DJ
I must be getting older, because the obits are becoming more relevant to me. People I've watched (athletes) and admired are passing away, some after "a good long innings" (Red Auerbach) and some far too soon. In the latter category is Dennis "DJ" Johnson.
DJ was spacial to me, because he was a part of the greatest basketball team of all-time, the 1986 Boston Celtics. More than that, he proved the value of hustle and grit, and was the man who kept the team together through difficult times. On Celtics teams with the likes of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, even Bill Walton, he was never the best player on the floor -but he always made the greats greater.
They didn't need DJ to be Michael Jordan. They had more than enough star power on the floor. What they needed was a guy who would never quit, a guy unafraid to take big shots or to defend the great players of the day. A guy who had the respect of the great players.
A true team player.
And that was DJ. Sure, he was a star at the under appreciated art of individual and team defense. But there aren't a lot of numbers to show how he denied the ball to the shooters, how he kept them out of the favorite spot on the floor. He made life hard on players who normally have it pretty easy. And, of course, guys like Dominique "Human Highlight Film" Wilkins would go for 20 on him - but not 25 and never 30.
And to get their 20 they'd have to work harder on offense, meaning their defense would slack off.
I remember DJ playing like Carl Yastrzemski (when I was a kid - after his superstar days in the 60's) - effective, respected, calm.
But DJ might have been a guy who was slightly ahead of his time. As a veteran player retiring in 1990, the NBA was not a league of former player head coaches. Make that black former player head coaches.
Today, we look around the league and see Sam Mitchell, Doc Rivers, Nate MacMillan, Avery Johnson (06 Coach of the Year), Mike Woodson, Mo Cheeks, Eddie Jordan, and Byron Scott.
But that didn't exist in 1990. So DJ worked as an assistant coach for many years, getting one shot as interim coach of a woaful Clippers team that Red himself couldn't have won with.
So as a great player and a guy who helped push black coaches ahead by never giving up on his dream of being a full time NBA head coach, he will be missed.
DJ was spacial to me, because he was a part of the greatest basketball team of all-time, the 1986 Boston Celtics. More than that, he proved the value of hustle and grit, and was the man who kept the team together through difficult times. On Celtics teams with the likes of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, even Bill Walton, he was never the best player on the floor -but he always made the greats greater.
They didn't need DJ to be Michael Jordan. They had more than enough star power on the floor. What they needed was a guy who would never quit, a guy unafraid to take big shots or to defend the great players of the day. A guy who had the respect of the great players.
A true team player.
And that was DJ. Sure, he was a star at the under appreciated art of individual and team defense. But there aren't a lot of numbers to show how he denied the ball to the shooters, how he kept them out of the favorite spot on the floor. He made life hard on players who normally have it pretty easy. And, of course, guys like Dominique "Human Highlight Film" Wilkins would go for 20 on him - but not 25 and never 30.
And to get their 20 they'd have to work harder on offense, meaning their defense would slack off.
I remember DJ playing like Carl Yastrzemski (when I was a kid - after his superstar days in the 60's) - effective, respected, calm.
But DJ might have been a guy who was slightly ahead of his time. As a veteran player retiring in 1990, the NBA was not a league of former player head coaches. Make that black former player head coaches.
Today, we look around the league and see Sam Mitchell, Doc Rivers, Nate MacMillan, Avery Johnson (06 Coach of the Year), Mike Woodson, Mo Cheeks, Eddie Jordan, and Byron Scott.
But that didn't exist in 1990. So DJ worked as an assistant coach for many years, getting one shot as interim coach of a woaful Clippers team that Red himself couldn't have won with.
So as a great player and a guy who helped push black coaches ahead by never giving up on his dream of being a full time NBA head coach, he will be missed.
posted by fiduciary at 8:12 AM
1 Comments:
Couldn't agree more about DJ. He is a guy who will never get the credit he deserves because he played on such great teams with great players, but he was incredibly talented and just knew how to win. It is interesting to look at his career stats - for every imaginable stat, his playoff numbers were higher than the regular season. If he had stayed with Phoenix or Seattle he would definitely be in the hall of fame right now because he would have much bigger numbers, but instead he ran the offense with some of the greatest players in NBA history and passed up on some of the bigger numbers.
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