BOSTON -- Now that Dennis Johnson has the money, what he really wants is another title.
The free-agent guard, a nine-year veteran, signed a four-year pact Tuesday with the Boston Celtics worth in excess of $3.2 million. Then he talked about winning.
'The guys I played with during my two years here had a lot to do with my coming back. We won a championship here (in 1984) and you can't beat that feeling. I'd like to win one more,' he said.
A new teammate for Johnson will be Bill Walton, the 6-foot-11 center-forward acquired this summer.
'With the addition of Bill, there's no way we can lose,' said Johnson, 31. He expects the current pact to be his last professional contract.
'Thirteen years, that's what it would be, and that's enough,' explained the Celtics' 6-foot-4 backcourt leader and one of the league's premier defensive guards.
Johnson went to Indianapolis last week for a physical examination by the Indiana Pacers, but at Tuesday's press conference he termed the earlier trip 'just a courtesy call.' He would not say if the Pacers had offered him a contract.
The return of Johnson was expected. Team President Red Auerbach had promised last spring that the 6-foot-4 guard would be re-signed.
Since losing the NBA title to the Los Angeles Lakers in a six-game final, Boston traded forward Cedric Maxwell to the Los Angeles Clippers for Walton and signed Pacers free-agent guard Jerry Sichting to an offer sheet. If Indiana does not match the offer by Friday, Sichting will become a Celtic.
Johnson is considered one of the league's best pressure players. He won Game 4 of last spring's NBA Championship Series with an 18-foot jump shot at the buzzer.
While playing with Seattle, which chose him on the second round of the 1976 college draft, Johnson was named MVP of the 1979 Championship Series, won by the Supersonics.
The Los Angeles native, who attended Pepperdine University, has career averages of 15.4 points per game during the regular season and 17.9 in post-season play.
He played four years in Seattle before being traded ine 1980 to Phoenix. Three years later, the Suns traded Johnson to the Celtics in exchange for reserve center Rick Robey.
