<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The once-mighty United States is trying to restore its basketball name internationally by putting the team back into Team USA. So you?ve got to include the ultimate team guy who?s also one of the most versatile, right ? That?s what Coach Mike Krzyzewski figured when he and other Team USA officials put Joe Johnson on the 12-man roster Thursday. The U. S. team begins play tonight in the FIBA World Championship in Japan. Johnson averaged 9. 6 points and a team-high 19. 8 minutes in five exhibition games. Johnson, the Atlanta Hawks star from Little Rock, is the first player with Arkansas ties to make the U. S. national team since former Razorbacks Joe Kleine and Alvin Robertson played for the 1984 team that won the Olympic gold medal. Johnson also lettered at Arkansas (2000, 2001 ). To try to develop cohesion, USA Basketball this year started requiring players to make a three-year commitment. The 24 players who were invited to try out this year will go through the same process again before the 2008 Games in Beijing. Team director Jerry Colangelo and Krzyzewski assembled some of the NBA?s best talent but also have emphasized versatility and accepting roles. Johnson, 6-7, 230, is one of the team?s most well-rounded players and can man every position but center against international competition, Krzyzewski said Thursday during a teleconference with reporters. In a 116-63 exhibition victory over Korea on Tuesday, Johnson even played point guard to prepare him for possible point duty during the medal round, Krzyzewski said. Johnson has played mostly on the wing. ?He fits in with a lot of different lineups,? Krzyzewski said. ?We think that, especially against the zone, he?s going to provide very valuable minutes. ? And he?s the ultimate team guy. Whatever role for that game or that period that we need him to do, he?s going to be ready to do that. So he?s been everything we thought he would be.? Krzyzewski summed up Johnson more succinctly in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story last month, saying: ?There?s high maintenance, low maintenance and no maintenance. Joe?s no maintenance.... I think he?s a star.? </div> Source
He's done well. I haven't seen him play much with the Hawks, but I saw him down in the post a couple of times and score for the US team.
