of relationships around the world,” he said of his time with the Globetrotters.

The international relationships he built with the Globetrotters and as a member of the Dominican Republic’s national men’s basketball team have proved beneficial as a coach. Antigua began his coaching career as a volunteer at a Pittsburgh high school in 2002. A year later, he became Pitt’s director of basketball operations.

He spent five seasons at Pitt before Hall of Fame coach John Calipari hired him as an assistant at Memphis in 2008. He followed Calipari to Kentucky in 2009 and helped lead the Wildcats to the 2012 national title. That same year ESPN named him as the top assistant under 40 years old. 

‘Unbelievable communicator’

Antigua’s ability to connect with people shone at Kentucky. He was credited with playing a major role helping Calipari land the top recruiting class in the country for five consecutive years. He also coached his native island’s national team from 2013-2015. 

Antigua was hired as the head coach at the University of South Florida in 2014. He led the Bulls for 2 ½ seasons before he was let go. He began his first stint as an assistant at Illinois for the 2017-2018 season. Antigua spent four seasons at Illinois before rejoining Calipari in Kentucky in 2021.

Underwood lured him back to Illinois as associate head coach in 2024. Underwood appreciates how Antigua’s sense of humor keeps him laughing. 

“He’s a very good basketball coach, but he is an unbelievable communicator and connector of people,” Underwood said of Antigua. “And that’s invaluable today. He walks in a room, he walks in a gym, he knows everybody and he can talk to everybody.

“You see why he was the lead man for the Globetrotters for many, many years. He’s just got a great demeanor and personality, and personally a great friend. But he’s great for Brad Underwood, the basketball coach, too.”