Alabama basketball moved on from head basketball coach Anthony Grant on March 15 after six years. On Sunday, the Crimson Tide reportedly got a verbal agreement from its next head coach: former NBA player and head coach Avery Johnson. The Louisiana native has never coached in college, but he has accrued a 254-186 record as a coach in the NBA with the Dallas Mavericks and the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets. In 2006, Johnson led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Miami Heat.
From ESPN:
Former NBA coach Avery Johnson has verbally agreed to become the head coach at Alabama, sources told ESPN on Sunday.
The 50-year-old Johnson, an ESPN analyst, is from New Orleans and played in the NBA. He coached the Dallas Mavericks from 2005 to 2008 and the Brooklyn Nets from 2010 to 2012.
Johnson, who played 16 years in the league and was a point guard on the 1999 champion San Antonio Spurs, achieved his greatest coaching success with the Mavericks. Dallas won 60 games twice, and Johnson was the NBA coach of the year in 2006 after guiding the Mavs to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Miami Heat in six games.
His son, Avery Johnson Jr., also plays in the SEC as a freshman point guard at Texas A&M.
