Mavericks Fire Avery Johnson

Source

This isn't being reported by ESPNEWS or ESPN.com yet so I'm guessing that ESPN Radio-Dallas might have jumped the gun and reported this too soon. It probably isn't official yet but it's likely to happen in the next several days.

Apparently, Johnson canceled practice Monday after getting into an altercation with one of the players and completely lost his team during the series. Cuban hasn't been impressed with him and it's likely he'll be out in Dallas by week's end.

Funny how this is happening right after D'Antoni got the boot.
And how Avery Johnson has only been with Dallas for 3 or so years.

Wow... just wow... after dántoni, him.

Book it, he'll go to either PHX or ATL. Who knows...

Didnt Avery Johnson win COY recently? kinda odd to have such a quick turnaround.

This is further proof that Don Nelson was NOT what was wrong with the Mavericks in past years.

Avery never really could get the Mavs to play great defense. Always mediocre.

Didnt Avery Johnson win COY recently? kinda odd to have such a quick turnaround.

i thought thats what happened with doc rivers in orlando

Didnt Avery Johnson win COY recently? kinda odd to have such a quick turnaround.

When you have a boss like Mark Cuban (plus a let down in this and the last year's Playoffs), Avery Johnson should had saw this coming..

It's funny how these teams like the Suns and Mavs destroy their teams with trades then blame it on the coach and fire him when it doesn't work out.

Trading Marion wasn't bad but for Shaq? Mark Cuban just flushed that franchise down the toilet with that trade.

Trading Marion wasn't bad but for Shaq? Mark Cuban just flushed that franchise down the toilet with that trade.

He flushed...the Suns...down the toilet?

I also believe the Mavs-Suns upsets are Cuban's and Kerr's fault. Who hurt the Suns most? Probably Duncan, who O'Neal was traded in to guard, supposedly a good defender on guys like Duncan. And CP3 killed the Mavs. He's so quick against J-Kidd.

Tony Parker was glad to see Kidd come in, cause Harris was a great defender, plus he's quick.

I think coaching replacements wont help they're situation.

He's so quick against J-Kidd.

Chris Paul isnt quick AGAINST J-Kidd. He's quick against everybody. It just seems to stand out more with older players because their quickness is usually not their strong point. You athleticism doesnt change depending who you're playing; its just more of a factor against some more than others.

blaming the suns failure on the shaq trade is wrong imo, personally i think the fault should go all the way back to tradeing away kurt thomas. take him off the spurs and put him on the suns and i bet the series goes the other way

I've edited the topic title since it's now official.

Not altogether surprising given the Mavericks' shortcomings the past two seasons, it's a shame Avery Johnson has to be the one to take the fall but that's the way it goes in pro sports. His clashes with Cuban wouldn't have helped either.

Even if they hadn't made the Kidd trade, I'm not sure the Mavericks could ever get back to the Finals or win a championship as long as Cuban is around, interfering with his head coach and trying to instruct him on strategy and playing time, especially if his head coach tells him to back off as Johnson did leading to a rift. Cuban's wealth demonstrates his savvy as a businessman but when it comes to success on the court, he'd be better off leaving decisions like that to people who have a head for the game.

Who says he doesn't have a head for the game? How do we know that Cuban's suggestions were not vastly superior to Avery Johnson's plans? Just because someone is a player, coach, GM, etc. does not mean they know better than anyone else. That's confusing the institution with the individual.

Source

This isn't being reported by ESPNEWS or ESPN.com yet so I'm guessing that ESPN Radio-Dallas might have jumped the gun and reported this too soon. It probably isn't official yet but it's likely to happen in the next several days.

Apparently, Johnson canceled practice Monday after getting into an altercation with one of the players and completely lost his team during the series. Cuban hasn't been impressed with him and it's likely he'll be out in Dallas by week's end.

Funny how this is happening right after D'Antoni got the boot.
And how Avery Johnson has only been with Dallas for 3 or so years.

an altercation? hmmm. gotta be more to this story than what is being reported

A fight with Josh Howard and others for having a birthday party.

Who says he doesn't have a head for the game? How do we know that Cuban's suggestions were not vastly superior to Avery Johnson's plans? Just because someone is a player, coach, GM, etc. does not mean they know better than anyone else. That's confusing the institution with the individual.

We can't know that for sure but I feel it's a fair enough assumption that someone who has been heavily involved in the game for over twenty years can be trusted to coach a professional basketball team more than a entrepreneur who hasn't had much in the way of noteworthy involvement in basketball prior to purchasing an NBA team eight years ago.

