Fiery Johnson has sights set on turning around Nets

Avery Johnson knows what he wants, and he isn't shy about letting people know he is going after it.

Take the first time he saw his wife, Cassandra, a little more than 20 years ago on the campus of Southern University. Cassandra, a nursing student who had just transferred to the school, was having car problems. When Johnson offered to give her a lift, she had no idea that the 5-10, smooth-talking driver was the big man on campus, a player who had just led the NCAA in assists for the second straight time.

"He told his friend after he dropped me off, 'I just gave this girl a ride, she went into that nursing building and I am going to date her,' '' Cassandra Johnson recalled shortly after her husband was named the Nets' coach in June.

In similar fashion, Johnson isn't shy in declaring what attracts him to the Nets, and how he plans to transform a 12-win team that was the laughingstock of the league last season into something respectable. On the day he was hired, Johnson said he thought the team could go "from worst to first.'' After a recent practice, he was a bit more pragmatic, but he hasn't wavered from the goal.

"What I like about this situation here is it's like a blank sheet of paper,'' Johnson said. "If this was a house, there would be no roof, no walls, no foundation. I don't know if it's more fun to start with this, but it's definitely fun. I've always been someone who embraces a challenge.''

As a little man in a big man's game, he's had to.

The first thing you notice about Johnson is his voice: It's part preacher, part cartoon character. It is the voice of a self-made man, of a point guard who was discarded five times in six years before finding a home in San Antonio, where he helped the Spurs to the 1999 NBA championship. It is the voice of desire, of a coach who is willing to take on the worst team in the NBA in order to get back in the game two seasons after being fired by the Mavericks despite having a .735 winning percentage, the best in the NBA.

It is also a voice that can scare the bejesus out of you, which is not a bad thing for a team like the Nets. During an interview at the end of a preseason practice, Johnson always seemed to have one eye on the practice floor and twice interrupted his train of thought to make corrections.

"You're practicing bad habits,'' he fired off at 19-year-old Derrick Favors and another young player, who had stopped for a second to exchange words near the baseline.

Because the Nets have a new, young team - only four players are returning from last season's squad - the organization has made a big deal out of trying to paint a picture of Johnson as a teacher rather than a disciplinarian or, dare we say it, a dictator.

"As a teacher, you need to know when to tug and when to let go,'' Johnson said. "This team needs a lot of tugging.''

Said general manager Billy King: "I think he's taken a lot from what he learned in Dallas, and he's become more of a teacher and a cheerleader. Avery knows what kind of team he has here. He's trying to do here what Pat Riley did with the Knicks or what Sean Payton did with the New Orleans Saints.''

Payton, who is friends with Johnson, had the newly acquired Drew Brees to help him turn around the three-win Saints in 2006. Johnson has no such superstar. Yet.

What he does have is plenty of cap room and what the Nets believe is still a chance to land Carmelo Anthony. And he has two potentially decent pieces with which to build his foundation in center Brook Lopez and point guard Devin Harris.

He also has a desire to remake the attitude of the team, to get them to play better defense, for instance, by sheer force of will.

What seems to bother Johnson most is when his players lose their focus, don't share his strong will to work hard and improve every moment they are on the court. As a player, Johnson was so focused that he wouldn't even have lunch with his teammates on game days.

These days, when many players have grown up together playing in high school all-star games, it might not be possible to demand that single-minded focus. But he'll try. Just as he wasn't shy in pursuing his wife 20 years ago, Johnson isn't shy in declaring that he thinks he has the tools to turn around this team.

Said Johnson: "The one thing I didn't want to do is come in and change my personality, because what we've done in the past works. I'm not looking to come in and be Phil Jackson. I'm Avery Johnson. And it's the only person I know how to be."