Aide who worked with Parker is out
Johnson among three assistants fired by Bucks
Milwaukee Bucks forward Jabari Parker is inching closer to his return from a torn left anterior cruciate ligament suffered last February. When he does return to the court, the coach who spent the most time with him this season during his recovery won’t be on the sideline to see it.
During a session with the media on Thursday at the team’s practice facility, Parker mentioned that Bucks assistant Frank Johnson had been let go, making him the third coach — along with Eric Hughes and Tim Grgurich — released in the wake of head coach Jason Kidd’s firing Monday.
“It was kind of really hard for me to accept,” Parker said, noting that he saw Johnson every day and looked forward to their time together. "Not having him by my side is really going to be hard for me.”
Kidd, who played four years with the Suns when Johnson was an assistant there, knew firsthand that Johnson had a knack for relating to younger players. That played a role in his decision to bring Johnson onto his staff for this season as he planned for the 59-year-old to work with Parker.
Johnson and Parker didn’t initially hit it off. Parker was apprehensive about placing his trust in someone he didn’t know and didn’t always respond well to Johnson’s coaching. He questioned why and how things were being done.
Over time, the barriers broke down, especially when Parker learned that Johnson could relate to his situation. During a two-year stretch during his own playing career, Johnson broke a foot four times.
After that initial period, the two have been nearly inseparable. Wherever Parker was Johnson wasn’t far away, whether that was during practices, shootarounds or on-court pre-game work.
When Johnson was on the road with the team and away from Parker, he had a knack for keeping things light and having fun with players. While they were preparing to leave shootarounds, he would often put up shots — trick and otherwise — with certainty he could make them, much to the delight of everyone watching from the sidelines. During a regular three-point shooting game some players participated in, he would razz whoever was in last place by waving his AAA card or dropping it on the floor in front of them and asking if they needed a tow to the next position.
While Johnson no longer has an official role with the team, Parker intends to keep their relationship going.
“I’m going to do the best I can to still keep him involved because he’s such a vital piece to my development," Parker said. "I emphasized that way before I was getting to that point. I kind of need him. But he’s in a good position mentally and I can keep calling him for help.”
Positive vibes: Interim head coach Joe Prunty surely has many personality traits that make him a good fit for the Bucks. But ask just about any player and they all hone in on the same thing — his positivity.
“I think it allows us to stay positive as a group, not get down on ourselves," Malcolm Brogdon said. "Because I think in times of struggle when we have our downs we tend to pout, we tend to take our foot off the gas and just go within yourself and we can’t do that. He’s a good person to have around, a good coach to have when we’re going through those struggles.”
It's one thing to be that way as an assistant coach, but can Prunty keep that up now that he's the man in charge? Before his job called for him to be in an uplifting, supportive role. Now he's in control of playing time, rotations and calling players out when needed among other things.
“You have to be who you are," Prunty said. "I’m not different a person than I was before. Yes, I need to at certain times have to take on a different role … have to stop things or direct things in a different way at different times, but that’s to be expected because the role has changed.”
Prunty's positive disposition does not necessarily make him different from how Kidd was in that position. Multiple players credit Kidd with being a positive influence, building them up both in terms of their on-court skills as well as their confidence.
But the two have different styles. “Joe is a coach, right? And Joe understands the tone," Parker said, taking a moment to consider how to continue, not wanting to discredit anyone's approach. “On the other side, you had Jay, who was a player. He speaks up like a player, he gets in our face just like players would. Just like how Khris (Middleton) would or even John (Henson) would.
"So it’s two different types of tones, one necessarily not being bad, but both of them being from different environments.”