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
We feel adding Doug Christie to our team is giving us the best chance to win a championship.
This gives our assistant coaches a chance to show what they can really do. Basically we're down to about eight guys in the rotation. It's not like we have two at each position. We're just trying to make adjustments.
This gives him a chance to pursue a lot of things that he's really passionate about, like working in the church and spending time with his family,
It's about having a second chance, ... There are a lot of people in there that survived. So you try to let them know that they survived for a reason and you still have a lot to give this country. And if you end up staying in the Dallas-Fort Worth community, you have a chance to be an asset to our community.
The road wasn't too friendly to us the last time. I'm already getting a bad memory. Hopefully, we'll have a better response on the road overall than the last game and give ourselves a chance to win by playing our system. But we've gone back to some basics that seem to have helped us.
Obviously, this is a very disappointing loss. We felt we had a chance to win this game, but they executed better than we did down the stretch. We battled, we fought, this was a playoff atmosphere. We wish we would have been able to match their intensity down the stretch, but we didn't. They were in the bounce-back mode and they bounced back.
It is a disappointing loss. When we come to the games we try and give ourselves a chance to win. I wasn't trying to rally the team by getting ejected; I think it was more a difference of opinion.
I think the Mavericks -- our team -- we've kind of forgotten who we are as basketball team and what made us successful. It wasn't shots on the offense. It wasn't holding the ball. We've kind of looked like some of our old teams with one guy pounding the ball instead of ball movement and player movement. We haven't been physical. Is that because we've been fatigued? I don't know. I know we've been a step slow. I can see that -- mentally and physically. We just need to get back to being who we are, and I think that will give us a better chance to win some of these games.
We're making progress, but it was just a tough loss.
What they have done the first half of the year, I wouldn't have disagreed with five.
What a great young player. You turn over No. 6, and there's Tony's No. 9. But he's better, he's quicker, and just a terrific player. He and Timmy (Duncan) just make a great one-two punch. He plays the game the right way. He sticks to what he does very well, and I'm looking forward to coaching him on All-Star weekend.
Very few teams go there. I think that's a great accomplishment. In our league, and in the Western Conference particularly, 50 wins means a lot.
We want our main guys to start playing now. You'll see some different looks.
We struggled to guard Yao in the first half, but we made some adjustments and were much more physical in the second half. We were fortunate enough to hold him down then.