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Good point about how Avery treats his coaches. I forgot 2 mention that.
As far as his ego goes, I don't see that changing any time soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW--IGAfeas
song for mavs fans at times like these
Good point about how Avery treats his coaches. I forgot 2 mention that.
As far as his ego goes, I don't see that changing any time soon.
Hey at least Tony Kornheiser gave a 16% chance of turning it around on PTI!
Wrong. Paxson postponed the interview with AJ because he wanted to try to get Mike D'Antoni, and then D'Antoni took the Knicks job and then AJ's agent didn't return Paxson's calls. I can't imagine why.
There are tons of news reports on this site about how AJ and Kerr didn't like each other. Steve wasn't ever going to give AJ and interview, and it has nothing to do with his success as a coach.
Which is why AJ spent time at camp in October and Pop said that he loved having him around.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/s...veys_camp.html
There's quite a bit going on in plain view that you as a fan don't seem to know about.
Wrong. Paxson postponed the interview with AJ because he wanted to try to get Mike D'Antoni, and then D'Antoni took the Knicks job and then AJ's agent didn't return Paxson's calls. I can't imagine why.
That's true, but they didn't want Avery as the head coach because of how he treats his PG's. Can u imagine Avery with another ROOKIE PG! I can't.
Ask Devin Harris if he enjoyed Avery as a coach?
There are tons of news reports on this site about how AJ and Kerr didn't like each other. Steve wasn't ever going to give AJ and interview, and it has nothing to do with his success as a coach.
Did u ever stop to think why? Plus Avery's coaching style is predictable and he doesn't listen 2 his assistants.
Which is why AJ spent time at camp in October and Pop said that he loved having him around.
What the did u expect him to say in public.
There's quite a bit going on in plain view that you as a fan don't seem to know about.
Ditto to u.
I don't know about "within 3 games", but I agree, the old Carlisle will probably have to come back. And the old Carlisle is not a of a lot different than Avery. Except even more controlling on offense.
That was why I was hysterical with laughter at the thought that Rick Carlisle would be the Agent of Change.
The Mavs are not as bad as they are playing now, and they will almost certainly start playing well enough to at least get Mav Fan down from the ledge.
Yeah, Avery had done all he could and it was time for him to move on. But he wasn't the problem.
The real revisionist history is people wishing they had Nelson back. Nellie had Dirk AND Nash AND Fin in his prime, and couldn't come close to doing what Avery did.
BTW, when is the official "Mavs Fans That Hated On Devin Harris, Time To Own Up" thread scheduled?
If you care, go look through the archives, I was screaming to anybody that would listen not to make that deal.
Marquis Daniels line tonight....
17 points 10 rebs 3 assists
Quis for the season
15pts 6 reb 3 assists
but wait we would rather have Croshere and Anthony Johnson on this team
Yes, Daniels has been a nice pickup for the ole Fantasy team this year.
Best part of the game tonight was how Jason Terry made Jameer Nelson look like Jason Terry circa 2005.
If you care, go look through the archives, I was screaming to anybody that would listen not to make that deal.
If you were going to make the move at all, you do it in the offseason. That's all I was saying.
I know, I'm just having some fun. You know you can't stay mad at Mark Cuban
Not many people around here have big enough balls to admit it when they're wrong.
I personally thought both the Kidd trade and the axing of Avery were blunders from the start. I think what the Mavs needed was pretty much what the Spurs have needed: a good center
But then again, that could be said about most of the teams in the league these days.
Sometimes, the coach IS the problem. Being a New Yorker, I know of what I'm speaking. Isaiah was a complete zero.
He's a tender lover.I know, I'm just having some fun. You know you can't stay mad at Mark Cuban
There's no report of that anywhere outside your imagination. It just didn't happen. The Bulls pushed off AJ because they wanted D'Antoni and it bit them in the ass. Period. If you have information that none of the newspapers or television stations have, now's the time for the scoop.
Kerr didn't like AJ from when they played together. There was a power struggle and personality clashes. Teammates don't always like each other. It doesn't mean they aren't capable of doing their jobs. It certainly didn't have anything to do with AJ's qualifications as a coach any more than it has to do with Kerr's qualifications as a GM.
That's clearly your opinion. For facts, look at AJ's winning percentage. By the way, who has control over the hiring and firing of assistant coaches in Dallas? I don't think AJ made any changes when he took over Nellie's job. There were about a dozen assistant coaches at one point; one would be hard pressed to listen to all of them.
Since nobody shows up at Spurs training camp without Pop's consent, how do you think AJ ended up there? Surely you aren't suggesting that AJ just barged in and Pop just went along with it.
AJ is not in the Spurs bench because the Spurs wouldn't pay him anywhere near what Cuban is paying him. Not to mention it would look like a step backwards for a guy that was a head coach, and coach of the year, to go back to the assistant role.
Furthermore, with every passing Dallas game where the players suck bollocks, I think the perception of Avery grows more positive. He'll get another shot at coaching sooner or later.
You probably wouldn't believe how hard that post made me laugh. Just caught me by surprise, I guess.He's a tender lover.
