The Dennis Johnson Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Tuesday, October 1st, 2002
June
1, 1979: Your Seattle SuperSonics defeat the Washington
Bullets 97-93 to capture the NBA Championship 4-1.
You were named the Most Valuable Player of that
series. What did it feel like to win the championship so early in
your career, and how did it compare to the ’84 and
’86 titles in Boston?
That
first championship was the best.
Winning that NBA title was the greatest of highs,
because there is something special about doing it for
the first time. That feeling can never truly be duplicated, although the
other championships were rewarding in their own ways. Everything about that first title is so vivid – the great
players that I played with, such as Jack Sikma, and the
absolute high that I felt winning it all.
That Sonics team was so young and talented, and it had all the makings of a dynasty. I remember back then all the talk was about repeating as champions. The last team to do that was the 1969 Boston Celtics, which was the last year that Russell played. From that point until the Lakers did it in the eighties, no team had been able to repeat. All everybody talked about was back-to-back. One of my greatest disappointments was not being able to win that second consecutive championship.
A year earlier the Sonics
lost to the Bullets in a close, seven game series. You struggled from the field in Game 7 of that series,
missing all 14 of your field goal attempts, but like a
true winner you couldn’t wait for another crack at the
champs. How
satisfying was it to beat the Bullets the following
season and be named Finals MVP in the process?
It was an embarrassing
experience to play so poorly, especially in a situation
of that magnitude.
It was a bad feeling, probably the worst ever
from a basketball standpoint.
I choked. That’s
the way I looked at it.
Right or wrong it happened.
I’d never played on a stage that big, not with
30,000 people in an arena, but I decided to turn it into
a positive experience.
I promised myself that I’d never repeat that
performance, and as a result it made me a much stronger
player.
In Game 4 of that ’79
series, Gus Williams scored 36 points while you scored
32 in leading Seattle to a 114-112 victory and a 3-1
lead in the series. To me, this
illustrated the key to the series:
Washington seemed overmatched and often
overwhelmed by the Seattle backcourt.
Do you agree with this assessment?
I think that Gus and I were
a dominating force in that series, and that our team had
the advantage at three or four positions.
With all due respect to Wes Unseld, Jack Sikma
was playing great basketball and was clearly the better
player at that time.
Gus and I were at the top of our games.
We were very confident, and we felt that nobody
on the Bullets could stop us.
That
Sonic team was loaded with talent.
“Downtown” Freddie Brown, Lonnie Shelton,
Jack Sikma, Johnnie Johnson – and, of course, former
Celtic and elder statesman Paul Silas.
How important was it to have a player like Silas
during that playoff run?
I
was twenty-three when we beat the Bullets, and there is
some irony in that because I’m now coaching players
that age. What
I didn’t know or fully appreciate at the time was how
important a player like Paul was to our team.
Paul was older, and he brought an incredible
amount of maturity and stability to the Sonics.
I was young and hot-headed, and a lot of what was
said went in one ear and out the other.
But Paul never stopped talking, never stopped
dispensing advice so valuable to winning championships.
He knew his role and he accepted it.
He played it perfectly.
Paul had a tremendous amount of character and he proved to me that you can have a specific role and still be an integral part of the team. Years later I thanked him for a lot of the things he’d done and for how important they were to our success and to me personally.
