Nets coach Avery Johnson was back at the team’s practice facility yesterday, but not to work with his locked-out team.
The Little General was there to lead a basketball clinic for about 80 youth players, dubbed Future Stars, along with former Nets Darryl Dawkins and Kerry Kittles.
Johnson, who is not allowed to discuss current players during the lockout, must secretly be hoping his players are keeping themselves in better shape than he is. Johnson admitted to being “seven pounds overweight,” and said, “I need a training camp.”
Johnson is keeping busy, despite the added weight, by taking part in clinics like yesterday’s and focusing on the Nets’ move to Brooklyn in 2012.
“There’s always something to do,” Johnson said. “We’re different from some other teams because we have a new building being built, and we think this building is going to be really, really special. As a matter of fact, I’m going over on Wednesday to take an updated tour of the Barclays Center, and so fortunately, for our organization, we have that to think about because that’s something we’re still working on.”
The new arena is more pleasant to think about than the lockout, which is threatening to wipe out the entire season. It’s possible the Nets, scheduled to play this season at Prudential Center in Newark, have already played their last game in New Jersey.
“It’s nothing that we can control,” Johnson said. “Nothing is in our control right now and until further notice there’s nothing even to comment on about it.”
Johnson was the Spurs point guard during the 50-game 1999 season, and helped that team win the title by beating Latrell Sprewell’s Knicks in five games. That experience likely won’t pay off for the Nets this season.
“We were a veteran team, so guys stayed in shape,” Johnson said of the 1999 Spurs. The Nets, as constituted prior to the lockout, are not a veteran team.
If the entire season is canceled, Johnson will stay busy with basketball, including possibly working with the Nets’ D-League affiliate, the Springfield Armor, and going overseas to watch European players.
“Once we figure out exactly what the rules are and how much as a staff we can [get involved], which we’re hearing is a limited basis, then we’ll move forward,” Johnson said of working with the Armor.
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Deron Williams, playing for a team in Istanbul, was unaffected by yesterday’s 7.2 earthquake in Turkey. He posted on Twitter, “Thanks everyone for checking on me I’m OK the quake was very far from Istanbul.” Nets GM Billy King returned yesterday from his weekend trip to Turkey to watch Williams play, and posted on Twitter, “Glad to be back in the US. Sad to hear abt earthquake in Turkey.”