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're excited to get out of here with a win. Those guys play physical, and they play hard.
We feel adding Doug Christie to our team is giving us the best chance to win a championship.
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.
We had some good moments of team defense, but there's nothing really to get too excited about, ... I thought the big guys really tried. They're making a conscious effort to improve.
We're making progress, but it was just a tough loss.
We don't like losing one in a row. You can only imagine how two in a row feels.
We thought we got our defense under us in the first half and kind of set the tone for the rest of the game. We had a little lull defensively in the third quarter, but they're a very good offensive basketball team and they weren't going to come out of the locker room lying down.
We thought we had a legitimate beef with the way they were playing Dirk. When you don't complain, sometimes it can give the message that you don't care.
We thought we had it won in regulation. Carmelo made a tough shot. If we had to do it all over again, we probably would have fouled.
We're not going to win a championship because some guy comes in and plays like Michael Jordan, ... We're going to win as a team. We're going to win when Dirk Nowitzki continues to move forward and Josh Howard and Erick Dampier and Jason Terry give the consistency I'm looking for.
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.
There is going to come a time here - I don't know when - when we're going to start getting some guys back. And it's going to be very important that those guys get back on the practice court and things will get back to normal. But now isn't the time.
When he is aggressive and mixing his game up, they don't play him for one particular area of his game. He showed up his post-up game, his driving ability, his 3-point shot and his in-between game.
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.