I can hardly imagine Pop doing anything but telling AJ he'd be stupid not to take a cushy TV job until he deposits his last paycheck from the Mavs. It's not outside the realm of possibility that Pop will be ready to hang it up about that same time.
Avery is not getting a head coaching job anytime soon (well, maybe 5 yrs from now)
The Triangle Of Trust
Avery Broke It, May Be Stabbing His Own Back
By Mike Fisher -- DB.com
Our story with David Lord on the “trust issue’’ (and how Avery broke it) is, with all due humility, dead-on, as it relates to the Mavs’ thinking on new head coach Rick Carlisle.
“He’s a quality person,’’ a Mavs staffer says. “He’s not perfect. But he’s not a back-stabber.’’
Hmmm. Wonder what that means? Do we need to say more?
OK. We will.
Showing incredible believe-it-or-not foresight, Mark Cuban and Avery Johnson talked this week about how they could part ways and avoid the mudslinging that continues to dirty the Cuban-Nellie breakup. We’ll paraphrase the conversation here: Cuban told Avery he’d give him his monster severance check ($12 mil-plus) but that he anticipated not having to pay it because Avery would get a new job, thus voiding the severance.
The conditions both agreed on, designed to help Avery keep his rep and to help Cuban keep his money: No parting shots. No under-the-bus throwing. No backstabbing. No lawsuits. Donnie – still enduring the agony of the acrimony between his dad and his boss, was part of the “Triangle of Trust’’ agreement as well.
“The idea,’’ says a Mavs source, “was that Avery could walk away saving face (while) letting the world think what they were going to think anyway, that it was all (the fault of) ‘that crazy Cuban.’ ‘Crazy Cuban’ is fine with Mark. He will take that bullet.
The source continues: “Cuban’s done his part. He hasn’t said a negative word. Donnie’s done his part, though he probably shouldn’t have even bothered mentioning that thing about ‘unanimous (decisions).’
“Meanwhile, look what Avery did.’’
We are told that Donnie is “quite upset’’ that Avery left town with some final jabs at Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd.
From one locker-room confidante: “He turned on Kidd a while back. Not a big surprise. But why go after Dirk? How stupid is that? What did Dirk ever do wrong to Avery?’’
From one front-office confidante: “It’s not just the (backstabbing.) It’s the lying. It’s going to end up hurting Avery.’’
Hurting him how? As Avery Johnson searches for his next job, he will talk of his 194-70 record, he will talk of his religious faith, and he will say “I am a man of honesty and integrity.’’
And he will be fibbing. The potential employer won’t know he’s fibbing if he calls Cuban or Donnie; they plan to keep their promise – Donnie because he’s endured enough broken-relationship crap, Cuban because of the $12 mil.
But, says one Mavs staffer who is a ways down the totem pole: “We all know the truth. I hope (Avery’s next potential employer) doesn’t call me. I won’t know quite what to say.’’
102pm may 3 2008
Funny story about Avery. Maybe you know about it, maybe not.
There's more stories like this at Dallasbasketball.com
http://www.dallasbasketball.com/full...umn.php?id=832
Full-Frontal Avery
A Naked Truth About Teams' Disinterest
By Mike Fisher -- DB.com
Is Suns GM Steve Kerr’s slap-of-omission of Avery Johnson an accident, a slip of the tongue, a brain-cramping oversight?
Or is Kerr’s view fueled by his first-hand knowledge of one of the NBA’s worst-kept secrets -- a tale lowlighted by bantam-rooster ego, harsh locker-room words, and finally, Naked Greco-Roman Wrestling -- that could be a small part urban legend and a large part of The Lil’ General’s unfortunate legacy?
Quote from Kerr on Phoenix’ ongoing coaching search: “I'm in charge of hiring the right person. … What's interesting is that there are no obvious candidates now. It's not like there are really prominent former head coaches out there.’’
No "right persons''? "No obvious candidates''? No "prominent former head coaches out there''?
Yessir, that is interesting.
We were long ago tipped to one of the reasons Kerr might have that view of Avery as a coach non grata: Steve Nash has a voice in that organization, just as Dirk Nowitzki has a voice in Dallas. Nash and Nowitzki are best friends who listen to each others’ voices. So when Nash is pitching in by doing his due diligence on coaching candidates, and he calls Dirk to find out what went down in Dallas. … well, you get the picture.
And then there are X’s-and-O’s issues, and matters of “fit.’’
But there might be another reason.
According to the lore (and it seems most people inside the NBA know it, and chuckle about it), the year was 2000. Avery Johnson was a season removed from his finest moment, hitting that game-winning shot to help the Robinson/Duncan Spurs to a le. He will always get credit for being a vocal and inspirational leader of that team, but. …
“This is MY team! This is MY team!’’ Avery squawked as he marched through the visitors’ locker room in Cleveland wearing nothing but a towel and too much pride. “This is MY team!’’
He wasn’t really saying it to anyone. No one was really listening. It was, maybe, like Denzel Washington’s crooked cop at the end of “Training Day,’’ a defeated Alonzo Harris theatrically howling at the neighborhood that had finally endured enough of his sociopathic bullying.
