Avery Johnson: ‘My roots are still in Louisiana’

COACH AVERY JOHNSON

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- Basketball courts dotted the city, spread in points from the Lafitte Projects in New Orleans like uneven spokes on a bicycle wheel.

Tonti Courts. Lemon Playground. Treme Center. Hike it to Algiers or City Park or Lawrence Square. Any place with a net and a hoop and a game.

And that’s all Avery Johnson and his friends in the 1970s in the heart of New Orleans needed: a bicycle and a basketball and a place to play.

Johnson kept finding courts, first the concrete ones at home and later the best courts in the world, hardwood that welcomed him into one town and one coliseum after another throughout a 16-year NBA playing career.

Metaphorically, as he did year-round as a boy looking for a place to play, he’s never quit pedaling. It’s been a passionate journey, one that’s led Johnson into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in Natchitoches, where he’ll be enshrined on Saturday, June 27.

CONTINUE READING