Unbelivable: The former head coach for Maverick Dallas, Avery Johnson, has announced his return to the team
The fact that Avery Johnson will be coaching Deron Williams this season while Rick Carlisle won’t isn’t something that the Maverick supporters want to hold against him.
At Dunbar High School in Fort Worth this morning, Johnson stated, “Deron was the key.” He laughed and continued, “I didn’t take anybody.” He was here before us. We recently re-signed our own employee.
Johnson stated that the Brooklyn Nets were never unduly concerned that the Dallas-area player would return to his north Texas neighborhood, despite Williams’ admission during the free-agency process that it was an extremely difficult decision for him.
“We are never overconfident,” Johnson, who led the Mavericks to their NBA Finals debut in 2006, remarked. Billy King and I, the general manager, thought we would be able to re-sign Deron. It felt like eighty or ninety percent.
However, you were more concerned with that ten percent. That was the entire secret. I’m relieved that is all in the past.
Johnson visited two schools in Fort Worth to give speeches to the students. He spoke to a packed Dunbar auditorium about the dangers of maturing and “staying out of life’s emergency rooms.”
He still has the ability to draw people in. The event was organized by the group “Just Say Yes,” which aims to empower parents, teachers, and students. Johnson has spent a number of years working with Just Say Yes.
“I am fully aware of their struggles,” Johnson said. Johnson has a 19-year-old daughter and a 17-year-old son. “The process does not exempt me from it. My kids face the same obstacles in their struggles. I attempt to use my childhood in New Orleans as an example.
Regarding basketball, Johnson continued, saying he doesn’t find it shocking that the Mavericks have undergone such a drastic transformation.
However, Williams’ absence from the Dallas roster turnover was crucial for the Nets as they relocated from New Jersey to Brooklyn.
“This has been planned for the past two years,” he stated. “Boston has always been on our minds. Since we were playing in a temporary building and didn’t have any home court advantage, we basically played all of our games on the road over the previous two years. It’s exciting to be playing to sellout crowds every night at Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center and to have an improved roster.
In July, the Nets acquired Atlanta’s Joe Johnson through a trade in addition to holding onto Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries, Brook Lopez, and Williams.
According to Avery Johnson, “Deron was a big key to the whole puzzle.” It’s exciting for us to be able to add more talent through trades, free agency, or by re-signing some of our own players. We haven’t arrived yet. We don’t have a championship squad. There is much work ahead of us. However, compared to the previous two years, our talent pool is far better now.
“Compared to before, we have a lot more versatility. We look good on paper right now. It looks good on paper, but now we have to put the work in to move it forward.
