Jimcs50
04-27-2005, 08:11 AM
Not one to back down from a challenge
Twenty games into his head coaching career, Avery Johnson has an equal number of regular-season and postseason losses. But a 2-0 series deficit won't stop him from battling.
By FRAN BLINEBURY
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
RESOURCES
DALLAS - It was a few days before the start of the playoffs, and Avery Johnson had just finished lunch at a local restaurant. The rookie boss of the Mavericks paid his check and stood to leave when somebody at a nearby table said, "Good job, Coach." On that cue, all of the other diners rose to their feet and spontaneously erupted into a standing ovation.
"That tells you something," said Mavs owner Mark Cuban.
The tale was supposed to speak volumes about the difference in belief among the citizenry this spring, but even more it addresses the dramatic change in this Dallas team that was finally ready to make a serious run at an NBA championship.
Spent 16 seasons with six teams, most notably parts of 10 seasons with the Spurs, helping them to the NBA title in 1999. Assistant coach
Originally signed to be a player/coach with Mavericks this season, he decided to concentrate on coaching. Served as acting head coach in Don Nelson's absence for 13 games. Head coach
Took over the Mavericks when Nelson stepped down March 19. Led them to a 16-2 record the rest of the regular season.
Now, less than a week into the postseason, the Mavs trail the Rockets 2-0 in their best-of-seven series, and everyone is wondering how the express train jumped off the tracks in the first round. The team that closed the regular season with a 16-2 run — and nine consecutive wins — after Johnson took over as head coach when Don Nelson resigned on March 19 appears to be without answers. And the focus turns to the new man in charge on the bench.
For while there are reasons to examine the lack of clutch play by All-Star forward Dirk Nowitzki, who is shooting 13-for-40 in the series, an even bigger problem for the Mavericks has been their defense. Or lack of it. In two games, the Rockets have averaged 105.5 points, and that is precisely the area where Johnson had concentrated his efforts and supposedly made Dallas better.
"I'm severely disappointed in our defense," Johnson said. "Yao (Ming) gets 30, (Tracy) McGrady gets 30, then (Jon) Barry. They're spreading us out all over the place."
'In this together'
The Mavericks keep insisting they're not playing poorly. So the burden shifts even more to the first-year playoff coach to come up with answers.
"It's not me against the world," Johnson said. "It's the coaching staff and players. We're all in this together. Sometimes when you feel like you're all by yourself on an island, then you tend to make hasty decisions.
"We'll come up with some different things. But no matter what, the hunger level has to be there. If you know anything about my history as a player, I had to be a hungry player. Because obviously I wasn't a high jumper, didn't make many 3s, wasn't too big, still haven't grown.
"So you've got to have hunger, and sometimes you've got to get it from somewhere. Something has to spark you to get you to the point where you're angry, disappointed, whatever word you want. Hungry. You've got to go out here like you're on an empty stomach, and you're fighting for your last meal."
Johnson likes to tell stories of tough love from his father, who motivated him to get out of the rugged Lafitte housing project in New Orleans by stoking the fires of competitiveness and strong will. He was often the smallest player on the basketball court all through high school and in college at Southern University. But that never stopped the 5-11 Johnson from thinking or playing big.
He was undrafted by the NBA in 1988, eventually signed on as a free agent with Seattle, and changed teams six times in his first six seasons in the league. Yet his many moves never prevented Johnson from expressing his opinions or acting like a leader, even at times when a lot of people would have felt fortunate to be hanging on.
"I always had tremendous respect for Avery when we played together," said Nate McMillan, a former teammate in Seattle and now the SuperSonics' head coach. "He came into every practice and every game prepared and ready to do his job.
"Avery was never at all shy about getting in anybody's face. If he thought guys were goofing off or not concentrating in practice, he'd walk right up and tell you to knock it off. I guess that's something that was born inside of him."
Select company
Or perhaps it's a trait that is a necessity when you're spending a life bucking the odds and trying to convince everybody that you belong. He was once cut by San Antonio on Christmas Eve. It wasn't until Johnson's third go-round with the Spurs in 1994 that he was able to settle down, and he stayed on through 2001. He spent 16 yrs in the league.
When the Spurs won their first NBA title in 1999, so much of the credit went to the big-man tandem of Tim Duncan and David Robinson. But it was Johnson who hit the championship-clinching jump shot and who was the locker room nettle, poking and prodding everyone along.
"You've got to be willing sometimes to step on toes," Johnson said. "A leader is definitely not one who is gonna be politically correct. Sometimes you've got to be brutally honest, even if you're wrong."
