ATLien

Q. When did you really believe that this team had a shot at making the playoffs?

A. To be honest with you, last year I thought we could make the playoffs with that team. We beat good teams. We were always in games. But the injuries hurt us. Up until a month and half to go [when Joe Johnson went down with an injury] we were only two games out of the eighth spot. I think this team started turning the corner last year. But when you're a young team, you can't afford anybody to get hurt.

Q. Do you credit some of your success this year to your team avoiding any major injuries to key players?

A. Yes. That's a huge part of it. But the main reason for making the playoffs is winning at home. That's something we hadn't done in three years. That was a focal point coming into the season, winning at home. You have to give the fans something to come to the arena to cheer about. And we've done that.

Q. Your name has been tossed around the coach-on-the-hot-seat rumor mill time and again during your tenure here and certainly this season. Has that been the toughest part of the job for you this season?

A. The toughest part for me is the negativity, the unfair negativity that surrounds our team based on certain critics that don't have a clue as to what this is about, and make sure you print that. I can handle it as a coach but when my wife and daughters have to feel this and hear this negative stuff, sometimes it's just unfair. But we've dealt with it as a family and things just have a way of working out. I truly believe that. If you put in your time and do the work, things always work out.

Q. Could you have imagined a more jaw-dropping set of circumstances when you took this job, from the 13-69 season to the ownership dispute caused by the Joe Johnson deal to the death of Jason Collier to the constant job security headlines involving you?

A. I could have taken the easy way out and stayed in Detroit the year after we won the title. But my makeup has always been to challenge myself. It was a challenge when I came here and I was willing to accept that challenge. It still is. I love what I do. It was rocky and has been rocky for all the reasons that you mentioned. The devastation of losing a player you can never imagine. And there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of Jason Collier. Other than losing my parents at a young age and losing a brother at a young age, that's the lowest I've ever been. But like any adversity you face in life, you learn to deal with it and find a way to keep going on. We've all had to do that.

Q. It's no secret you've had some dust ups with many of the players you've coached. In hindsight do you wish you'd have handled things any differently?

A. The one thing I would hope at the end of the day, if I'm here coaching or not coaching, is that those players respected me. None of these players can ever say that I didn't give them a chance to play and I wasn't fair. They might not have gotten as much playing time as they wanted to get. But they can't say I wasn't fair. Because I've played guys when they probably shouldn't have played, when they weren't even ready. And sometimes that can be detrimental to a player because if he's not ready and you play him you damage him for the rest of his career. So yeah, I've been tough. But I think when you're coaching a young team you've got to be tough. They might look at it as tough but I look at it as coaching.

Q. What about the strained relationships around here now between you and members of the front office staff in light of the reports that management recommended you be fired this season (only to be rebuffed by ownership)?

A. All the behind-the-scenes stuff, I don't even concern myself with because I still have to coach and do my job. And if I concern myself with that stuff I can't focus and do my job the way it needs to be done.

Q. Do you think by making the playoffs you [and your staff] have made a case for new contracts that will allow you to continue the progress that's been made to this point?

A. No doubt. There's no doubt we made a case. When I took this job we vowed to get this team into the playoffs and we're in. Now I have no control over ownership and what their decision is. And I'm not going to sit here and strain myself and worry about it. My thing is, I hope, again, that my players respect what I've done and I hope they want me back. That's more important than anything else to me.

Q. Do you envision any way in which you and [Hawks general manager] Billy Knight both return in the same capacity next season and lead this franchise and team, respectively?

A. That's hard to say. It's hard to say. I don't know. But I will say this, as soon as we win the title this year, we're going to sit down and discuss it. I promise you that.