“Okay. Alright. I'm putting cases on all you b****s. Huh. You think you can do this s***... You think you can do this to me? You m************s will be playing basketball in Pelican Bay when I get finished with you. SHU program, n****s. 23-hour lockdown. I'm the man up in this piece. You'll never see the light of... who the f*** do you think you're f***** with? I'm the police, I run s*** around here. You just live here. Yeah, that's right, you better walk away. Go on and walk away... 'cause I'm gonna' burn this m*********** down. King Kong ain't got s*** on me. That's right, that's right. … I'm winning anyway, I'm winning... I'm winning any m*********** way. I can't lose. Yeah, you can shoot me, but you can't kill me.’’
Now, imagine that in your ear. Only in a Cajun-flavored squeak.
“This is MY team! This is MY team!’’
Some would argue that Avery was simply flexing a familiar muscle, that using his emotion and his voice in that manner was commonplace and acceptable – certainly acceptable to coach Gregg Popovich, who’d anointed Avery as the admittedly effective surrogate eyes and ears (and mouth) of his roster.
Others say Avery kind of snapped, maybe responding to the realization that making that shot in the NBA Finals game was his pinnacle as a player, and that there was no place to go but down.
Whatever the motivation, a certain group – and by that we mean most of the Spurs players in that locker room that night in Cleveland not named David Robinson – had grown tired of Avery’s chest-thumping, ghetto-preaching, ego-pumping pin-and-needling, “This-Is-MY-Team’’ing form of leadership.
Next thing you know, Malik Rose dogpiled Avery Johnson. They fought. In the locker room. Naked.
Avery was fighting to represent himself. Malik pretty much represented everybody else.
“At the end, they all wanted him out of there,’’ says one NBA lifer who counts himself as a friend of Avery’s. “He grated on them. Bad. It was a matter of time before somebody finally shut him up.’’
Robinson eventually interceded and broke up the brawl. Popovich interceded in his own way, too, later explaining that the disheveled room was the result of his anger.
But it was all Avery. Avery being Avery. The Avery who got one measly scholarship offer, grudgingly accepted it, and twice led the NCAA in assists for Southern. The Avery who wasn’t drafted by the NBA, was frequently rejected by the NBA, and still, three decades later, is a champion as a player and a coach with an incredible .735 regular-season winning percentage.
But he’s also a coach without a job, a leader without a team, a voice without a stage.
What's going on here? Is Avery Johnson destined to be under the curse of Alonzo Harris? You know, coaching basketball in Pelican Bay?
Avery Johnson deserves a tremendous amount of credit for building himself into an NBA force. He would not be in a position to collect $4 million-a-year paychecks (from Mark Cuban or elsewhere,coaching or not) without his feistiness, his combativeness, his ego. But it’s that Michael Irvin philosophy all over again: “A man’s greatest strength is also his greatest weakness.’’
There are two sides to every story, and in this one, Avery’s strength is one side. Avery’s weakness is the other. We're not saying this tale necessarily paints Avery in a newly horrid light, especially considering that, again, NBA insiders have long known the details of the brawl; we will opine that we don't have to portray Avery negatively inasmuch as he continues to make public statements that do a befuddlingly complete job of that all by himself. So much so, in fact, that even the needy Bulls seem to have somehow misplaced his phone number.
Still, having considered both sides of the story and both sides of the man, aware only of Avery's faith-based "Aspire Higher'' reputation, would understandable ask: how does he not qualify to the Phoenix Suns as a “right person,’’ an “obvious candidate,’’ a “prominent former head coach’’?
Well, you know who else was on that team, and in that room, listening to “The Lil’ General’s’’ Cajun cajoling, watching Avery play both sides of management and roster, hearing Avery harshly critique teammates, and then that night in Cleveland, observing as Avery cracked up just a little bit, the pressure getting to him and manifesting itself in Avery being administered a naked-on-the-floor locker-room beatdown?
The future general manager of the Phoenix Suns, Steve Kerr, was on that team. And in that room.
558pm may 17 2008
You guys have a good nite.
Originally posted by AC#21_TD ERA
Let me put this into perspective for you Mavs fans. Avery was the best chance you had of winning a championship. His record speaks for itself. Avery knew what win’s championships and he tried to implement that style into the Mavs but he had the wrong cattle. Dallas was more of a threat to win it with Avery than without. Now that Avery is gone your championship window is closed.
You can bring Carlisle, give the floor to the washed up Jason Kidd and play that regular season style Basketball all you want. But when it comes to the post season and it turns into a half court game you need to have the mental toughness to grind it out, defend and get stops.
That’s what Avery tried to bring in but he had a so called franchise player in Dirk that was letting him down, Dirk can’t take the game by the scruff of the neck, Dirk is too soft to make the Mavs a fierce defensive team. He isn’t the player to build around unless you want to win the regular season.
We all know what win’s championships but obviously Dirk and the Mavs don’t. The Mavs got rid of the wrong guy and as a Spurs fan I love it because you’re no longer a threat. When you continuously fall short in the post season you’ll eventually realize that Avery wasn’t the problem it was Dirk and Cuban. You don’t’ know what you’ve got until it’s gone.
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