NEW YORK -- The inquisition of Joe Johnson began at about 6:20 p.m. ET, lasted approximately 10 minutes and yielded the following nugget:

If a certain someone, like maybe this certain guy in Cleveland, accepted a max offer from the Knicks and wanted Johnson as a sidekick, Johnson would be willing to sign for less than the maximum.

"I'll sacrifice," Johnson said.

Those words will carry some weight as we head toward July 1, 2010, because there aren't a whole lot of max-level free agents out there who are willing to go on the record saying they'll sacrifice money if it translates into success on the court.

But Johnson went ahead and said it Monday, and given the fact that he turned down a five-year max contract extension from the Atlanta Hawks last summer, that statement ranks as an eyebrow-raiser.

"If you really want to win, if that's your main goal, then you'll sacrifice," said Johnson, whose Atlanta Hawks lost ground atop the Eastern Conference playoff race by losing 99-98 to the New York Knicks on Monday night after Al Horford's apparent game-ending and game-winning putback was taken off the scoreboard after a video review showed it came too late.

So as gratifying as the result was for the home crowd (which went nuts after the video-review reversal was announced), the focus backstage -- as has been the case for the better part of the past two years -- was again on the future and the possibility that Johnson could end up in New York, either as LeBron James' sidekick or as part of a secondary plan if the Knicks strike out on Plan A and fail to land LeBron.

Team president Donnie Walsh is not giving any hints as to what his Plan B might be, but if James stays in Cleveland or goes to Miami, or if Dwyane Wade stays in Miami or goes to Chicago, the Knicks will be turning to Plan C or Plan D. That's likely where Johnson would fit in, perhaps as a sidekick to Chris Bosh -- who the Knicks can pursue by offering David Lee to Toronto as part of a sign-and-trade deal -- or as a sidekick to Lee if he stays in New York.

LeBron will be the alpha free-agent domino, and no one can say for sure how long he'll take to make his decision. But the thinking among league executives and agents is that if James makes a commitment to the Knicks, he'll do so only if he is secure in the knowledge that the player(s) he wants as his running mate is coming, too.

"I'm sure there's going to be a lot of conversations between players when the season's over with, whether it's trying to team up together or seeing what guys have got going, or where they're looking at," Johnson said. "I'm sure that's going to happen, definitely."

Staying with the Hawks also is an option Johnson is considering, and the primary reason he turned down that max extension last summer is because he stands to make $30 million to $45 million more over the long term if he signs a max deal in 2010 and commits to Atlanta for another six years.

But if the Big Three decide to remain in Cleveland, Miami and Toronto, Johnson has the fallback of being arguably the top free agent available, aside perhaps from Amare Stoudemire.

Chicago, Miami, New York, the L.A. Clippers, New Jersey and Minnesota will all have max cap room, and they'll be determined to spend on the best available talent. And the player who fits that bill may just happen to be the soft-spoken 6-foot-8, 28-year-old, four-time All-Star with roots in Little Rock, Ark.

"I can't base my decision on what LeBron does, but I'm not going to really worry about that 'til July, man," Johnson said. "We got something special going right here, so we're going to ride this wave and see how far we take it. It's important that I'm happy and that I'm in a situation that I feel is best for me. You never know what is going to happen."

Truthfully, even with Johnson speaking fondly of Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni from their time together in Phoenix, that is the cold, hard reality of the situation. James is the key piece in this season's free-agent puzzle, and until people know what LeBron is doing, everyone is playing a guessing game.

So when Johnson says he doesn't know what'll happen, he's being genuine.

The only thing Johnson can say with certainty is that he does not want to walk into a rebuilding situation resembling what awaited him in Atlanta upon his arrival in 2005, after he signed his first mega-contract and went from the Suns to the Hawks in a sign-and-trade deal that fractured Atlanta's ownership group.

"I cannot go back. I can't backtrack," Johnson said. "With basketball, I've been playing the game pretty much my whole life. I could care less where I was at, I'm going to give you the best I've got."

OK, Joe. Then what would be the best-case scenario?

"My number one choice? I don't really know," Johnson said. "I do not know what LeBron's going to do."

ESPN Insider Chris Sheridan is a regular contributor to the Daily Dime

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