Dallas Mavericks guard Avery Johnson will announce his retirement tomorrow to become the team's top assistant coach, he told ESPN's Marc Stein. In what was possibly the league's worst kept secret, Johnson has been all but named the Mavericks' successor to head coach Don Nelson and intended on spending the season on the injured list as a player to focus on coaching.

The NBA offices in New York, however, strongly encouraged Dallas to come clean and remove Johnson from the active roster. Johnson said he had no intention of playing this season unless an emergency demanded it.

In a related move, the Mavericks' President of Basketball Operations Donnie Nelson will relinquish his duties as the team's top assistant bench coach to focus exclusively on his role as the head of the team's basketball operations staff.

The Mavericks, with the league's largest staff of assistant coaches with 11, will keep Johnson, Del Harris, Charlie Parker and Larry Riley on the bench with Don Nelson this season.

Rolando Blackman, Paul Mokeski, Brad Davis, Greg Dreiling, Hubert Davis, Gary Boren and Don Kalkstein remain on board in player development roles.