Scout: Hawks' Johnson Not 'Lead Player'
An anonymous NBA scout claims that Atlanta's Joe Johnson isn't a "lead player".
Johnson isn't letting the report bother him, but his teammates quickly came to his rescue.
"Are you serious?" Josh Smith said. "How do you respond to something so stupid?"
"When you say something like that you would hope it would be anonymous," Marvin Williams said. "I mean, how can you take that seriously? That dude must not have watched any of our games the past few years. Anybody who has seen us knows that Joe is an absolute beast. Go ahead and fall asleep on Joe and he’ll give you 30 [points] before you know it."
Johnson himself, was much more modest.
"I don’t worry about it," Johnson said. "This is something that means little to nothing around here. We have to hold each other accountable around here. To hell with what anybody else has to say.
"And that scout is doing his job. He has to come up with something to say. We can’t be tuned in to that with all we have at stake. We have to know, and believe, we’re a good team and play like it."
Would anyone agree with that anonymous scout's assertion?
I have to admit, I had my doubts after Joe Johnson signed that big contract and the Hawks made that trade. I'll admit that I underestimated him, I thought he was good in his role with the Suns and the Hawks were taking a big risk in hoping to turn him into a franchise player but that trade hasn't worked out too badly for either team with Diaw being a key player in Phoenix and Johnson stepping up as the number one option in Atlanta. Beyond taking the eventual champion Celtics to the limit in last year's Playoffs (still nothing to be sneezed at), the Hawks haven't accomplished much during Johnson's tenure but it's only been a few years and that isn't on Johnson's head alone. I think he's absolutely a "lead player" in the NBA.
Your thoughts?
