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NBA ALL-STAR WEEKENDFebruary 17, 2006Avery JohnsonHOUSTON, TEXAS Q. How do you feel about doing this so early in your head coaching career? AVERY JOHNSON: Again, obviously, we know I'm in my first full year of coaching, and I'm flattered to be here. But again, I've been around the game for 17 or 18 years, so I'm not new to the NBA game. Obviously I'm new to participating in the All-Star Game. I've been around a few of these All-Star Weekends, but I'm honored to be here and that our team put us in position to qualify us to come to this game. Q. How hard will it be to get players to play defensive? Will you even try? AVERY JOHNSON: I just hope they don't embarrass themselves, and we'll try to help each other a little bit. I'm hoping that the game can be close around the last six minutes of the game, and then we'll encourage them to play some defense then. For the most part it's a fan's game. The fans are not here for a low-scoring game. They wants to see the game 140-145 and hopefully in favor of the West. Q. Who would you want to have the ball in the final few minutes? AVERY JOHNSON: I haven't made that decision yet. I haven't made that decision yesterday. We want to have fun and the local guys, hopefully they will look good. I do feel a sense of responsibility to all of their coaches so. We don't want to overuse anybody. Everybody has been asking me if I'm going to play Elton Brand 48 minutes because we play them on Tuesday. No, none of that. You know, no matter what kind of relationship I have with their coaches, I have a sense of responsibility to try to spread out the playing time. Hopefully when we leave from here, everybody can leave healthy. Q. What about your team, what makes you so proud about the team? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, I think I asked them before the season, what do we really want to do, because we can do whatever they want to do. They want to try to put themselves in a position where they are one of the elite teams. Well, then I told them I had a formula to get there. I can't shoot the ball, dribble, but I do have a vision and I have participated on some really good teams: The '95 team here with the Spurs that was probably the best team I played on that didn't win the Championship, and the '99 team that won it. So I have an idea, participating on some good teams, of what it takes. So I've given them some ideas and we've practiced some things on what it takes. But it's a daily responsibility to be good in our league. You can't do it one day and one night and then practice hard for a week and then take off for weeks. There is a certain way that you have to practice and play if you want to be a championship team. I've given them that formula, so it's just now a matter of consistency and consistent commitment, and we'll get there one day. Q. So they understand that where you are now doesn't really mean that much? AVERY JOHNSON: No, no. The rings that I got when I won a championship, they gave them out like around June 22nd. They didn't give them out February 16. Q. What about the defining moments that sometimes happen in the course of a season, that loss at New York against the Knicks before that 13-game win streak and when you made that change at center, is that one of those moments that you look back on and say, hey, things turned around? AVERY JOHNSON: That's one of them. I think that you have several during the course of the season. We had one where we allowed Golden State to come into our house and score 113 points on us. One was against the Knicks and one was when we beat Toronto in Toronto, and Jason Terry hit that big shot. Early in the season, our first game when we played Phoenix and won on the road in double or triple overtime or whatever it was. You can have different defining moments. We've had a situation where I had a major argument with one of my players, and we were able to patch it back up together in front of the team. So I think that you have a lot of different defining moments.
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