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NBA FINALS: HEAT v MAVERICKSJune 7, 2006Avery JohnsonDALLAS, TEXAS: Practice Day Q. Avery, can you talk about Josh's development over the year, and just how much he's improved and what exactly his biggest role is on this team? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Well, just from a level of consistency, you know, I kind of know what I'm going to get every night, and that's something that we started talking about last year. Whatever you do, just do it, but if you can do it consistently, it really makes life a little easier for a coach. Like I said, I try not to refer back to my career much, but one of the examples that I gave was I was an assist man, vocal leader, and that's what I did and did it every night. I wasn't a jump shooter, so I just think, you know, just do what you do, and if you can do it on a consistent basis, that really goes a long way. So he's consistent at what he does. He's a slasher, he rebounds, he initiates the offense for me, and again, he plays through pain consistently. So that's what we love about him. Q. You mentioned the impact about Dirk's play in the end of Game 7 and what that meant for his development and for the team sort of getting your message. Can you reiterate? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Well, I think again, it goes along with what we've talked about all season of how the regular season and playoffs are different. And I've tried to point out during training camp and preseason games and even some regular season games or stuff that I knew wouldn't work in the playoffs. So sometime he'd get on a big role and, you know, he'll be raining jumpshots and he'll think that he's really good. But I'll just call a time-out and instead of drawing up a play, I'll just tell him, maybe that won't work in the playoffs in the fourth quarter. We may need a drive at that point. You know, he's taken the coaching really good. We've had a good relationship. So we've kind of simulated that game situation quite a bit in practice. So to really see it come to pass in the game was pretty special. Q. Was it helpful that you had an object lesson in Game 6, at the end of Game 6 to reinforce that to him? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Yes. We've had other object lessons. We show a lot of stuff. I think one of my worst time with him was probably after we lost to Detroit in Detroit. That some of the same things he failed to do in that game, he's gotten it right pretty much throughout these playoffs. He's made a step forward and I think he still has some room to grow. We'll just keep working on it. Q. Jason came into a difficult situation, replacing Steve Nash, how has he responded last two years? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: He got off to a rough start. You know, he got off to a rough start. Last year we were starting Devin earlier in the season, and I think part of it was because, you know, the consensus was he wasn't a point guard and so forth and so on. I guess in the middle of last year or whatever, we ended up putting him in because Devin wasn't ready and ended up going really well. Then when I took over, we just tried to find the right mix for him and the right plays and try to put him in the right situation. And Jason had a pretty incredible playoff run last year. I don't think we'd get by the Rockets without him playing the way he did. So we went and evaluated this summer and tried to get him in a position of trying to play like Jason Terry and not play like a traditional point guard; but be a point guard but use your strengths that really fit this team. So he's come a long way. And again, this is really -- we've only been together a year and a half. I think there's a level for all of us to go to if we can just keep this thing together. Q. Can you talk about Mark's energy and his passion and enthusiasm? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Mark who? Q. Cuban. (Laughter) it seems like he's up there in the stands, you know, he's in the locker room, does it feel like you have a fourth assistant sometimes with his energy? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: You know, we love his energy. I think, you know, before I took the deal, I think we needed to clear up some of that. And the first thing I had told him was I didn't want him to stop being him. I want him to continue to be around the guys, continue to be around and just be a fan and do what you do. Because he's too old to discipline. I can't discipline the owner. So, you know, but the thing was, I wanted to follow-up by telling him that I needed to be me. So we found middle ground there and what works and what doesn't work. And I think he's been tremendous. Q. Stack just relayed a question, like a little story to us, said that earlier this week he went into your office, took a load off, said, I'm just enjoying this and you told him, I told you guys we're going to get here, nobody can beat you. Have you relayed that message -- COACH AVERY JOHNSON: I don't know if I said it exactly like that. See, during times like this in The Finals you get all these mushy stories and stuff gets twisted. Q. Tell us what happened, if you don't mind. COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Just he stopped by, and I thought he needed something. And he was just saying, "Man, I'm just coming in, and I'm excited." To have Stackhouse in that type of mood, you know, because he's always focused and that's great, you just say, man, I'm really excited and want to have an opportunity to hopefully make that next step. I think we've got a great shot and it's something that we've been talking about all year. Q. When you think about coaching against Pat Riley, what's your first sort of gut thought? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Well, again, I don't necessarily think I'm coaching against Pat Riley. You know, I played against Stockton for years and Kevin Johnson, and even Gary Payton. I really just try to keep it in the team concept. Obviously I think as the coach, there are things that I need to do and teach and adjustments that I think I need to take to try to help our team have the best chance at winning. But, you know, I've been in so many series where I've supposedly gotten outcoached and stuff like that. At the end of the day, all we're interested in is getting four wins first. And Coach Riley is a Hall of Fame coach, he was a player in our league and coach and he's done it all. Again, I don't think it's me coaching against him as much as it is the Mavericks and the Heat. Q. Jason said a few minutes ago that you changed the face of this team. It's always hard to assess ourselves, but what do you think is the biggest strength that you've brought in your first full year? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Well, I think for me, you've got to first of all have credibility. 