One time when he didn't like something Malik Rose was doing, Johnson confronted him. An argument in the showers turned into a naked free-for-all on the floor. A few days later on the team bus, when Johnson stood up to address his peers, most of them assumed he was going to apologize.
He did, in his own way, adding, "This is my team."
In public, he can come off as "laid-back Avery," the smiling little man with the Louisiana drawl and the dancing eyes. But the image belies that edge, that cocksureness that made him a locker room force during the Mavs' run to the Western Conference finals in 2003 and brought Nelson to begin grooming Johnson as an assistant coach. Johnson took the reins from Nelson 13 times this season because of Nelson's health problems including shoulder surgery before stepping into the main role on March 19.
"It was the right thing to do at the right time," said Nowitzki. "Nellie had done so much for us, restored the franchise and gotten us to a certain point. Not to knock Nellie in any way, but there were times this season when Nellie had health problems, and you could see that his focus wasn't always there.
"Avery was a guy who was always heading in the direction to be a head coach. Since joining the staff as an assistant, he'd been talking and putting more of an emphasis on the defensive end. But you can only do so much when you're an assistant. You can't overstep the head coach.
"When Avery got the job and took over, everything came completely into focus, and we really became a reflection of him. He's taken this job head-on, and we responded over the last month."
Attitude adjustment
Johnson changed the Mavericks' character.
"In past playoffs, we used to go in thinking that we could outscore anybody and hope to get just a little defense," said veteran Michael Finley. "Avery has made defense the focal point and made us a stronger, tougher team."
Center Shawn Bradley nodded his head.
"We definitely feed off Avery," he said. "He's taken us to a different place. Not just in the X's and O's of basketball, but in our whole attitude, our approach to the game. I guess he's made us all willing to be more like him — battlers."
Now, however, they have the fight of their lives on their hands. Johnson has to find some way to stop, or at least curtail, McGrady. He has to prevent Yao from dominating on the inside as in Game 2. He must rehabilitate Nowitzki's confidence and reputation, and it all has to turn around fast.
"I know personally when I've been in playoff situations and been down or you're facing a situation, I kinda felt sometime that I wanted to take a one-on-one challenge," Johnson said. "Obviously, it's a team game. It's not tennis. It's not golf. But there are times when you've got to take the challenge."
Of all the things that have changed so quickly in Dallas, Avery Johnson hasn't. Which, for now, might be what the Mavericks have left to hang on to.
Twenty games into his head coaching career, Avery Johnson has an equal number of regular-season and postseason losses. But a 2-0 series deficit won't stop him from battling.
By FRAN BLINEBURY
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
RESOURCES
DALLAS - It was a few days before the start of the playoffs, and Avery Johnson had just finished lunch at a local restaurant. The rookie boss of the Mavericks paid his check and stood to leave when somebody at a nearby table said, "Good job, Coach." On that cue, all of the other diners rose to their feet and spontaneously erupted into a standing ovation.
"That tells you something," said Mavs owner Mark Cuban.
The tale was supposed to speak volumes about the difference in belief among the citizenry this spring, but even more it addresses the dramatic change in this Dallas team that was finally ready to make a serious run at an NBA championship.
Spent 16 seasons with six teams, most notably parts of 10 seasons with the Spurs, helping them to the NBA title in 1999. Assistant coach
Originally signed to be a player/coach with Mavericks this season, he decided to concentrate on coaching. Served as acting head coach in Don Nelson's absence for 13 games. Head coach
Took over the Mavericks when Nelson stepped down March 19. Led them to a 16-2 record the rest of the regular season.
Now, less than a week into the postseason, the Mavs trail the Rockets 2-0 in their best-of-seven series, and everyone is wondering how the express train jumped off the tracks in the first round. The team that closed the regular season with a 16-2 run — and nine consecutive wins — after Johnson took over as head coach when Don Nelson resigned on March 19 appears to be without answers. And the focus turns to the new man in charge on the bench.
For while there are reasons to examine the lack of clutch play by All-Star forward Dirk Nowitzki, who is shooting 13-for-40 in the series, an even bigger problem for the Mavericks has been their defense. Or lack of it. In two games, the Rockets have averaged 105.5 points, and that is precisely the area where Johnson had concentrated his efforts and supposedly made Dallas better.
"I'm severely disappointed in our defense," Johnson said. "Yao (Ming) gets 30, (Tracy) McGrady gets 30, then (Jon) Barry. They're spreading us out all over the place."
'In this together'
The Mavericks keep insisting they're not playing poorly. So the burden shifts even more to the first-year playoff coach to come up with answers.
"It's not me against the world," Johnson said. "It's the coaching staff and players. We're all in this together. Sometimes when you feel like you're all by yourself on an island, then you tend to make hasty decisions.
