Recently I picked up a copy of Avery Johnson’s Aspire Higher, written in 2008 while he was coaching the Dallas Mavericks. He’s currently the coach of the New Jersey Nets, and is rebuilding that program from the bottom up. If the title is ever released as an audio book, it will be the better choice – the book is written like a motivational speech, and it’s easy to imagine listening to a Garrison Wynn or Jeff Kaplan, or being at a Get Motivated Seminar.
Johnson grew up in New Orleans, in a poor section of town. The ninth of ten children, his father was engaged in both Avery’s life and the life of other children in the neighborhood. As Johnson grew older, he stopped growing taller. At 5’11”, he found himself warming the bench on his high school basketball team. He attended three colleges, starting at New Mexico Junior College, then Cameron University, and finally Southern University.From there it wasn’t the NBA at first – it was the USBL for a summer after college. Johnson wasn’t selected in the NBA draft, but was picked up afterwards by Seattle. His NBA career started slowly, but ultimately he played 16 seasons at the highest level. Johnson earned an NBA championship in the 1998-1999 season while playing with David Robinson (The Admiral, my favorite NBA player of all time) for the San Antonio Spurs.
In 2003 Johnson became a player/coach, but the “player” part of his title didn’t last past the preseason. Since then he’s been mostly a coach, save a short stint as a basketball commentator.
Avery Johnson’s lessons are alliterative and simple. Want to learn more? Read the book, but read it for the personal journey, not the prose.
Enjoy,
Bryan
Avery Johnson's 3 Ds
- Determination
- Discipline
- Decisions
Avery Johnson's "S" Plan
- Standards
- System
- Stand
- Savor
admiral is awesome
ReplyDeletereads like a 10 year old
ReplyDeleteadmiral is still awesome - avery too
You get an A for effort, I'm subscribing from now on
ReplyDelete