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
They have two really terrific players in Shaq and Wade.
It was a gutsy win. We were almost apologizing for being on the court in the first half. Then we got a little more physical. We tried to make some other players score (besides James) instead of letting them get from point A to point B with no resistance.
It's the way we play. More than assists, we want to make sure our players move. We're really a different team.
You have great offensive players in this league who don't let anything bother them. Even when I played, you had supposedly great point guard defenders and they were supposed to get under your skin with their growl or their stare or how they would grab or hold you. There are things you can do on the court to try to take care of that. I've participated in that kind of stuff before. Just be physical.
The players challenged themselves to pick it up defensively. We didn't shoot the ball particularly well tonight. We had a good team effort. We had a lot of contribution from a lot of different people.
Some of our players have made fun of our charge drill. But when you see them taking more charges in the game, it doesn't seem so silly.
My relationship with the players is very important. We think that's had a positive effect, so that when I do scream every now and then, they take it the right way.
When he's on his game and he's playing tough, hard-nosed defense and getting rebounds, getting some assists, guarding one of the better perimeter players and scoring, I'm a much better coach.
I love it. I wish we could play the last 20 games like this because I really want to try to go into the playoffs playing at a high level. But you can't play at a high level when you're playing against teams that don't really have anything to play for.
I'm sure that we're going to see everybody against Dirk, like we have the other four games.
I'm very disappointed. I've spoken to the league, and I can't get into details on what was said. I can't even find the words. I've appealed to the league about their judgment. I've seen a whole lot worse.
It's not even so much 2-0 for us, it's just trying to play this game like there's no tomorrow. When we do that, we seem to play better, we seem to play more focused, and that's the only way you can play against Memphis.
Eight out of the 10 guys in our rotation were in a quote-unquote insurmountable situation last year when we played against Houston. For us, that's something that's sunk in, that we talk a lot about. We've got some guys who know how to respond. Is this game any bigger than Game 3 in Houston last year? ... I don't think so.
Everybody's not going to play in the exhibition games, so we needed to get some work in. I don't look at training camp being the first week of October. It's the whole month of October.