Avery turns down the Grizzlies' offer

[monosylab1k]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3855045

Sources: Johnson turns down Grizzlies
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By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
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Avery Johnson has turned down the chance to make a swift return to an NBA bench with the Memphis Grizzlies.

NBA coaching sources told ESPN.com on Friday that the former Dallas Mavericks coach was offered a five-year contract by the Grizzlies to replace Marc Iavaroni, who was fired late Thursday after 1½ seasons in Memphis.

Johnson, though, elected to pass on an in-season comeback, preferring to remain in his role as a first-year studio analyst for ESPN.

"I've said all along [that] at the right time and in the right situation, I will coach again," Johnson said Friday. "I am enjoying my time at ESPN and with my family. I think an awful lot of [Grizzlies owner] Michael Heisley and [general manager] Chris Wallace. I wish the Grizzlies the very best."

The Grizzlies on Friday formally announced Iavaroni's dismissal with the team mired at 11-30 after a 2-15 skid. Assistant coach Johnny Davis has been named interim coach going into Memphis' game Friday at New York, with sources close to the situation confirming to ESPN.com that former Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins soon will be introduced as Iavaroni's successor, possibly as early as Sunday.

Yet it's not surprising to hear that Johnson was the Grizzlies' first choice given what sources describe as Heisley's strong desire to hire an experienced coach to lead and mold a young team that has started three rookies -- O.J. Mayo, Marc Gasol and Darrell Arthur -- in 25 of its 41 games this season.

Johnson, 43, certainly fits Heisley's profile, having posted a 194-70 record in four seasons with the Mavericks for a winning percentage of .735. Before his dismissal in May after two straight first-round playoff exits, Johnson took Dallas to the NBA Finals for the first time in the club's history in 2006.

Johnson also earned NBA Coach of the Year honors that season and followed up the trip to the Finals with a 67-15 season in 2006-07, before his tenure with the Mavs began to unravel with a first-round loss to the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors and former Dallas coach Don Nelson.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported on its Web site early Friday that Hollins, now an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks, will be hired as Iavaroni's replacement and be joined on the Grizzlies' bench by recently fired Philadelphia 76ers coach Maurice Cheeks.

Hollins, 55, posted an 18-42 record as the Grizzlies' interim coach in Vancouver during the 1999-2000 season, replacing Brian Hill following a 4-18 start. Hollins also went 0-4 as the interim coach in Memphis between Hubie Brown and Mike Fratello during the 2004-05 season.

Iavaroni began the season on numerous hot-seat lists after Memphis went 22-60 in 2007-08. But the former Phoenix, Miami and Cleveland assistant appeared to be safe, at least through the end of this season, when he survived the early rash of firings around the league that claimed six coaches in a span of 23 days.

Heisley even took the step of giving Iavaroni what was generally perceived to be more than a pedestrian "vote of confidence" in early December, telling the Commercial Appeal: "He's my coach and I'm behind him 100 percent. I'm not going to evaluate him now. Marc is not under the gun."

The Grizzlies, though, have been increasingly uncompetitive, toting a seven-game losing streak into Friday's visit to Madison Square Garden after initially playing to some fairly positive reviews, thanks to an 8-8 start at home and the strong introduction made by Mayo.

Sources told ESPN.com on Friday that Iavaroni's tense relationship with forward Rudy Gay was another factor that, in the Grizzlies' view, made a coaching change unavoidable.

An increasingly and openly negative atmosphere around the team, sources say, appears to have changed Heisley's urgency in terms of evaluating his coach. Without naming Iavaroni, multiple players were highly critical of the team's strategy, development and identity in Sunday's editions of the Commercial Appeal.

"We don't have an identity," Gasol told the newspaper. "We don't have one. We run around like chickens with our heads cut off. Youth can be a good thing, but we use it as an excuse.

"We're always making excuses. We make excuses to the referees and to our teammates. We make excuses in practice. That's all some people want to do is make excuses. You're never going to get anywhere like that."

