Players as coaches: a surprising choice by AJ

As I'm in Dallas for the holidays, I've had the pleasure of listening to sports radio slightly less moronic than what I'm stuck with in Austin. Slightly. One host in particular is a Dallas institution. Unfortunately, he probably belongs in one, too.

Norm Hitzges is effectively the James Lipton of sports radio: melodramatic, obnoxiously gracious, and prone to delusions of grandeur. Still, one of the nicer things he does is host an all-day charity marathon on December 26th of each year. Every Dallas sports personality comes out for an interview while he racks up dough for some worthy cause or other. This year, Avery Johnson was one of his guests, and in typical Lipton style, Norm began taking a really long time to ask very simple questions. I was pretty bored and about to change the station when Norm finally got to something interesting. If Avery was forced to turn the coaching wallet over to player during a game, Norm asked, who would it be?

Interesting question, Normie. 'Bout frigging time.

The first choice was obvious: Darrell Armstrong. They guy's practically an assistant as it is. The second choice was more intriguing: Jerry Stackhouse. The third choice floored me: little Devin Harris.

Now, as I established in my previous post, the guy's clutch, no doubt. But he's barely been in the league for 100 games, and AJ would pick him over Terry or Nowitzki or Van Horn? Yep. Avery wouldn't budge. Devin Harris.

I'm guessing most astute NBA fans have noticed the emergence of Harris to some extent, but most folks probably don't realize he's on the cusp of becoming really special. After praising his basketball IQ, the one word Avery used to describe Harris was "fearless." Surely that has to be among the top 5 words any team would want associated with their point guard. A whole column probably ought to be devoted to selecting the other 4, but I think most would agree with the sentiment.

During last year's playoffs, many were convinced Harris was a bust. Now he's a fearless floor leader who's second in the league in clutch scoring and earning the deep trust of a PG-turned-coach. Things are looking up around the Harris household. Now if only we could get him on the radio to replace a certain hot air balloon...