Avery Johnson Suits Up For ESPN Analyst Gig

[duncan228]

Avery Johnson Suits Up for ESPN Analyst Gig (http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6606058.html)
Former NBA Player, Coach Joins 'NBA Shootaround' Show
By Larry Barrett

ESPN Thursday said former NBA player and coach Avery Johnson will join the network’s NBA Shootaround pregame show as an analyst throughout the 2008-09 season.

Johnson, who played for 16 seasons and won an NBA championship playing guard for the San Antonio Spurs in 1999, most recently served as head coach of the Dallas Mavericks from 2004-2008.

Johnson will join host Stuart Scott and analyst Bill Walton before ESPN NBA broadcasts throughout the regular season and through the playoffs. He will also contribute to ABC’s GMC NBA Countdown.

“Avery has excelled in every professional endeavor and we know his success will carry over to his on-air role,” Norby Williamson, ESPN’s executive vice president of production, said in a statement. “His experience and passion for the game will resonate with our fans.”

Johnson in 2007 became the fastest coach to reach 150 wins and was named the NBA Coach of the Year in 2006 when his Mavericks advanced to the NBA Finals before falling to the Miami Heat.

Mavericks owner and HDNet founder Mark Cuban fired Johnson in April after the team was unceremoniously bounced from the playoffs in the first round for the second consecutive season.

[T Park]

Gets paid a few hundy thou to analyze games, and gets paid a couple mill by Cuban to not do anything else.

Not suprising.

[baseline bum]

Sweet... AJ's going to snap Walton's neck during one of the shows.

[xtremesteven33]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DPG21920]

I think he will be ok, he is not as pompous as an on air guy. He did ok in his few stints.

[Slomo]

He has a voice for newspapers and a face for radio.

[T Park]

He became probobly their smartest analyst thats for sure.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

Watching my TV try to figure out AJ's drawl in closed captioning should be as entertaining as the games.

[1Parker1]

He has a voice for newspapers and a face for radio.

:lmao :lmao

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

Oh hell yes. I'll be tuning in.

[gospursgojas]

ESPN just dropped a few more pegs lower than TNT

[Xylus]

"The key to winning is TRAN-ZISH-E-OWN DE-FENSE."

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

"The key to winning is TRAN-ZISH-E-OWN DE-FENSE."

"Ta ween, thill need sco-ren from not only the stotters, but also da ro playas."

[exstatic]

I hope he does this gig for three years and collects every penny from Cuban.
:lol

[timvp]

I hope he does this gig for three years and collects every penny from Cuban.
:lol
Exactly. That's almost an MLE contract down the drain :hungry:

[angel_luv]

I never liked ESPN anyway.

[SequSpur]

yawn.. how is this spurs related? move the fuk on already.

[whottt]

Did the Spurs offer AJ something or was that just rumor?


This is important...I may need to rescind my concession to timvp.

[T Park]

I never liked ESPN anyway.


Ya know its funny, you hate Avery Johnson, who did 50 million more things for the organization than that white stiff Nesterovic, yet you side for him.


What am I missing!?!?

[timvp]

Did the Spurs offer AJ something or was that just rumor?


This is important...I may need to rescind my concession to timvp.

Too late. I already printed it out.

[WildcardManu]

"Ta ween, thill need sco-ren from not only the stotters, but also da ro playas."



"The key to winning is TRAN-ZISH-E-OWN DE-FENSE."


:lmao

[Strange Botwin]

Avery Johnson Drinking Game: Drink anytime he says, "confidence."

[lefty]

He has a voice for newspapers and a face for radio.

:rollin

[duncan228]

Johnson transitions to full-time role as ESPN NBA analyst (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3648496)
ESPN.com

ESPN has hired former Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson as an NBA studio analyst, teaming him with fellow analyst Bill Walton and host Stuart Scott on the network's NBA Shootaround pregame show throughout the season and postseason.

Johnson contributed to ESPN's coverage of the NBA playoffs earlier this year. He also will work at times on ABC's GM NBA Countdown show.

"ESPN and ABC has an abundance of terrific talent and I'm glad to launch my career in broadcasting with the premiere sports network," he said in a statement.

Johnson was fired by the Mavs last May after four seasons as coach. He took Dallas to the NBA Finals in 2006 -- he also was named the NBA's coach of the year -- but the team lost in the first round of the playoffs in his last two seasons. The Mavs won a club-record 67 games in the 2007-08 season and were 194-70 with him as coach.

Johnson also had a 16-year NBA career as a point guard and won the championship with the San Antonio Spurs in 1999. He also played for the Seattle SuperSonics (1988-90), Denver Nuggets (1990-91; 2001-02), Spurs (1991, 1992-93, 1994-2001), Houston Rockets (1992), Golden State Warriors (1993-94, 2003-04) and Mavericks (2002-03).

"Avery has excelled in every professional endeavor and we know his success will carry over to his on-air role," said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production. "His experience and passion for the game will resonate with our fans."

His close association with the Mavs will not dissuade him from critiquing the club on camera.

"I have a job to do, and I will do it," Johnson said, according to The Dallas Morning News. "It will give me great joy to have insights because I worked so closely with some of them for a lot of years."

[phyzik]

He has a voice for newspapers and a face for radio.

that seriously made me lol. My boss asked what was so funny, I told him and he lol'd as well. :lol

[century]

I cannot stand his voice. Avery is an annoying whiny little bitch.

[dirk4mvp]

I hope he does this gig for three years and collects every penny from Cuban.
:lol


Cuban's gonna wonder how to put food on his table :(

[Rummpd]

Just what we need - all the more reason to mute the sound on ESPN.

[Steve-O-Matic]

"Tiyum Donkin"

[exstatic]

Cuban's gonna wonder how to put food on his table :(

He shouldn't even notice, but he owed Nellie a lot less than he owes AJ, and he made a Federal case out of that one, literally. As a dyed in the wool Cuban hater, this is like a banquet. He just can't ever seem to let these things go. He's still trashing AJ in the media, airing the dirty laundry in public, even though it means he'll probably have to pay him LONGER, since he's ruining his rep.