"We'll come up with some different things. But no matter what, the hunger level has to be there. If you know anything about my history as a player, I had to be a hungry player. Because obviously I wasn't a high jumper, didn't make many 3s, wasn't too big, still haven't grown.
"So you've got to have hunger, and sometimes you've got to get it from somewhere. Something has to spark you to get you to the point where you're angry, disappointed, whatever word you want. Hungry. You've got to go out here like you're on an empty stomach, and you're fighting for your last meal."
Johnson likes to tell stories of tough love from his father, who motivated him to get out of the rugged Lafitte housing project in New Orleans by stoking the fires of competitiveness and strong will. He was often the smallest player on the basketball court all through high school and in college at Southern University. But that never stopped the 5-11 Johnson from thinking or playing big.
He was undrafted by the NBA in 1988, eventually signed on as a free agent with Seattle, and changed teams six times in his first six seasons in the league. Yet his many moves never prevented Johnson from expressing his opinions or acting like a leader, even at times when a lot of people would have felt fortunate to be hanging on.
"I always had tremendous respect for Avery when we played together," said Nate McMillan, a former teammate in Seattle and now the SuperSonics' head coach. "He came into every practice and every game prepared and ready to do his job.
"Avery was never at all shy about getting in anybody's face. If he thought guys were goofing off or not concentrating in practice, he'd walk right up and tell you to knock it off. I guess that's something that was born inside of him."
Select company
Or perhaps it's a trait that is a necessity when you're spending a life bucking the odds and trying to convince everybody that you belong. He was once cut by San Antonio on Christmas Eve. It wasn't until Johnson's third go-round with the Spurs in 1994 that he was able to settle down, and he stayed on through 2001. He spent 16 yrs in the league.
When the Spurs won their first NBA title in 1999, so much of the credit went to the big-man tandem of Tim Duncan and David Robinson. But it was Johnson who hit the championship-clinching jump shot and who was the locker room nettle, poking and prodding everyone along.
"You've got to be willing sometimes to step on toes," Johnson said. "A leader is definitely not one who is gonna be politically correct. Sometimes you've got to be brutally honest, even if you're wrong."
One time when he didn't like something Malik Rose was doing, Johnson confronted him. An argument in the showers turned into a naked free-for-all on the floor. A few days later on the team bus, when Johnson stood up to address his peers, most of them assumed he was going to apologize.
He did, in his own way, adding, "This is my team."
In public, he can come off as "laid-back Avery," the smiling little man with the Louisiana drawl and the dancing eyes. But the image belies that edge, that cocksureness that made him a locker room force during the Mavs' run to the Western Conference finals in 2003 and brought Nelson to begin grooming Johnson as an assistant coach. Johnson took the reins from Nelson 13 times this season because of Nelson's health problems including shoulder surgery before stepping into the main role on March 19.
"It was the right thing to do at the right time," said Nowitzki. "Nellie had done so much for us, restored the franchise and gotten us to a certain point. Not to knock Nellie in any way, but there were times this season when Nellie had health problems, and you could see that his focus wasn't always there.
"Avery was a guy who was always heading in the direction to be a head coach. Since joining the staff as an assistant, he'd been talking and putting more of an emphasis on the defensive end. But you can only do so much when you're an assistant. You can't overstep the head coach.
"When Avery got the job and took over, everything came completely into focus, and we really became a reflection of him. He's taken this job head-on, and we responded over the last month."
Attitude adjustment
Johnson changed the Mavericks' character.
"In past playoffs, we used to go in thinking that we could outscore anybody and hope to get just a little defense," said veteran Michael Finley. "Avery has made defense the focal point and made us a stronger, tougher team."
Center Shawn Bradley nodded his head.
"We definitely feed off Avery," he said. "He's taken us to a different place. Not just in the X's and O's of basketball, but in our whole attitude, our approach to the game. I guess he's made us all willing to be more like him — battlers."
Now, however, they have the fight of their lives on their hands. Johnson has to find some way to stop, or at least curtail, McGrady. He has to prevent Yao from dominating on the inside as in Game 2. He must rehabilitate Nowitzki's confidence and reputation, and it all has to turn around fast.
"I know personally when I've been in playoff situations and been down or you're facing a situation, I kinda felt sometime that I wanted to take a one-on-one challenge," Johnson said. "Obviously, it's a team game. It's not tennis. It's not golf. But there are times when you've got to take the challenge."
Of all the things that have changed so quickly in Dallas, Avery Johnson hasn't. Which, for now, might be what the Mavericks have left to hang on to.