Avery Johnson Warriors 20pts 5asts vs Hornets (1994)

February 9 1994

0:30 Avery Johnson with a Rajon Rondo made famous ball fake (you know exactly what I'm talking about, that move)

After earning the starting job in San Antonio during the 1992-93 season, Avery Johnson was signed by the Golden State Warriors and within the opening days of training camp head coach Don Nelson awarded Johnson as a captain on the squad and the starting point guard position. Johnson rewarded coach Nelson and assistant coach Gregg Popovich's faith, leading the league in games played (all 82 games) and averaging 10.9 points, 5.3 assists, and 1.4 steals for a playoff-bound Warriors team that featured Latrell Sprewell, Chris Mullin, a rookie Chris Webber, Billy Owens and Chris Gatling.

Avery Johnson was and is a grinder, no way around it. He started his professional basketball career as a reserve in the United States Basketball League-a spring/summer developmental league, a precursor to the G-League- averaging one point and one assist a game. Essentially, Johnson was on the end of the bench for a team in a league full of guys either hoping to make it back into the NBA (World B. Free, Lewis Lloyd, Don Collins, etc), youngsters hoping to make it in themselves (John "Hot Rod" Williams, Manute Bol, later Adrain Griffin) or guys playing for the love of the game.

Johnson that fall made the Seattle SuperSonics roster as one of the last men standing out of training camp, and got minimal time in his 2 seasons there, averaging only 9 minutes a game in those two seasons. The Sonics traded Avery to the Nuggets, where he recevied more playing time early in the season under coach Paul Westhead, but was eventually buried behind Michael Adams and a young Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (then known as Chris Jackson). The Nuggets eventually waived him after 21 games, and he latched on with the San Antonio Spurs in January of '91. This would be the first of three separate stints of Johnson's career in San Antonio. Backing up Rod Strickland, Johnson played well as backup point for coach Larry Brown-who's top assistant was Gregg Popovich. The next season, Johnson started 14 of the 20 games he appeared in, but with Brown being fired AND replaced by executive Bob Bass, he was waived in favor of Rod Strickland returning from injury, and Bass chose an aging Vinnie "The Microwave" Johnson to be the backup instead of Avery. Then Johnson signed two 10-day deals with the Houston Rockets, leading to a season-long deal. Johnson put up near identical stats as he did the year prior for San Antonio in Houston heading into the offseason. With Jerry Tarkanian taking over the Spurs as coach (disaster), Johnson was brought back by Bass (still executive) and initially backed up for Vinny Del Negro. With the dismissal of Tarkanian and the eventual replacing hire of John Lucas, Johnson was elevated to the starting point guard role, leading to his Golden State Warriors opportunity.

During his one season in Golden State, Don Nelson had a member on staff by the name of Gregg Popovich, who needless to say is one of the greatest coaches in NBA history. After this season, Popovich was hired by the Spurs to be the team's GM and VP of basketball operations-replacing Bob Bass-and his first move as GM/VP was signing Avery Johnson to be the team's starting point guard. Popovich then would name himself the head coach 2 seasons later, with Johnson still manning the point position.