I have to admit my personal disdain for Johnson stems from his handling of the players Howard, Nowitzki and Kidd.
For some inexplicable reason, he decided at some point that Josh Howard was the superior scorer, that Dirk should stop shooting 3-pointers and that Dirk should get a tongue-lashing whenever he missed a longer jumper. At the same time Josh Howard could do whatever the <sexual intercourse> he wanted out there. In my opinion, that clearly got to Josh's head. The Josh Howard who was a lock-down defender and explosive slasher to the basket has been gone for quite a while. Instead we are seeing a jump-shooting guy who got the green light in every single 1st quarter of every game of the season.
Think about that. It didn't matter if Dirk was hot early on or if Terry hit a couple of 3-pointers, it was Josh's ball in the first half of every game. Avery's comment "WE LIKE TO GET JOSH GOING EAAAAARLY!" says it all. Watching the reigning MVP being reduced to the role of decoy and passing station for Josh <sexual intercoursing> Howard was nigh unbearable. Experts labeled Don Nelson a mad scientist for tinkering with line-ups and match-ups. Well, Avery turned the whole thing upside down: he took the single biggest match-up advantage the team had and decided to stop using it. Awesome. That "experiment" ended after a couple of weeks and suddenly the Mavs were winning again, while Dirk averaged his usual 25ppg. Then they added Kidd and Dirk's numbers went through the roof (something close to 29ppg, need to re-check).
Ah yes, Jason Kidd. Let's count the ways Avery pooped all over the place. You can not bring in an aging Hall of Fame point guard, a guy still averaging 10/10/8, and call every single play from the side-line. You call every single play if your PG is Tyrone Lue. When the name on the jersey says "Kidd", you give him the ball, call out plays from time to time and let him run the whole thing the rest of the day. The couple of games that Dallas actually looked like a juggernaut again where the very games Johnson shut the fuсk up and handed the reins to Jason.
Another cool idea: focus on Kidd's shooting and tell every reporter in the world that Jason "NEEDS TO SHOOT WITH CONFIDEEEENCE!". Like it's some mind-blowing revelation that Kidd can't shoot worth a lick. You brought the guy in to run fast-breaks and get the ball to Dirk/Josh/Terry. You are calling out all the plays, thus eliminating Kidd's greatest strength at this point, his creativity, and on top of that you are focusing on his shooting to criticize him? You couldn't <sexual intercourse> up the whole situation any worse if you hired Isiah Thomas as head coach.
Which brings me to the whole "Dirk is a choker!" debate and Avery's role as head coach during the Finals 2006 and the 1st round of 2007. Avery Johnson got ripped to shreds, two years in a row, by superior coaches. He got his entrails handed to him on a silver plater and somehow he managed to dodge all the blaming bullets, yet the few stray projectiles that actually were headed his way? He deftly re-directed them towards his Dirk Nowitzki, who needed to become "MORE OF A LEAAAADER!". Dirk fuсked up during the epic meltdown against the Warriors but Avery did all he could to put his team in a hole by coaching with his head in the sand. Good riddance.
/not a Mavs fan
If I have a +1 for every right point there I'll have +1,000,000