Gay was even more direct with his criticism, saying: "I know the things we're working on [haven't] worked. We ain't got no chemistry."

Iavaroni's supporters would counter that he had little chance to succeed with a group so young that Gay, in his third season, ranks as a veteran. The Grizzlies embarked on a full-fledged youth movement after trading Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 1, 2008, in a deal that was criticized throughout the league.

The Grizzlies are the seventh team to fire their coach this season, which is two firings shy of tying the league's single-season record of nine in the 2004-05 season.

The first six firings all took place before Dec. 25, doubling the league's previous single-season record for pre-Christmas coaching changes. Oklahoma City's P.J. Carlesimo (1-12 on Nov. 22); Washington's Eddie Jordan (1-10 on Nov. 24); Toronto's Sam Mitchell (8-9 on Dec. 3); Minnesota's Randy Wittman (4-15 on Dec. 8); Philadelphia's Maurice Cheeks (9-14 on Dec. 13); and Sacramento's Reggie Theus (6-18 on Dec. 15) were all fired after eight other teams made offseason coaching changes.

Johnson was fired by Dallas just one season into a lucrative re-worked contract that will pay him an estimated $4 million this season and in each of the next two seasons unless he takes a head coaching job elsewhere.

Marc Stein is a senior NBA writer for ESPN.com.

[monosylab1k]

Too bad for Mike Conley. Avery could have "coached" him, got frustrated and demanded that he be traded, and then Conley could have been on the fast track to superstardom.

[IronMexican]

That's a young team with a lot of potential.

[BlackSwordsMan]

get paid 8 mil to do nothing or go coach on some shitty team
hrm

[dirk4mvp]

Too bad for Mike Conley. Avery could have "coached" him, got frustrated and demanded that he be traded, and then Conley could have been on the fast track to superstardom.


The question is, what veteran PG who knows how to run an offense would Conley get traded for?

[timvp]

Good non-move by AJ. Talented team but bad owner, weak fanbase and while they have talented players it looks like that is going to be a losing situation for a while. AJ can sit back and wait for the perfect opportunity. If I'm him I wait for a team that has championship potential, has a stable ownership group, is in a city that cares and is a situation that gives him a lot of say in the decision-making.

Besides, at the rate in which coaches are fired, he can a handful of particular jobs and a job will probably open up pretty soon. In the meantime, he can take Cuban's money.

[monosylab1k]

If I'm him I wait for a team that has championship potential

Then he can rant and rave, demand the team trade away it's future, and send another franchise down the crapper. CIA Pop?

[sribb43]

Avery would request a trade for a stud PG only to later claim that he didnt want to make the trade after the team fails in the playoffs. Then, when the player they traded does well on another team, Avery will attempt to take full credit for that players success

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

Then he can rant and rave, demand the team trade away it's future, and send another franchise down the crapper. CIA Pop?

Suddenly Manu's senseless foul on Dirk looks a lot different. Being able to say, "I beat the Spurs," gave AJ a blank check to fuck up the Mavs as he saw fit.

[G-Nob]

I wonder where this fits into the whole rule of, "yeah, I'm trying to find another job"? He must prove that or cubes doesn't have to pay him, right? Although, Memphis isn't very sexy.

[Warlord23]

The longer he continues to take Cuban's money the better

Between Finley and AJ, what they've done to the Mavericks brings a smile to every Spurs fan out there

[timvp]

I can't believe Mav Fan has fallen for the revisionist history by Cuban and the Dallas media that the Devin Harris trade was AJ's fault. It makes no sense.

-Cuban is an admitted Kidd homer.

-AJ is an halfcourt offense Nazi. Trading for the master of the fast break who is severely limited in the half court makes no sense.

-Kidd is a coach killer. It was obvious to anyone who knew Kidd's history that AJ was actually canned the moment the trade was made.

I will say that it is possible or even probably that AJ gave up on Harris. But to say that AJ orchestrated or would have even been one of the leading proponents of the Kidd trade is crazy. Kidd is the anti-AJ in every way.



