Dan Panaggio
Head Coach
Los Angeles D-Fenders
Panaggio, a native of Rochester, New York, will again serve as the D-Fenders head coach. Panaggio most recently served as an assistant coach with the Marquette University men's basketball team for the 2005-06 NCAA season.
Preceding his coaching duties at Marquette, Panaggio was an assistant coach with the Portland Trail Blazers for four seasons (2000-04), and acted as an assistant coach at Indiana University (1999-2000) before joining the NBA.
Prior to his three assistant coaching stints, Panaggio was head coach of the Quad City Thunder of the CBA for nine seasons. With the Thunder, Panaggio owned a career record of 313-191 and won CBA Championships in both 1994 and 1998. All nine teams under his leadership advanced to the CBA playoffs. In 1999 Panaggio earned his third CBA Coach of the Year award after guiding the Thunder to the league's best record and the National Conference title. Entering the 2000 season, Panaggio had accrued more career victories than any other active coach in the CBA, and left ranked third all-time in games coached (504), third in playoff victories (71), and fifth in regular season winning percentage.
Panaggio spent three seasons as an assistant coach with Quad City before taking over the head coaching duties from his father Mauro, who preceded Dan as head coach. Before joining the CBA, Panaggio served as the head coach at Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York.
Panaggio is a graduate of SUNY-Brockport, and he and his wife Ellen are the proud parents of five children.