Avery Johnson
Avery Johnson
Avery Johnsonis an American basketball coach who is currently the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball team. Johnson spent 16 years in the National Basketball Association as a player, and subsequently served as the head coach of two NBA teams: the Dallas Mavericks and New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets. He led the Mavericks to their first NBA Finals appearance and to three consecutive 50+ win seasons. During his playing days, Johnson was known as the "Little General" for his...
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth25 March 1969
CityNew Orleans, LA
Yeah, that puts them at an advantage I would say. So what I'll try to do is when he puts his four guys out there, I'll try to have combinations. I'll try to play Steve and Dirk together since they played together. And maybe I'll play Yao and T-Mac. So maybe we at least have four guys out there . . . two and two. And then throw in somebody else. . . . Maybe Kobe (Bryant); he's a whole team himself.
We've been going pretty hard in practice and in the games. It's something we like to do.
We came up short. They got to the free throw line more and they were the aggressors and they deserved the win. We had too many lethargic situations tonight and I need to address that.
We got off to a good start in the first quarter and set the tone for the whole game. I thought our defense was pretty steady...we tried to contest as many shots as we could.
We fought. This was a playoff atmosphere. We wish we'd have been able to match their intensity down the stretch. But we didn't. We just did not execute. We were hesitant. We didn't get to the foul line. We didn't deserve to get there. We didn't make strong enough moves.
We didn't earn our paycheck. We need to give Mark Cuban a rebate, all of us.
We haven't had a guy who can play that kind of defense,
We couldn't be where we are had we not gotten those guys. There's so many little ways, detail things, things that don't show up on stat sheets. You need your stars. But their roles are very significant for our team.
We could have gotten a little lethargic. We won't rule it out.
We have three centers and none of those guys can do any cameos at small forward or point guard, so that leaves the rest of the guys. We need them to play now.
John really took a liking to me. He talked to me about the off-court stuff, about the pitfalls that trap some guys. He talked to me about why some guys stay in the league one year and that's it. We talked about how I can outlast people if I take care of my body and be a student of the game.
I'm so happy we went through that little period that we went through, because it seems to have brought our team closer together.
I'm so happy we went through that little period, because it seems to have brought our team closer together. Nobody pointed fingers. At the same time, we played against some really good basketball teams that were really hot.
I think there's another level for us to go to. We did some good stuff. We did some bad stuff.