New Brooklyn Nets guard Joe Johnson took a shot at some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: Why did you say the Nets are better than the Knicks?
A: The Brooklyn Nets have to have swag, and it starts with confidence. You can’t go out hoping and wishing, but you have to know and feel that way before you take the court. I think we should all feel that we’re a pretty good damn team.
Q: How long will it take for you to help bring a championship to Brooklyn?
A: Honestly, not long. I think we got some great pieces to put us in position to win a title, honestly. … This could be probably the best team I’ve ever played on.
Q: Joe Johnson and Deron Williams or Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire — which is the better duo?
A: Well, it’s different duos, to be honest with you. Me and Deron are 1 and 2, they’re a 3 and 4. I think the guard spot is very important and very vital in this league. … I don’t know, that’s yet to be determined. I think we have a chance to be the best backcourt in the game.
Q: Can Carmelo and Amar’e coexist?
A: It may take them a little more time than it does others. When you got two great players like that, you have to think that sooner or later they will become a great duo.
Q: You played for Knicks coach Mike Woodson when he was with the Hawks.
A: I love Mike, man. He was the reason I came to Atlanta. Great guy, great mentor, great friend of mine. Me and him still talk to this day. We’ve had conversations, and he don’t like the fact that I’m in Brooklyn (chuckle).
Q: You think that was a good hire by the Knicks?
A: Oh yeah, definitely. Great first-class kinda guy, a great player’s coach, and anytime you got something to say, he’s willing to sit down and listen and try and alter the game to make you feel comfortable. Just from the outside looking in, I think Carmelo and Amar’e and those guys, they love him.
Q: Does he hold guys accountable?
A: He always singles out the best guys on the team regardless of the situation. If you ain’t doing your job, he’ll let you know. Some coaches in this league won’t criticize the best guy and they let ’em get away with murder. He’s not that kinda guy.
Q: What do you think of former Suns and Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni?
A: When [the Suns] traded away Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway to the Knicks, he opened up the floodgates for me, and put the ball in my hand and told me to do what I can do.
Q: Did you think there was a chance LeBron James might come to New York?
A: Yeah, I did. I thought he would really want to play in New York.
Q: You’re known for being laidback, but do you ever play angry at times?
A: Definitely. It’s the little things that can tick you off or hit that right spot, if somebody says something that don’t sit well with you that ticks you off and makes you turn something on. I don’t know what it is, but definitely [are] times I’ve played angry.
Q: Give me an example.
A: My first year in Atlanta, we weren’t in the playoffs, but I was arguably one of the best guards in the East, and I didn’t make the All-Star team. But every time we played a team in the East, their coach would always tell me, “Man, how you didn’t make it? I voted for you.” So I’m thinking like, “[There’s] no way all these coaches could have voted for me and I didn’t make it.” So when I [saw] those teams, I was willing to do whatever it took to give ’em my best shot. … That brings out a different type of game. It’s almost like you never get tired. … Mentally, you’re so focused that you don’t even pay attention to the people in the stands. … That’s the focus that you need night in and night out.
Q: So don’t wake a sleeping giant.
A: Hello! Hello!
Q: One trash-talk anecdote that got you in that zone.
A: We played Washington last year. We had Jordan Crawford when he was a rookie. He used to always like to play me one-on-one. When he got traded, he’s like, “Oh yeah, I can’t wait til we play y’all.” He’s telling Jeff Teague, “I’m gonna bust Joe’s ass. I’m coming for the big dog.” So obviously, that’s a mental note that I have when we play the Wizards. I probably had like 25 in the first half.
Q: Define swag for me.
A: Swag’s confidence. Regardless of what people may say or what people may think about you have to be confident, and that’s having swag, how you carry yourself, how you walk, how you talk.
Q: On a scale of 1-10, where are you on the swagmeter?
A: 9 … 9 ¹/₂. Maybe I should be a bit more rah-rah, outgoing and talkative, but it’s really not me.
Q: What drives you?
A: Being scared to fail. You always want to be known as a winner, or as a great player. … You always want to give the people what they want to see. So if you’re not doing it, then you’re failing. I always just try and drive myself, man, to the max. Whether it’s my workouts, preparing for the game — they’re always gonna be harder than the game. I want the game to come easy.
Q: What do you think of the criticism that you’re overpaid?
A: Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion. It doesn’t bother me, not one bit.
Q: Your mother Diane raised you alone.
A: She’s a very humble lady … hard-working … determined … and was willing to put her neck out there for anything that I needed.
Q: Give me an example of the sacrifices she made for you.
A: Whether it was I needed shoes to play ball — it was either get shoes or pay the bills. She would get me shoes, and we’ll probably go two, three days without lights or without gas, then she’d catch back up on that. But she put me first and foremost before anything else.
Q: What was that like when the lights went out?
A: She worked two jobs, and it still wasn’t enough a lot of the time. It made me want to work harder, not only on the basketball court, but in school. I knew I couldn’t go to college unless I got a scholarship. It drove me to be good.
Q: Your father?
A: When I was born, I never [saw] him, and probably when I got about 18, 19, he started to try and come around, but it was too late. … I don’t think that was a good look for him to try to come back in our lives. He missed the tough times.
Q: Did it bother you growing up without a father figure?
