Spring Break
Barnes heads to Iowa State after three years with SJSU
Andrew Bollinger, Daily Staff Writer
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Johnson coached the Spartans during the1998-99 season before leaving to take a job as an assistant on the Chicago Bulls coaching staff, where he stayed for two and a half seasons.
He agreed to a four-year contract with the Spartans that will pay him $105,000 annually.
The former Bulls assistant was hired to lift the basketball program to a new level, said Chuck Bell, SJSU's athletic director.
After the Spartans finished with a miserable 3-23 overall record in the 1997-1998 season, Johnson led SJSU to a 12-16 record in 1998-1999, his only season as the Spartans head coach.
"We were real close to, I think, being something special," Johnson said. "I wanted to come back and finish the job.'
Bell said Johnson received offers from other NBA teams to be an assistant coach but turned them down.
"He came, got something started and felt like he needed to come back and finish it," Bell said.
Johnson said his decision to leave SJSU and go to the NBA had nothing to do with the university.
"You get a call from the Bulls, and how do you turn that down?" Johnson said. "I almost did. For three years, I'd sit up there in that office and thought, 'Well, there's a lot of things undone at San Jose State,' and now I get to come back here and finish the job that I think we left undone."
Johnson hinted at his press conference that working with the Bulls was frustrating because the team was so poor - they were a combined 36-153 in his two and a half seasons there - but said he was glad he took the job.
"In the three years with the Bulls, I think I became a better coach," Johnson said. "It was a good experience."
Despite being in the spotlight of the NBA, Johnson said his thoughts never swayed far from SJSU.
"There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't think about San Jose State and the opportunity that we had here," Johnson said. "I really believed that we were going to have an outstanding team for the next couple of years when I left here. (It was) hard to walk away."
Bell said SJSU President Robert Caret agreed to hire Johnson back on the condition that he stays for a minimum of three years.
Johnson left the Bulls in December after Tim Floyd, his colleague and former Bulls head coach, quit.
He signed a three-year, $1.2 million contract with the Bulls after leaving SJSU.
"We're so thrilled that Phil Johnson is coming back home," Bell said.
Johnson said even if he could have landed a job at another university with a more successful program, he wouldn't trade his opportunity to come back to SJSU for any of them.
"If I had the opportunity to go anywhere in the country - you may not believe this - If I could go to UCLA or Kentucky or anywhere, it would be right here," Johnson said, "because I left here ... the job was undone."
Despite receiving negative advice from colleagues, Johnson said it was just more motivation, and it's made him determined to build a winner.
"We're going to have a staff here. We're going to have a group of players that are committed to winning," Johnson said. "I'm going to do everything in my power to see that it happens. We'll find a way to make it happen."
He said after talking with Bell, Johnson thought the program would be better than in the past.
"Things have gotten better," he said. "Chuck (Bell) has made this a better situation than it was when I was here. I can't be more excited to have the opportunity than to come in here and hopefully not disappoint these fans."
He said SJSU wasn't lucky to get him back.
" I'm the lucky one," Johnson said. "... I'm glad to be back."
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