But yeah, it appears that all of Mav land has bought into the revisionist story hook, line and sinker.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

I can't believe Mav Fan has fallen for the revisionist history by Cuban and the Dallas media that the Devin Harris trade was AJ's fault. It makes no sense.

-Cuban is an admitted Kidd homer.

-AJ is an halfcourt offense Nazi. Trading for the master of the fast break who is severely limited in the half court makes no sense.

-Kidd is a coach killer. It was obvious to anyone who knew Kidd's history that AJ was actually canned the moment the trade was made.

I will say that it is possible or even probably that AJ gave up on Harris. But to say that AJ orchestrated or would have even been one of the leading proponents of the Kidd trade is crazy. Kidd is the anti-AJ in every way.



But yeah, it appears that all of Mav land has bought into the revisionist story hook, line and sinker.



It's funny that both the Phoenix and Dallas media completely threw AJ and D'antoni under the bus after they were fired even though they were both horrible firings and strikingly similar situations.

Josh Howard makes it clear he's got no love for AJ even though AJ progressed his game so much. Cuban sides with the player and fires AJ. Now a bunch of Dallas fans want Howard traded.

Amare Stoudemire blames D'antoni for basically every weakness to his game even though he didn't sniff 20 points per game before D'antoni was hired. Sarver sides with Amare (who Sarver views as the son he never had) and gets D'antoni pissed off enough to take the NY job. Now a bunch of Phoenix fans want Amare traded.

And both situations are cases where the media creates myths about horrible trades that the owners pushed for the most and says the coach wanted the trade. Even though the Suns were trading first round picks when Colangelo was GM and Kerr was GM when this trade happened, people actually believe D'antoni pushed for the Kurt Thomas trade.

They also believe he pushed for the James Jones and Rudy Fernandez trade even though he was a notorious James Jones fan and is rumored to want Rudy Fernandez on NY.

[Findog]

It's funny that both the Phoenix and Dallas media completely threw AJ and D'antoni under the bus after they were fired even though they were both horrible firings and strikingly similar situations.

The Mavs would be under .500 if Avery were still here. There was nothing horrible about it. His time was up in Dallas.

[Findog]

And both situations are cases where the media creates myths about horrible trades that the owners pushed for the most and says the coach wanted the trade.

I don't know the ins and outs of Shaq for Marion, but Avery Johnson is the biggest reason Devin Harris is now a Net and Jason Kidd is a Maverick. You really do need to get your facts in a row.

[JamStone]

Too bad for Mike Conley. Avery could have "coached" him, got frustrated and demanded that he be traded, and then Conley could have been on the fast track to superstardom.

Serious question: did Avery really demand that Harris get traded?

Just because I recall a few weeks ago, when Avery was doing analyst work at ESPN, he specifically said he didn't want to trade Devin. Is he back tracking now or is that the truth? And wasn't it Dirk as much as anyone that wanted to trade for Kidd? Just curious. Not that most of us would really know the truth, but what did sources close to the situation say about this? Was it really Avery pushing for that trade?

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

I don't know the ins and outs of Shaq for Marion, but Avery Johnson is the biggest reason Devin Harris is now a Net and Jason Kidd is a Maverick. You really do need to get your facts in a row.

Timvp just posted all the facts and they make enough sense to me. It doesn't seem like a trade someone who's sole focus has been slowing the team down since he took over would want to do. It seemed like a Mark Cuban trade.

Shaq Marion was a good trade for the Suns so I don't care who played the biggest role in creating it.

[Findog]

I can't believe Mav Fan has fallen for the revisionist history by Cuban and the Dallas media that the Devin Harris trade was AJ's fault. It makes no sense.

-Cuban is an admitted Kidd homer.

-AJ is an halfcourt offense Nazi. Trading for the master of the fast break who is severely limited in the half court makes no sense.

-Kidd is a coach killer. It was obvious to anyone who knew Kidd's history that AJ was actually canned the moment the trade was made.

