1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Dennis Johnson dies

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by SF_Express, Feb 22, 2007.

  1. Birdscribe

    Birdscribe Active Member

    He is... as a fill-in for Chick Hearn ;-)
     
  2. Claws for Concern

    Claws for Concern Active Member

    RIP DJ.

    Read he had played some one on one during a practice right before this happened.
     
  3. DJ had an interesting conversational tic in interviews by which he used to end every sentence with th, "or so." Never understood it. He also was, by a factor of about 10, the toughest NBA player I was ever around. Quiet tough. The scary kind.
    RIP.
     
  4. boots

    boots New Member

    Bill Walton, who I liked much better when he stuttered, had a nice tribute to DJ. He said he died of a broken heart because he wasn't selected to the Hall of Fame. DJ was great and I believe if he had stayed in Seattle, would've been a Hall of Famer.
     
  5. Fenian - your post has been bothering me for some time now.

    I've often heard that DJ was too nice to be a head coach. But I can also see the silent tough SOB that you describe. How do you reconcile the two views - wicked tough as a player but too nice to be a coach.

    I'm thanking you in advance for your insight.
     
  6. CL --
    I'm not sure, having not been around DJ much since he stopped playing. If I had to guess, and that's all I'm doing here, I'd guess that the same kind of toughness that made him a great teammate might have made him too much of a "player's coach." And it's possible that he lacked the patience for the endless mickey-mouse that comes with a head job in the NBA. Maybe he was one of those born-to-be-a-sidekick guys.
     
  7. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    AKA asks an interesting question. I am wondering it it was because his role models for NBA coaches were nice guys - Lenny Wilkens, John Mcloud and KC Jones.
     
  8. FB - thanks. That makes sense. Boom - your observation also makes sense too.
     
  9. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    One thing for sure when you see those clips of 86 Celtics you realize that was as good as it got as far as NBA basketball goes.
     
  10. Even as a Bulls fan, and someone who followed Jordan during his entire career, I have no trouble agreeing with that.
     
  11. Except that they played the Lakers four times for the title that decade, and lost three of them.
     
  12. Webster

    Webster Well-Known Member

    Spot on, FB. A lot of this greatest team stuff comes from the fact that Walton played on the team and people think that he was the Big Red of a decade earier, instead of an even slower, more sober and more high version of Sabonis.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page