An hour before the start of the Phoenix Suns' 87-76 loss to the Charlotte Hornets Saturday night, Frank Johnson stood outside the Suns' locker room talking about the team's most-pressing issues.

Make no mistake, the Suns have many pressing issues these days.

Anfernee Hardaway is grumbling about his demotion to the second unit. Tom Gugliotta is out with a foot injury and is probably done for the rest of the season, leaving the Suns with little offensive punch on the front line. Joe Johnson is trying to fit in and prove himself after coming over in a trade with Boston last month. Stephon Marbury is taking another bad shot even as you read this.

It all translates into losing, and with each passing day, the Suns' playoff hopes continue to fade.

"This is a tough job," Johnson said. "I'm doing a lot of make-shifting and a lot of improvising right now, just trying to hold it all together. It's funny. It's a different job when you move one seat over, no question. There's a lot more pressure and a lot more things to deal with."

Johnson isn't complaining, though.

When he took over as head coach on Feb. 17 after Scott Skiles resigned under pressure, it was the reward for years of dedication to the franchise. And it was the culmination of a dream that dates back as far as his days as a standout guard at Wake Forest in the late 1970s and early '80s.

"This is something I've wanted to do for a long time," he said.

Johnson closed out a 13-year professional playing career in Phoenix, playing his final two seasons there after seven seasons in Washington, one in Houston and three in Europe.

He remained with the organization after retirement, working in the community-relations department and heading up the team's Stay in School program for two years, then got into the coaching ranks as an assistant in 1996. He has worked his way up the coaching ladder continually since.

"It is very gratifying, especially when you work your way up and then finally you are at the point where you wanted to be," Johnson said. "I had a chance to be an assistant in Minnesota when I retired, but I chose to stay with this organization instead, and it has paid off. I wasn't even coaching when I started, then it was fourth assistant, then third, then second, then first. So to have it play out like this and to know you've put in your time and earned it, it is very rewarding."

It's gratifying, too, after Johnson lost out on the Wake Forest coaching job after Dave Odom left for South Carolina last summer.

Johnson had the support of one faction of Wake alumni and supporters, and he acknowledges he would have loved to return to his alma mater. But he's not sure how serious a candidate he actually was in the mind of Athletics Director Ron Wellman, who eventually hired Skip Prosser away from Xavier.

"We talked, but we never had anything formally," Johnson said. "We were just exchanging notes with each other and it never really got off the ground. I had friends there who asked me if I'd be interested in the job and I said yes, I would be. When you talk about Wake Forest and the ACC, I mean, I could have gotten very excited about that. But I never really got a chance to talk at length, so I don't know what to think.

"But you have to say it's worked out well for me anyway."

Paul Silas, the coach of the Charlotte Hornets, was an assistant in Phoenix when Johnson joined the coaching ranks in '96. His assessment of Johnson is a positive one.

"He's a really good guy," Silas said. "He's got a great personality. He's very knowledgeable about the game, very into the game. And he worked with the players very diligently the year we were together, so you know he has the work ethic."

The key for Johnson to make it as a head coach, Silas figures, will be Johnson's ability to go from the good-cop role of assistant to the sometimes bad-cop role as the boss.

"He's always had that very outgoing personality, quick to laugh, and some might question if his toughness is there," Silas said. "I think it is. I think the toughness is there when it has to be. If he can put his foot down when he has to, he has a chance. That's what he's got to do the rest of the season. If you don't stand up for yourself, you've got no chance."

With a dysfunctional group like Hardaway, Marbury and Bo Outlaw, that's not going to be easy.

Johnson isn't sure about his long-term status as head coach. The Suns are 5-11 since he took over, and there is little reason to believe this team will get turned back around in the final four weeks of the season.

That doesn't necessarily bode well for the future.

But Johnson remains the loyal trooper nonetheless.

"I don't know what they're thinking about next year," he said. "You'd have to ask them. I just want to do my best and see what happens. It will work out the way it's supposed to work out. I have a lot of confidence in this organization, and I know the people in charge are committed to winning. We'll right this ship, whether I'm part of it next year or not."