A: It didn’t really bother me till I got about 15 or 16. My best friends, their mother and father was married. But I never really brought it up to my mother why my pops never was around or anything like that. I never worried about it. I knew what me and her had was special.
Q: Over the years your father has tried to establish a relationship with you?
A: Yeah definitely. We talk here and there but it’s nothing to the point to where we hang out a lot.
Q: Your grandmother?
A: My grandmother Rose played a big role in my life. She took care of me while my mama worked two jobs. Put clothes on my back, fed me, taught me right from wrong when I was younger, made me go to church, made me get in the church choir. … She was definitely a disciplinarian.
Q: The challenges of growing up in Little Rock, Ark.?
A: Drugs, gangs, we lived right in the heart of it. But basketball was my life. I played ball all year round, whether it was school ball, AAU ball, I never had time to really run the streets. I had friends who were dealing it, smoking it, selling it, but at the same time I kept myself at bay away from all of that. I knew what I wanted out of life.
Q: What was the worst thing you saw growing up?
A: Probably our school bus getting shot at. … I had to be … 16. … This guy sitting in the back of our bus — we were riding through a neighborhood [where] some other gang guys [were] hanging out at — he let down his window, he yelled out a gang slur, and they were on the basketball court and we were at a stop light. So one of the guys stopped playing basketball, went over there, pulled a gun up from under his shirt and he started shooting. He busted out a couple of windows on the bus.
Q: Was anybody hurt?
A: We knew what he was gonna do, so everybody hit the floor. The bus driver drove on off. What was he gonna do?
Q: How scary was that?
A: It was very scary.
Q: Who were your biggest early basketball influences?
A: My mother is an only girl, she had four brothers. And my Uncle Mike and my Uncle Tracy are big basketball fanatics. When I started playing, they took me everywhere they went. When they went and played basketball, I was too young to play, they made me come watch. When I started playing, they were at every game, loudest people in the gym. They got kicked out of so many gyms it was crazy.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Grilled fish … tilapia.
Q: You’re very conscious about what you eat?
A: I try to stay away from fried foods. I just try to stay away from a lot of the starch.
Q: Don’t you treat yourself every once in a while?
A: You get one day out of the week to go nuts. You might go out and have as much starch as you want that day. … You might have some fried fish, then treat yourself with some cake and ice cream. You get a chance to live a little, but at the end of the day (chuckle), you have to watch what you put in the gas tank. If you treat your body like a Rolls Royce, that’s like putting regular gas in a Rolls Royce — you can’t do that!
Q: Is there a specific day you go crazy?
A: Normally, I’m working hard all throughout the week, and I’ll probably have a Saturday.
Q: Even if it’s a gameday?
A: During the season I try to stay on the straight and narrow. But in my leisure time in the offseason … I have a moment.
Q: Boyhood idol?
A: I was a big Magic Johnson fan. When I was younger coming up, I was probably the biggest guy out there on the court handling the basketball.
Q: Did you think you might be a point guard one day?
A: Yeah, but I had no idea I would grow to be 6-8, so that was a shocker to me. Going into ninth grade, I grew like five, six inches over the summer. So I came back to school and everybody’s like, “Man, what happened? How’d you get so tall?”
Q: What made Steve Nash a great point guard when you played with him in Phoenix?
A: Only thing he cared about was winning.
Q: Former Arkansas Razorbacks coach Nolan Richardson?
A: Great guy,. Taught me a lot about the hardships in life … nothing comes easy. He prepared me for the real world. He was a father figure as well.
Q: What was that like playing for your hometown team?
A: It was unbelievable. It was a dream come true. When I was coming up, I sat and watched guys like Corliss Williamson and Scotty Thurman. … I wanted to wear a Razorback uniform.
Q: Funniest recruiting story?
A: Coach Nolan Richardson came into my mother’s living room, him and Mike Anderson, and it didn’t take much for them to sell me. I was already sold before they came. I didn’t take no visits nowhere.
Q: Your girlfriend Kayla?
A: She’s just an amazing person. She keeps me grounded. We have so much fun together. She’s very competitive. Me and her compete in everything we do. We just have a great relationship.
Q: Your other grandmother?
A: My father’s mother. Even though me sand him weren’t tight or had a big connection, she always reached out to me. She passed away when I was in college. I went to the funeral. … She was a great, great woman.
Q: You have 436 pairs of Air Jordans?
A: I probably got more than that.
Q: Why don’t you still have your shark tank?
A: It was a lot to manage.
Q: How big were the sharks?
A: They were baby sharks, but they were nice size. It was fun to feed ’em and all that and look at ’em.
Q: How many were there?
A: Three.
Q: You sing karaoke?
A: Even though I love hip-hop, I’m a big R-and-B guy, too. All the karaoke that I’ve done has kinda been uptempo slow jams.
Q: Your Super Truck is staying in Little Rock?
A: It’s like a 600-gallon tank. … It holds about 12 people comfortably. … It’s great on the highway for trips, and we do it all the time. It’s definitely a luxury vehicle. It may not look like it, but it rides in style.
Q: You’re big on sleeping.
A: Definitely. I sleep better during the day than I do at night.
Q: Where will you live?
A: I’m looking in the Tribeca, Soho area. … We’ll see.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Barack, Jay-Z and Beyonce.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Harlem Nights.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Eddie Murphy.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Savannah Lathem.
Q: Favorite entertainer?
A: Jay-Z.