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, you know, after playing over 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. I think you have to have some kind of credibility. I think when you've played in the league, you've still got to be able to communicate and teach, because your playing career can only get you so far. I think you've just got to be respected and credible, and I think that's a start. But my relationships, being strong and trying to develop in relationship with players, from a non-basketball standpoint, I think it's critical for me, because I've tried to show them that I care, you know, just as much about them as individuals as I do about winning. And that's why we try to do some things off the court that we do, because they are not robots. You know, they are not just -- they are important human beings, and I've tried to show them that. Q. What off the court stuff have you done? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: No, I'm just saying, it's nice when it's Mother's Day to send their wives some flowers, right? Wouldn't you like that? Q. Oh, yeah. COACH AVERY JOHNSON: So what I'm saying is, it's not just about basketball. I think my relationship that I have with their families are critical. Because at the end of the day, no matter what kind of cute play I draw up out there on the court or what kind of play that I sit with my pad at home and, you know, tear up 100 sheets of paper, when it goes out there on the court, they have got to make it work. You know, whatever defensive schemes we have, at the end of the day when they get elbowed, they have got to elbow back. So my relationship with them is very important. But I'm not a players' coach. (Laughter). Q. Could you kind of compare and contrast as a player, you said you had to come in through the back door and you got waived and all that kind of stuff, but now as a coach, success overnight, instant success, Coach of the Year, can you compare and contrast your experience personally and does your instant success surprise you? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: No, because I don't think it's ever about me. I think when you're in a team sport and a coach gets recognized or a player -- Dirk, he was Player of the Week one week or whatever, Player of the Month. Well, again, he couldn't throw the ball to himself every time. Somebody had to help him out on defense. You know, it's a team sport. It's not tennis. So anything that happens with me is a reflection on these players and coaches that I have an opportunity to work with every day. Q. And just kind of as a follow-up, that trade, when you were traded as a player in February of 2002 from Denver to Dallas, do you think that kind of got the ball rolling, got you in the organization; would this have all happened if that trade didn't? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: I'm really thankful for that trade. The more you look at it, I'm taking Avery Jr to get a haircut and I get a call from my agent and Mark Cuban is at the airport with his plane and you're going to Dallas with Van Exel -- and I said, what? When I signed with Denver I was 36 years old. I was like, they are not going to trade me, my contract is pretty stuff and nobody is going to want me at this stage of my career. So that was quite a surprise. But it got this whole deal started. And Mark and I, again, cultivated a pretty strong relationship and talked a lot about basketball and talked about maybe at some time down the road that this could be a possibility. Q. You've been very open to making changes in the starting lineup throughout the playoffs when a lot of coaches don't like to make changes. I know it's all back by preparation, but do you go by instinct in, is it just faith in the system that allows you to be so open to making changes at critical times? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: I think it's about match-ups, really. It's real plain vanilla, it's meat and potatoes, it's matchups. What we played against Memphis, we needed Adrian out there because of Battier and Eddie Jones and their size. We needed to win the rebound game against Memphis. Coming into the playoffs, we thought if we had an opportunity to play against the Spurs and we were fortunate enough to get by the first round, looking at our games in versus the Spurs, and especially that first game against the Spurs when Devin had that huge game, we thought it would be better to start Devin against San Antonio because Griffin struggled a little bit with Ginobili and we didn't want to start Josh Powell on Ginobili, we wanted to start him on Bowen. It's kind of been strategic. We look at the regular season, teams that we may play in the playoffs and we put up our lineups and see which would be the best feet. So obviously we've looked at Miami. We didn't know if we would meet them in The Finals or it would be Detroit or whatever. We looked at situations to figure out what we think may give us our best chance. Q. Just wondering, what similarities, if any, do you see between Dirk and David (Robinson) in terms of trying to get them to take ownership of the team, trying to push them to become the player that they are capable of being? And if you don't see any, that's fine, too. COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Well, I know that. (Laughter). I think there was a time in Dirk's career where he wasn't really viewed as a physical player. You know, it was more of a finesse type deal. And because of that, sometimes people want to throw out the "soft" word. David obviously got a lot of that in his career. I think in their own way, they were both able to share that label because they are -- they were billed as finesse players at their position. I don't think finesse always is going to be associated with Dirk because he's more of a post-up player now. He drives the ball to the basket, he makes strong moves and Dirk rebounds. Dirk is a very underrated rebounder, and you can't rebound the way he does without being somewhat physical. Q. When you started your professional career, I believe with the Palm Beach Sting Rays, how did that shape you for anything down the road and can you talk about that experience a little bit? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Well, I think it gave me a great opportunity to go down and play against some guys, you know, that had played in the NBA and careers were kind of sputtering back then. The league was strong back hen and you had a lot of guys playing and it enabled me to get in great physical condition before I moved out to go try for the Sonics in July during their summer league. I think it really prepared me. I think had I been laying around that summer just working out on my own and not being active in real serious NBA-style type games, I wouldn't have been as prepared going to play for the Sonics that summer. Q. Talk about how much, obviously it's a team game, but how much do you guys and what do you need and how much pressure is on Dirk for you guys to win these Finals? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: I don't think it's just pressure on him. He's had a heck of a year, and somebody got a lose. If you're looking at superstars on both teams, if you're looking at 15 and Wade and looking at Dirk, you just can't have two winners. I don't think it's going to be a black eye on anybody if you don't get it done. I think you know at this stage, teams are so evenly matched, it's a seven-game series, no matter what start it gets off to. Until somebody eliminates somebody, it's never over. So again, Dirk has had a great year, our team has had a great year, and I don't think there's no black eye on any of the players, any of the coaching staffs. It's just you just can't have a tie.
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