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In the clutch, DJ got geared up 

                       By Barbara Matson, Globe Staff, 09/28/99 

                              ennis Johnson wasn't much of a high school
basketball player in 1972 in Compton,
                              Calif. Fact is, he spent most of his time on the bench.

                       But in his first year after high school, he grew 5
inches - to 6 foot 3 - played summer league
                       basketball, and attracted the attention of a junior
college coach. After two years at Harbor Junior
                       College, he went to Pepperdine University for a year
before being drafted by the Seattle
                       SuperSonics.

                       Johnson played 14 years in the NBA, winning three
titles, one in Seattle (1979) and two with
                       Boston (1984 and 1986). For being an integral part of
those latter championship teams and a
                       Celtic backcourt stalwart for seven years, Johnson is
No. 95 on the Globe's list of the top New
                       England athletes of the century.

                       He made five All-Star appearances, and he averaged 14.1
points per game for his career. But you
                       can't use statistics to define what made DJ great.

                       Call him a money player, call him a big-game player,
call him a clutch player; when the game was
                       on the line, Johnson made the difference.

                       The Celtics reached the playoffs in each of his seven
years in Boston, and they won the NBA title
                       in two of his first three years.

                       He made his mark as a great player with his ability to
come through when it counted. Johnson
                       could start a game shooting 0 for 7, as he did against
the Chicago Bulls in Game 1 in the first
                       round of the 1986 playoffs, then come back in the third
quarter when it mattered most and drop
                       in seven straight.

                       Johnson was not the best shooter on the team, or the
best defender, or the best rebounder. But he
                       was the best at doing it all - the key pass, the
crucial jump shot, the blocked shot - combining his
                       skills so well that Larry Bird once called him ''the
best I ever played with.''

                       After four years in Seattle, he was traded to Phoenix.
He joined the Celtics in 1983 and by the
                       mid '80s had become one of the top guards in the game.
Johnson's last season with the Celtics
                       was 1989-90, and his uniform number, 3, was retired.

                       He was All-NBA in 1981, second team in 1980, and from
1979-87 he was first or second team
                       on the All-Defensive Team. He helped the Celtics win
the 1984 title over the Lakers, scoring 20
                       or more points in each of the last four games of that
series while guarding Magic Johnson. He
                       was 12 for 12 at the line in the deciding seventh game.

                       He returned to Boston as a scout in 1991, then spent
four years as an assistant coach before
                       losing his job when Rick Pitino cleaned house in May
1996. Last March, Johnson finally landed
                       a head coaching job. At 45, he is about to begin his
first season as head coach of the La Crosse
                       Bobcats of the Continental Basketball Association.


Reading this, you really realize how rare the 80s Celtics were, and how
fortunate we were as fans to have them. So much is made of the Big Three, all
legitimate Hall of Famers (and two of them among the best ever to play their
positions, and one of them among the five or six best ever to play the game);
but look at that backcourt, Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge. That is a complete
team; how many current NBA teams boast that kind of balance?

This article, along with Pete May's latest TSN column, also really makes it
smart that the C's have let all these guys leave the  organization. Pitino
should not have been allowed to jettison DJ, who a lot of people think should
have been given a shot at an NBA head coaching job by now. It sucks to see our
cornerstones from the 80s (and before -- Silas, Cowens, Embree) helping other
teams become contenders.