<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> <div class="bi">Johnson Wants Some Relief</div> <div> <span style="font-style: italic">Nov 2</span> - "I knew it was a rebuilding situation where they had a lot of young guys and they wanted me to come in and help lead them in the right direction," Joe Johnson said. "But at the same time, there were supposed to be some more pieces, some more free agents. They talked about it again this past summer. But as you can see, nothing happened.</p> </p> "It's been frustrating ... it's hard. We can only do so much as players. But I don't even know what's next. I love the guys we have. This team, we're a tight-knit group. And we've been through all the ups and downs together. But at some point, you just want to see a little relief come along so we can all have a fighting chance to do what we do best and get this team to the playoffs."</p> </p> "Yeah, I guess you could come up with all sorts of ways that I could have ended up somewhere else if things had been handled the right way in Phoenix," Johnson said. "But the Hawks stuck with me when no one else wanted to fight that battle. Atlanta backed up all the things they said to me."</p> </p> That's why Johnson insists his loyalty to the Hawks knows no bounds, even if that means having to grind through the younger Hawks' growing pains. -- <font color="#000000">Atlanta Journal-Constitution</font></p></div></div>
