Spurs To Retire Avery Johnson's Number 6

[Ignignokt]

that means the honor of retiring a spur is a big joke, and i'm gonna root for the Toros.

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

Okay.

[ducks]

The Spurs Are Retiring Avery Johnson's Number Why, Exactly?


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http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/...r-why-exactly/

The San Antonio Spurs have announced that they will be retiring the jersey of Avery Johnson, who is a former Spurs player and the current head coach of the Dallas Mavericks. The particulars are as follows:

Avery Johnson will be immortalized in San Antonio on Dec. 22 when the Spurs retire his No. 6 jersey. The team's all-time assists leader helped the franchise win its first NBA le in 1999.

Johnson played all or part of 10 seasons with the Spurs, mostly under coach Gregg Popovich. Then the general manager, Popovich brought Johnson back to San Antonio in 1994 to be the team's point guard after he played one season at Golden State.

The Mavs are off the day the Spurs face the Clippers, and Johnson will be present for the ceremony.
This quote mentions the facts that Avery is the team's all-time assists leader, and that he "helped" the Spurs win their first NBA le in (the lockout-shortened season) 1999. A fairly lengthy explanation of why this is completely ridiculous, after the jump.

Retired jerseys, in my humble opinion, are for players or coaches that have materially contributed to the overall success of the franchise. Players whose jerseys are retired should be Hall of Fame caliber. Players who, without question, are dominant superstars without whom the franchise would never have been relevant at all but for that player's time with the team. Does Avery Johnson fit into that category with the Spurs? Absolutely not. His one shining moment with the team came in the 1999 (completely meaningless, lockout-induced) NBA Finals. Avery hit a 20-foot jumper to clinch the le for the Spurs.

Now ... forgetting the fact that over half of those highlights were from the Knicks team that lost that series, can we really consider this a legitimate championship? The season didn't even begin until February due to a lockout by the owners, and most players were either out of shape or simply didn't care once the shortened season actually began. Bill Simmons did one of the best jobs describing what truly happened in '99:

This was the excruciating lockout season, when the overmatched player's union -- led by Billy Hunter and Patrick Ewing, who shouldn't have been trusted to handle a bake sale at an elementary school, much less a labor dispute -- had their ensalada tossed by David Stern (at the apex of his power) and limped back to work in early February, followed by a rushed 50-game season in which too many players changed teams and nearly everyone was out of shape, leading to nagging injuries, shoddy basketball and an absolutely hateful season on every level. The rushed playoffs were such a joke that the eighth-seeded Knicks ended up making the Finals before getting trounced by the Spurs...
So the point here is that Avery's "big jump-shot" occurred in an NBA Finals that was deemed completely worthless by everyone who was not a fan of either the Knicks or the Spurs. Since Avery has no other highlights to speak of, let's go to his career stats to see if they might be worthy of having his number retired.


The amazing website basketball-reference.com produces all of the facts we need to see that Avery Johnson had, at best, two solid years that would be barely worthy of immortalization. In the '94-'95 and '95-'96 seasons, Avery averaged about 13 points and 8 assists, and 13 points and 9 assists (respectively) per game. His career averages though are far below that, where we're seeing an average of about 8 points and 5 assists per game over 16 freaking seasons, approximately 10 of which were spent in San Antonio. Not exactly Hall of Fame credentials, are they? Just to further illustrate this point, players with similar numbers at the same age as Avery was in his prime include Moochie Norris, Sherman Douglas, and Michael Adams. Yeah, exactly.


The Spurs as a franchise have only retired five numbers prior to this abomination that will occur in late December. The retired numbers are as follows:

00 - Johnny Moore, G, 1980-88 & 1989-90
13 - James Silas, G, 1972-81 (1972-73 Dallas)
32 - Sean Elliott, F, 1989-1993, 1994-2001
44 - George Gervin, G, 1974-85
50 - David Robinson, C, 1989-2003

Obviously, I have nothing to say about David robinson and George Gervin, as they are no-brainer hall-of-famers, completely deserved of having their numbers retired. Sean Elliott is borderline, but understandable considering his tenure with the team and that ridiculous shot he hit in that playoff series against the Blazers. James Silas was a baller for the Spurs in the ABA and NBA, so no issues with him either. Johnny Moore though? Similar numbers to those of Avery's (pretty weak), but the dude was with the team a while and overcame Valley Fever to rejoin the team and finish his career. I'm guessing the retirement of his number had more to do with the latter than the former.


So to me, the retirement of Avery Johnson's jersey with the Spurs is more about his relationship with Gregg Popovich and the fact that he blossomed into a pretty solid NBA coach, and less about how great or important of a player he was to the Spurs' organization over those 10 years. When I think of teams that retire players' jerseys, I think of Hall of Fame players who were integral parts of a team's championship years. I think anyone would be hard-pressed to create a compelling argument for Avery Johnson having that much meaning to the Spurs.

[objective]

I'm not sure how Manu entered the equation.

If I had to guess what he's referencing, it's that you posted something to the effect of Manu being a 'barely capable role player' in 03, despite how Manu was on the court in the tight 4th quarters finishing games that year and the other qualities Manu had that year in his first playoffs.

[sandman]

The '86 team had Moore, Gervin, Gilmore, Mitc , Banks and Robertson. All were healthy virtually the entire season, yet the team finished 41-41. And if you watched games of that year (Moore's career year), Moore was at best the fourth best player on the team. No one can watch games from that year and say Moore was a better player than Mitc . No way.

Are you sure that you are referring to the 85-86 season? Gene Banks was traded to Chicago in the off-season and Moore only played about 30 games that year before getting sick.

[whottt]

I can think of no Spurs player who better exemplified what the Spurs were about at the start of the Popovich coaching era than AJ.

Me either...I'd say AJ was the ebodiment of what the Spurs were about at the start of the Popovich coaching era...


I've never agreed with you more.

Only the all-time NCAA assists leader who had an 8+ apg average across multiple seasons.

Great...

[timvp]

Are you sure that you are referring to the 85-86 season? Gene Banks was traded to Chicago in the off-season and Moore only played about 30 games that year before getting sick.

Typo. I was talking about the '84-85 team as indicated by the sentence before that.

My bad.

[whottt]

Manu entered the equation when AJ talked ...and AJ fans chuckled it off.


Manu entered the equation when he innocently got caught up in the whole jersey thing and was basically publically humiliated by the Spurs by being forced to give up a jersey that was given to him.

[ducks]

manu should have been allowed to wear aj's number because he asked and got it
then harris thru had a cow
spurs did not want to retire aj's number

[objective]

Manu entered the equation when AJ talked ...and AJ fans chuckled it off.


Manu entered the equation when he innocently got caught up in the whole jersey thing and was basically publically humiliated by the Spurs by being forced to give up a jersey that was given to him.

guess i was wrong.

my bad

[CharlieMac]

Good for AJ.

[toosmallshoes]

Yay!

[Dreamshake]

Ha Ha. Next up on the Spurs Ring of Honor...Vinny Del Negro. Mark your calenders.

[ShoogarBear]

Bump for old times' sake.