Johnson agrees to become Nets head coach

Basketball Betting Lines

06/09/2010 - Bristol, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Avery Johnson has confirmed that he has come to a verbal agreement to become the next head coach of the New Jersey Nets.

Johnson will return to the sidelines after a two-year absence and inherit a team that compiled the worst record in the NBA last season at 12-70, which included a history-making 0-18 start.

"We've come to a verbal agreement and hopefully the Nets will have an official announcement tomorrow," Johnson told ESPN's Hannah Storm. "But, yes, I am headed to New Jersey."

"You look at a team that won 12 games, so the sky's the limit," Johnson continued. "There's so many great possibilities and so much potential here."

The 45-year-old Johnson was fired from his first head coaching job after the Dallas Mavericks' ouster from the first round of the playoffs in 2008 and has been working as an analyst at ESPN since then.

Ironically, that post-season defeat was orchestrated by his hometown New Orleans Hornets, who earlier this week spurned Johnson to hire Portland Trailblazers assistant coach Monty Williams to fill their head coaching vacancy.

Johnson led the Mavs to a 194-70 record during his three-plus regular seasons, the best winning percentage (.735) in league history, but his postseason mark was 23-24, including losses in 12 of their last 15 playoff games.

The 16-year NBA veteran, who spent most of his career in San Antonio, took over for Don Nelson with 18 games remaining in the 2004-2005 season and the team finished 16-2. The Mavericks reached the second round of the playoffs that year before falling to Phoenix.

"The Little General" guided the Mavs to a 60-22 record and their first NBA Finals appearance in 2005-06, earning Coach of the Year honors. Dallas jumped to a 2-0 lead in the Finals against Miami, and looked like it was on the verge of finally bringing outspoken owner Mark Cuban his first championship.

It all went downhill from there, in terms of postseason success, as the Heat came back to win four straight and the NBA title. Cuban inked Johnson to a five-year extension that offseason, which was scheduled to keep him in Dallas through the 2010-2011 season.

The 2006-07 season included a franchise-best 67-15 record, but it ended with the eighth-seeded Warriors, coached by none other than Nelson, upending the top-seeded Mavs in six games, becoming the first No. 8 seed to win a seven- game series.

New Jersey fired head coach Lawrence Frank on November 29 after the first 17 losses and replaced him with then-general manager Kiki Vandeweghe for the remainder of the season.

Vandeweghe was removed from the position by new owner Mikhail Prokhorov when he officially purchased the team last month.

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