Do you think Mark Cuban has a vastly superior head for the game than Avery Johnson or other NBA coaches, players and GMs? If so, perhaps he should step into the head coach's role.

Avery Johnson is a solid, old-school no nonsense coach. People accused him of "over-coaching" the team in the finals...bullshit. The Mavs are a bunch of softies with a tissue-soft leader in Dirk Nowitzki - that's why Avery was a bad fit with this team.

He'll find a job elsewhere and succeed. I'm crossing my fingers that he lands in Phoenix and completely changes the attitute of that team.

I feel it's a fair enough assumption that someone who has been heavily involved in the game for over twenty years can be trusted to coach a professional basketball team

I don't. That's just networking. Gregg Popovich has four rings because he became friends with Larry Brown being a prime example.

Do you think Mark Cuban has a vastly superior head for the game than Avery Johnson or other NBA coaches, players and GMs?

I don't know if he does, I stopped reading his blog four years ago, but I would never discount him just because he isn't a "professonal basketball person."

And thinking about it, I would fathom that Mark Cuban does have a top notch basketball mind. Just watching ESPN/TNT, or looking at other coaches throughout the league like Doc Rivers or Isiah Thomas makes it pretty clear he's easily smarter than a lot of "professional basketball people." We know he's involved in what his team does, and they've made a number of great moves, and he's hired some great people.

I mean, what evidence do you have that Mark Cuban does not have a superior head than these people? Or are you just assuming because they're "basketball people", why, they MUST know better!

I don't. That's just networking. Gregg Popovich has four rings because he became friends with Larry Brown being a prime example.

Sure, knowing the right people helps a lot no matter profession you're in but they must know a thing or two about basketball to have earned the respect of their players and enjoyed some degree of success in the league, Popovich having the more impressive resume there.

I mean, what evidence do you have that Mark Cuban does not have a superior head than these people? Or are you just assuming because they're "basketball people", why, they MUST know better!

None whatsoever that conclusively proves he doesn't have a superior basketball mind to people like Avery Johnson, I'll gladly admit once again that's it an assumption on my part. But what evidence do you have that Cuban does have a superior head for basketball or as you put it, his ideas were "vastly superior" to Johnson's? That's assuming all of Johnson's experience is for naught.

Whatever the case may be, there's another question that can be raised here: is it appropriate for a team owner like Mark Cuban to partake in a bit of backseat coaching, specifically instructing his head coach on plays and substitutions? It's his team so of course he's going to question his head coach when the team is struggling, asking why they are losing and what they can do to get better and as the guy who spent millions of dollars to buy the team and signs the cheques so he's entitled to giving his coach a "win or else" ultimatum.

But is he stepping over the line when he's trying to coach the team as well? I think you could say that he is. It's a bit of a jump from asking "What can we do to get better" or even stating, for exampe, "We need to defend better" to "Run this play" or "Make sure this player gets X amount of minutes" or "Make this substitution". You could say that it's his team and he's the boss so he can tell his employees to do whatever's in their job description but I imagine encroaching on the coach like that would make their job difficult and probably a bit insulting to boot.

I admit that I could be way off here, I can only speculate about Cuban's basketball mind and I don't know any more about the inner workings of the Dallas Mavericks organisation than anyone else here so my observations do come from reports that admittedly could be hearsay. Nevertheless, Cuban has reportedly clashed with the last two Mavericks head coaches, which leads me to wonder if it's them or him and if it's him, what that means for Dallas as long as he's calling the shots.

I wish Avery would end up in Knicks and make a terrific OS and turn Knicks really good.

Whoa, it's official now! Thanks for the edit Andrew.
Hopefully, the little general can get on a team with an owner that doesn't do anything too stupid.
Perhaps an owner that doesn't appear on Dancing With The Stars?

id love to see him in chicago!

I wish Avery would end up in Knicks and make a terrific OS and turn Knicks really good.

It would take more than Avery Johnson to turn the Knicks around. Moving some of those contracts is easier said than done.

Shaq did a nice job on Duncan...

Phx couldn't stop Parker... he was the primary offensive weapon!


OFF: I saw only the 1 game... the others i followed play by play becuase in Argentina we only see 1 to 2 playoffs games per week... And is always Houston ¬¬

I dont think that was a smart choice, firing Johson. I mean OK, this season was disappointing, but it wasn't ugly The west is tough, and Dallas was dominating the NBA for the last couple of season, not counting this one.
Last season was just phenomenal.