I will say that it is possible or even probably that AJ gave up on Harris. But to say that AJ orchestrated or would have even been one of the leading proponents of the Kidd trade is crazy. Kidd is the anti-AJ in every way.



But yeah, it appears that all of Mav land has bought into the revisionist story hook, line and sinker.

Cuban wanted Kidd too, he handled the negotiations with Thorn instead of Donnie and got raped for his trouble. But Avery wanted Kidd instead of Harris. Avery's one of your favorite Spurs, so I can understand why you want him as far away from that as possible.

[Findog]

Timvp just posted all the facts and they make enough sense to me.

No, he posted his conjecture and opinion. He doesn't follow the Mavs like I do, and in this instance he doesn't know what he's talking about.


It doesn't seem like a trade someone who's sole focus has been slowing the team down since he took over would want to do. It seemed like a Mark Cuban trade.


Avery didn't trust Harris' decision-making ability and wanted a veteran that he could trust. He lobbied Cuban to make a deal and given Cuban's affinity for Kidd, he didn't need much convincing. timvp is not an informative source on this.

[Findog]

I can't believe Mav Fan has fallen for the revisionist history by Cuban and the Dallas media that the Devin Harris trade was AJ's fault. It makes no sense.



According to Cuban, it's still a great trade, so why would he be throwing Avery under the bus for it? THAT makes no sense. Avery isn't gone because Cuban blames him for the trade, he's gone because he lost the locker room.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

The Mavs would be under .500 if Avery were still here. There was nothing horrible about it. His time was up in Dallas.

Why? He had done nothing wrong as coach. Sure he could have tried to coach the Golden state series better but it's not like Dallas struggling against them was new. They were 0-3 against them in the regular season that year. It was just bad luck, their old coach was coaching a team perfectly equipped to beat them.


Maybe Howard is playing horrible this year because Cuban sent him a horrible message by siding with him when he wanted AJ fired and now he thinks he doesn't have to listen to the coach. Amare is having the same problem.

[monosylab1k]

But yeah, it appears that all of Mav land has bought into the revisionist story hook, line and sinker.

The only one cooking up revisionist history is Avery. Mav land saw the whole thing go down, Spur fan was too busy polishing his 4 rings to be concerned with it.

[Findog]

Serious question: did Avery really demand that Harris get traded?

Just because I recall a few weeks ago, when Avery was doing analyst work at ESPN, he specifically said he didn't want to trade Devin. Is he back tracking now or is that the truth? And wasn't it Dirk as much as anyone that wanted to trade for Kidd? Just curious. Not that most of us would really know the truth, but what did sources close to the situation say about this? Was it really Avery pushing for that trade?

Avery is a liar. The team got off to an 9-2 start last year when everybody was waiting to see how they would respond to Golden State. One of those wins was a blowout victory over San Antonio. All appeared well in Mavs land. One of the major themes in training camp was that Avery was going to loosen the reigns and finally give Devin a chance to run the team.

After that 9-2 start they began to struggle. After a blowout loss at home to Denver, Avery took back the playcalling from Devin and reverted back to his old ways of micromanaging the offense. It's true that after the trade initially fell apart, Avery began to have misgivings, and that Cuban didn't need much convincing to go and get Kidd...but Avery is trying to absolve himself of any responsibility for the Kidd trade, and that's a bald-faced lie.

[monosylab1k]

Serious question: did Avery really demand that Harris get traded?

Just because I recall a few weeks ago, when Avery was doing analyst work at ESPN, he specifically said he didn't want to trade Devin. Is he back tracking now or is that the truth? And wasn't it Dirk as much as anyone that wanted to trade for Kidd? Just curious. Not that most of us would really know the truth, but what did sources close to the situation say about this? Was it really Avery pushing for that trade?

Avery was absolutely pushing for the trade. Did he specifically ask for Jason Kidd? No. But he did specifically ask for Devin Harris to be traded for a point guard with more experience? Yes.

And yes, Avery's backtracking big time now. He even went so far as to claim he turned Devin into "a 17 and 10 point guard" or something along those lines, when Devin's stats in Dallas clearly tell a much different story.

