really doc rivers????
Nope. He was like Bruce Bowen in the fact that he knew where his strengths were and used that to make a big impact on the floor. I have nothing but respect for guys like that. Going from being close to never amounting to anything in the NBA to using the talents they did have to the best of their ability. And I don't know how you fault the guy for trying to continue his career in basketball by getting into coaching. I actually took some pride in seeing him flourish in Dallas. It just made our organization look better. How big is the list now? AJ, Mike Brown, Danny Ferry, Steve kerr, Doc Rivers.. Not that all these guys were career Spurs players, but they were all snatched up shortly after they came through San Antonio. That's a compliment in itself to this Spurs organization.
really doc rivers????
You should just leave now and save yourself the suspense.
I've never had anything against AJ the player, or AJ the coach. What I think would be a mistake is AJ coaching the Spurs.
His natural fit coaching after Dallas was Detroit. Dumars blew it by not hiring him. I think his next gig will be with New Orleans - Paul is intense too, they should do well together as long as he gives Paul enough freedom.
How many times have posters in here bellyached about "Tim needs to be more vocal," or "Manu has to get on his teammates more when they screw up"? You know what? AJ WAS that type of leader. Between his and Mario Elie's at udes in '99, they changed the Spurs from a perennial soft also-ran who could be depended on to fold when things got tough, to a team that almost defied other teams to beat them. I think it's telling that of all the Spurs' le runs, the '99 one still stands as the greatest postseason performance of them all, with a 15-2 record.
I always liked AJ and don't hate on him for taking a coaching job at Dallas. Did a good job too until they kicked him out. Their loss, IMO.
I always liked his spunk and the way he kept the team communicating. I also liked how David and him kept the team with the right at ude.
Do I want him to coach the Spurs someday? I don't know. Mixed feelings on this for some reason I can't put my finger on.
I love AJ, and respect him as the floor general he was. I'm amazed at how much credit he gets for hitting that one shot. We won the series 4-1 and if he misses that there is no doubt we still win the championship. The credit he gets is as if it was a game winner in game 7 of the finals. Not in game 5 where we dominated the first 4 games, yes even the one we lost. Anyone watching the game we lost knows the league needed to extend the series and was a terribly officiated game. I love AJ and always will, just don't feel like he deserves some crazy credit for bringing us our first![]()
He had a ridiculous winning percentage in Dallas while he was there (around 67-70%), and did what Nellie's teams couldn't--beat SA in a 7 game series. Can't blame a man for accepting a job and doing his best at it. If you honestly believe he hates Pop or the Spurs, though, you're mistaken.
Real Spurs fans never disslike former silver and black represtentatives.......related to basketball.
The Little General is easily on of my favorite Spurs players of all time. He came to the team an NBDL talent and worked his way up to being an above-average starting PG. I'll never forget him outplaying the trio of Kidd/KJ/Nash in the 98 playoffs, the way he abused Brandon in 99, or the way he outplayed Stoudamire in those WCF after the nasty things Damon said about him.
Man, I remember that--he handled that with such class. I was pissed at Damon for that--never was comfortable seeing him in a Spurs uni, even if it was for only part of a season.
I don't hate Avery Johnson, I just hate that he didn't have a jump shot which made every guys job on the team harder, didn't get to the FT line in lieu of having a J, that he became cancerous his final years with the team, talked about Parker and Manu, is the most over-rated player by fans in the history of this team, and had his jersey retired.
If he hadn't turned cancerous, talked , and gotten his jersey retired I probably would have a better opinion of him. Although I still would have thought he was more of a liability than a leader.
He's stopped talking now so that makes it a little easier to handle his jersey being retired but it still doesn't mean his jersey deserved to be retired.
I do think it's funny that one of the first things AJ did as coach of the Mavs was alienate Michael Finley...as they are two very similar players in that some people just like them and think they are these heart and soul type players when they really aren't.,,...they're really liabilities. IF you can't get anyone better(as was the case with both of them in their heart and soul eras) I understand that...I don't understand retiring their jerseys because of it.
FWIW, I did like it when he made Stoudemire eat his words.
with that voice, he has no business doing TV. and Bowen's is even worseI can't tolerate even 5 seconds of Bowen, with Avery I can go about a minute before the novelty wears off
no AJ, means no Ellie & no championship 99...
ain't no reason to hate...mavs coach or not,
brutha gotta make his money when he can.
not this fan. AJ was one of the guys along with Tim, David and Sean who laid the foundation for the Spurs right way of playing.
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