Byline: David Aldridge {FACTBOX} Avery Johnson, at a glance - In 16-year playing career, Johnson averaged 8.4 points, 5.5 assists and 1.7 rebounds in 1,054 games. Played in 90 playoff games, starting 73, with averages of 10.5 points, 6.2 assists and 1.13 steals per game. Member of San Antonio Spurs 1999 championship team. He and Calvin Murphy only players under 6 feet in height to play at least 1,000 NBA games. Coaching statistics Reg. season Playoffs '04-05 Dallas 16-2 6-7 '05-06 Dallas 60-22 13-5 Totals 76-24 19-12
DALLAS - At every turn, Avery Johnson has been too short, too shot-challenged, too high-pitched, too young, too inexperienced, maybe too country, too SWAC for some to fit comfortably into the Armani world of the NBA. But he's still here, having willed himself through 16 seasons as a player without much of a jumper, without much vertical lift, without much of anything.
Except brains and toughness and character.
'Well, I think for me, you've got to, first of all, have credibility,' Johnson said the other day. 'You know, in this situation, everybody feels that I got this job so suddenly. But this is my 18th year in the NBA, so whether it's as a player or a coach or combined, you know, this is 18 years in basketball, after playing a thousand and something games, when I wasn't necessarily invited to the party, all right? I had to kind of come in through the back door.'
A 5-foot-10 fist of a player out of Southern University of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, Johnson bounced from team to team throughout most of the 1990s, a whiz of a passer who was always found wanting because he couldn't make an open shot. While he worked on that, he challenged his team mates at every turn.
'Me and Sean (Elliott), if we let our guy past us, he'd say, `Come on, guys, you're better than that,' ' recalled Heat guard Derek Anderson, who played with Johnson in San Antonio in 2000.
Johnson hit the biggest shot in Spurs history - appropriately, a jumper that clinched San Antonio's first championship in 1999. And now that the coaching title is official, as it has been for the past 14 months, the 41-year-old Johnson looks like he's straight out of central casting: the coach as dictator. A shouter. A friend to his players when he wants to be, a jerk to them when he needs to be. And a coaching savant.
I don't care what talent you've been given; when you win 95 of your first 131 games, and you get your team to the NBA Finals in your first full season, you know what you're doing.
'We made it to the finals, and it's a tribute to him, obviously,' Mavericks all-star forward Dirk Nowtizki said. 'Every time he's hard on you, it's not the person, we all know that. He's got great relationships with his players, but he's just a very emotional guy. And he can get heated, but it's nothing personal.'
'I think when you've played in the league, you've still got to be able to communicate and teach,' Johnson said, 'because your playing career can only get you so far.'
Give former coach Don Nelson and owner Mark Cuban credit, for they both quickly centered on Johnson as Nelson's heir apparent three years ago, after their first choice, Sidney Moncrief, left the Mavericks' bench to return to his car dealerships.
And the Mavericks have taken on the personality of their coach. They aren't pretty any more.
'My relationship with (my players) is very important,' Johnson said. 'But I'm not a player's coach.'
David Aldridge writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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Donna McWilliam/Associated Press AVERY JOHNSON has led the Maverics to the NBA Finals for the first time in his first full season as Dallas' head coach.
