Just one day after Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban was making headlines slamming the franchise's former coach, Avery Johnson showed up in San Antonio—where he still gets plenty of love and respect from Gregg Popovich.

Whether it was planned or not, the message sent by the visit was simple: Not everyone hates Avery Johnson's guts.

Cuban laid the Maverick's troubles last season squarely on Johnson earlier in the week, before taking some of the blame himself.

"The struggles that we had, as much of that was my fault as anything else," Cuban said speaking to the media during the Mavs' practice yesterday.

"It was my choice at the beginning of the year to say, 'OK, Avery, we went to the Finals, you won 67 games. Rather than me being involved on a continual basis in management style decisions, take some rope and you take some more of the responsibility and I'll back off.' Responsibility is not the right word. But, 'You do what you want to do, and I'll back off.'"

The way Cuban tells it, Johnson became an out-of-control control freak who tuned out his assistants and lost tune with his team. Cuban told the Dallas Morning News that half the Mavs, at some point last season, asked to be traded or informed him they wouldn't return if Avery was back on the bench.

Johnson showed up to San Antonio's second day of training camp to observe the team's practice and the Spurs welcomed him with open arms.

"I like to have Avery here, because he's special to all of us here in San Antonio," Popovich told the Express-News. "It's good to get a chance to talk basketball with him, talk family and just laugh and have a good time. But I'd rather he was coaching somewhere."

Johnson's reputation may have taken a hit after Cuban's comments, but some have said similar things about "no-nonsense A.J." even before the criticism.

While he was in San Antonio, "The Little General" managed to rub a few players the wrong way. He was a coach while still playing and was always the first one to yell at his teammates when they slacked off. That works well in college, but arguably not so well in the NBA, where players play and coaches coach.

 

True or not, statements like Cuban made can keep a coach off of hiring lists for a long time. Ask P.J. Carlesimo about that. How many times did Popovich sing Carlesimo's praises just as he does about Avery now?

True or not, would a former employer in the business sector...

 

Read the rest of this article at SpursReport.Com.