[Findog]

Why? He had done nothing wrong as coach.

That's your first error right there.



Sure he could have tried to coach the Golden state series better but it's not like Dallas struggling against them was new. They were 0-3 against them in the regular season that year. It was just bad luck, their old coach was coaching a team perfectly equipped to beat them.


He lost the confidence of his players after failing to make adjustments against Miami and then Golden State. Blowing a 2-0 Finals lead and then imploding in one of the greatest upsets in NBA history will do that. Every coach outside of Sloan, Pop and Jackson has it happen to them, fair or not, right or not. You either trade the players or fire the coach. It's always easier to fire the coach. I'm not saying it's fair or right Avery lost the respect and confidence of his players, but once it happened, his ability to inspire, motivate and lead them was compromised.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

That's your first error right there.




He lost the confidence of his players after failing to make adjustments against Miami and then Golden State. Blowing a 2-0 Finals lead and then imploding in one of the greatest upsets in NBA history will do that. Every coach outside of Sloan, Pop and Jackson has it happen to them, fair or not, right or not. You either trade the players or fire the coach. It's always easier to fire the coach. I'm not saying it's fair or right Avery lost the respect and confidence of his players, but once it happened, his ability to inspire, motivate and lead them was compromised.

I can't really argue that and I can't really disagree. It's just always been my view and watching the way Amare has acted this year it reinforces my view that the worst thing an owner and/or GM can do is side with the players over the coach. The players win the games and the players lose the games IMO. A guy like Josh Howard would seemingly interpret the Avery Johnson firing as him being absolved of all blame for not showing up against New Orleans.

Certainly the way the media tore D'antoni apart gave Amare the idea that the monster series Duncan had against him in 2005, 2007 and 2008 wasn't his fault and he's done his best, when he hasn't.

[SenorSpur]

Avery was absolutely pushing for the trade. Did he specifically ask for Jason Kidd? No. But he did specifically ask for Devin Harris to be traded for a point guard with more experience? Yes.

And yes, Avery's backtracking big time now. He even went so far as to claim he turned Devin into "a 17 and 10 point guard" or something along those lines, when Devin's stats in Dallas clearly tell a much different story.

Exactly! Avery pushed for that trade every bit as much as Cuban did. Everyone in this town knows and remembers how AJ dogged and criticized Harris privately and publically - whether it was justified or not. Even going so far as to let it leak that Harris simply wasn't developing as a PG for the Mavs. He never trusted Harris to run his offense.

Once Kidd arrived, AJ went as far as to suggest that he was happy to finally have an experienced PG running the offense. The fact is AJ never trusted him to run HIS offense. As great as Kidd is, even he was forced to look over to the sideline every single possession because AJ insisted on calling plays every time down. The team was not allowed to grab the rebound and run. They had to setup their usual halfcourt isolation plays, at the insistence of the coach. Face it, no one was ever going to be a good enough PG for Avery. Not Harris, Not Kidd, or even Nash, had he not bolted town.

AJ has tried to convince anyone who would listen that the Kidd trade was Cuban's idea and that he simply went along with it. This is not to absolve Cuban either, because he was just as big of a dumb-ass for parting with Harris.

AJ's many comments on his way out the door are nothing more than his attempts to revise history in order to preserve his sterling, bogus, reputation. The worst thing to happen to him, as a coach, was early success. He took all the credit for the success of the Mavs, touting his playoff record, yet shouldering none of the blame for their failures. Lest we bring up the name Erica Dampier (an Avery protege'). He was slow to make adjustments because of his stubborness. His massive ego stunted his development as a coach.

The bottom line is AJ had a stranglehold on the team and lost the respect of Dirk and Kidd. If they both wanted him to stay, he wouldn't ever gotten fired.

[layupdrill]

Intersting Avery turned it down. Mo Cheeks is being brought in as an assitant for the interim coach...hmmm...

[angelbelow]

there were 2 options here, look like a dumbass and take the job, or make the intelligent move of declining. not a surprising decision.