Greg Popovich
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Silence surpasses speech.
Buck Harvey: From '01 to oh-no: Kerr's view
Buck Harvey
He was walking out one night, out of the Alamodome locker room that was no longer his, when he stopped at the locker of Terry Porter. There, searching for a gesture to sum up his frustration, he couldn't come up with much.
Avery Johnson gave a soft but telling kick to the chair in front of Porter's locker, and he looked back for effect.
He couldn't accept a lesser standing, not with this team, not after what he had done for the Spurs. The same drive that would carve out a long career was now eating at him, with his ego and pride in the way. He would find himself again after leaving San Antonio. But then, seven years ago, he grated on nearly everyone.
Watching nearby was Steve Kerr. And that's one reason the Suns made the decision they made Saturday.
Johnson has no reason to complain. He will earn Mark Cuban's money for the next few years, and it's more than Porter will get in Phoenix for working. Johnson also will land another NBA head coaching job eventually, because those with a .735 winning percentage do.
The place that should have considered him right now: Detroit. Johnson's personality might have connected with a team of veterans.
But the Pistons are looking toward an assistant to replace Flip Saunders. The Knicks swept up Mike D'Antoni, and now the Bulls lean in an odd direction. Instead of Johnson, they are reportedly interested in Vinny Del Negro, Johnson's former backcourt partner in San Antonio, who has never coached.
Johnson looks like the next Bob Hill, another with impressive regular seasons who drew little interest. But Johnson knows he is not the same. When Johnson was Hill's point guard, Johnson had a few issues with his head coach. He once shared those with Gregg Popovich.
Popovich would take over. With the luck of a lottery, Popovich and Johnson would form a two-headed partnership that would lead to the '99 championship.
The alliance was powerful. Johnson sat in on personnel discussions, and he was a necessary voice. Only that next season, when the Spurs added Porter, did Johnson's power base begin to erode.
Johnson reacted badly, and the chair-kick was only a silly moment. More famous was the night in Cleveland in 2000 when Johnson took on Malik Rose and yelled from the shower about how this was still his team.
Then Kerr asked David Robinson for a favor: Would Dave do something to calm his friend?
Porter handled it all with a shrug. He didn't always agree with Popovich's system, but he compromised. He'd listen to detail, then react as he always had; as it was with Doc Rivers, Porter reacted with instinct.
By 2001 everything had changed. Johnson suffered an injury, and Popovich began to see the advantages in Porter's 3-point shooting and tough-guy persona. Porter started more games and played more minutes than Johnson did.
Those Spurs would win 58 games before falling in a familiar way. They were eliminated by the Lakers in the Western Conference finals.
If it wasn't a special group on the floor, it proved to be one later. Two of those Spurs are now NBA general managers, and one assistant and two other players went on to become NBA head coaches.
As they went their own ways, they also came across each other. That, for example, is how Danny Ferry came to hire Mike Brown in Cleveland.
That's the way this business works. Relationships matter. And so these past few weeks, as Kerr interviewed a handful of candidates, the list included Del Negro, his assistant in Phoenix, and Mike Budenholzer, the longtime Spurs assistant. But not Johnson.
Still, Kerr wanted someone with experience as a head coach, and he wanted someone he knew he could work with. He kept coming back to what he had seen firsthand.
That's why this former Spurs guard opted for one former Spurs guard over another, and why something else was going on seven years ago in San Antonio.
A hiring process.
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Harvey: From '01 To Oh-No: Kerr's View Buck Harvey: From '01 to oh-no: Kerr's view
Buck Harvey
He was walking out one night, out of the Alamodome locker room that was no longer his, when he stopped at the locker of Terry Porter. There, searching for a gesture to sum up his frustration, he couldn't come up with much.
Avery Johnson gave a soft but telling kick to the chair in front of Porter's locker, and he looked back for effect.
He couldn't accept a lesser standing, not with this team, not after what he had done for the Spurs. The same drive that would carve out a long career was now eating at him, with his ego and pride in the way. He would find himself again after leaving San Antonio. But then, seven years ago, he grated on nearly everyone.
Watching nearby was Steve Kerr. And that's one reason the Suns made the decision they made Saturday.
Johnson has no reason to complain. He will earn Mark Cuban's money for the next few years, and it's more than Porter will get in Phoenix for working. Johnson also will land another NBA head coaching job eventually, because those with a .735 winning percentage do.
The place that should have considered him right now: Detroit. Johnson's personality might have connected with a team of veterans.
But the Pistons are looking toward an assistant to replace Flip Saunders. The Knicks swept up Mike D'Antoni, and now the Bulls lean in an odd direction. Instead of Johnson, they are reportedly interested in Vinny Del Negro, Johnson's former backcourt partner in San Antonio, who has never coached.
Johnson looks like the next Bob Hill, another with impressive regular seasons who drew little interest. But Johnson knows he is not the same. When Johnson was Hill's point guard, Johnson had a few issues with his head coach. He once shared those with Gregg Popovich.
Popovich would take over. With the luck of a lottery, Popovich and Johnson would form a two-headed partnership that would lead to the '99 championship.
The alliance was powerful. Johnson sat in on personnel discussions, and he was a necessary voice. Only that next season, when the Spurs added Porter, did Johnson's power base begin to erode.
Johnson reacted badly, and the chair-kick was only a silly moment. More famous was the night in Cleveland in 2000 when Johnson took on Malik Rose and yelled from the shower about how this was still his team.
Then Kerr asked David Robinson for a favor: Would Dave do something to calm his friend?
Porter handled it all with a shrug. He didn't always agree with Popovich's system, but he compromised. He'd listen to detail, then react as he always had; as it was with Doc Rivers, Porter reacted with instinct.
By 2001 everything had changed. Johnson suffered an injury, and Popovich began to see the advantages in Porter's 3-point shooting and tough-guy persona. Porter started more games and played more minutes than Johnson did.
Those Spurs would win 58 games before falling in a familiar way. They were eliminated by the Lakers in the Western Conference finals.
If it wasn't a special group on the floor, it proved to be one later. Two of those Spurs are now NBA general managers, and one assistant and two other players went on to become NBA head coaches.
As they went their own ways, they also came across each other. That, for example, is how Danny Ferry came to hire Mike Brown in Cleveland.
That's the way this business works. Relationships matter. And so these past few weeks, as Kerr interviewed a handful of candidates, the list included Del Negro, his assistant in Phoenix, and Mike Budenholzer, the longtime Spurs assistant. But not Johnson.
Still, Kerr wanted someone with experience as a head coach, and he wanted someone he knew he could work with. He kept coming back to what he had seen firsthand.
That's why this former Spurs guard opted for one former Spurs guard over another, and why something else was going on seven years ago in San Antonio.
A hiring process.
