The Little General: Avery Johnson finds second home in Aggieland

Key quotes from Avery Johnson interview

“From the beginning, Coach Kennedy was one of the first coaches to recruit Avery Jr. He was a late bloomer, because he went to a small private school in the Woodlands and played his senior year at Plano West and had a wonderful year. He was a late bloomer, like I was in high school. He really took off his senior year and had a few schools recruiting him, Maryland, Florida State, Colorado, and Tulane but when we went on our visit to A&M, we were blown away. It started with Coach Kennedy and his family, the coaching staff. We met with them at Cracker Barrel and toured the campus. Just the alumni support and tradition and facilities along with the vision of the program, I could go on and on. It provided our family with the whole package, where we thought Avery Jr, as a student athlete, could reach his maximum potential.”

“We were in the airport in College Station and Coach Kennedy offered Avery Jr. Later on that week, we were going to take our official trip to Maryland but Avery Jr. just felt really good about Coach Kennedy and the program and coaching staff, the direction of the team. He just wanted to come be a part of something special at A&M and we never made the trip to Maryland. They’re having an outstanding year but we felt like this was the best fit for him.”

“The people, all the residents and alumni, I’ve been able to build some strong relationships with alumni myself, it’s been great. Going to football games, my goodness. Witnessing 106,000 people and all the different yells, we’ve enjoyed it. The restaurants, the golfing, College Station has so many hidden gems that I never dreamed would be in College Station. Because I played for all three Texas teams, the students from Dallas or San Antonio or the Houston area, it is just great talking to them and their parents.”

“I’ve been living in Texas full time since 1991. Since I signed with the Rockets on a ten-day contract, that led to another ten-day contract and signed for the rest of the year in '91, we decided to make Texas our full time home. We lived in the Houston area for 20 years. We moved to Denver for a year, but for the most part we love Texas.”

“In A&M, I see a team that is a really good defensive team. They play hard, don’t make excuses and they are tough. I really enjoy watching them. With my schedule, I’ve probably attended about half of the games this year. We aren’t the biggest team but we play hard and they’re a lot of fun to watch.”

“I know what it feels like to be in excruciating mental distress when you lose a game like you lose to Alabama. I’ve been in that position so I try to encourage our staff, especially after losses. I text Coach Kennedy all the time. I’m not the armchair quarterback type of fan or parent, I take the good with the bad. I try to encourage them because it is a tough job. The last thing they need is for me to second guess or be negative.”

“We have an outstanding recruiting class coming in. I know two of the kids, they’ve played with Avery and have been on the same AAU teams, Tyler Davis and D.J. Hogg. I’ve seen Admon Gilder and Elijah Thomas play on the AAU circuit. Outstanding class that I think takes A&M to another level in recruiting. They all play the game the right way. They are unselfish and are all very coachable. It has been the best thing that has happened since I was fired from the Nets, being able to work with these kids and help them with some skill development. It is a thrill that my son and these kids are the stars of the show and I can just be a parent and support them.”

“We just need to do a better job of maintaining our intensity. I don’t think there will be many games where we have a 12/14-point lead at halftime and come up short. We just need to continue to get off to a hot start. We did a good job in the first half against Alabama of making shots, hopefully we will do a better job of maintaining our offensive space and execution in the second half. It will be a total team effort but we’re capable. “