Tell Me I m a Good Man James I m Not Gonna Tell You Again to Put Some Pants on
I got one of the last good MJ stories, human being.
Meet, I came into the league in 2001, right when he had joined the Wizards. So, basically this was ane of the last seasons where yous could be drafted straight outta like high school or college, and the next week you guarding Michael Jordan.
Leading upwards to that MJ game…. My listen was tricking me, like I was fixing to play against Superman or something. I mean, just picture it. Imagine that everything you've been working for as a kid is literally right here in front of you similar that. Like the snap of a finger. I hateful, information technology's like my 5th game in the league and I got MJ???? I'm starting and everything. I'm similar anybody would be in that state of affairs. Similar, Damn. I'm about to play my idol.
And so we tipoff and the start iii quarters I'chiliad guarding him. And heed, once the game beginning, everything's fine. There own't no fretfulness or nothing like that. You kind of empathize, Alright, this is exactly where I belong. I fit correct in.
Only it'south nonetheless MJ, you experience me???
You lot gotta think, I'1000 20, 21 years old. This was surreal to me.
But Antoine? Paul?
Antoine is from Chicago, and him and Hashemite kingdom of jordan got history. They boys, they hung out. So Paul and Toine are talking trash to him the whole night. Upwards and downwardly the court. Half the time, I ain't even know what they was talking nigh. I don't know if MJ had been hosting pickup games in the summertime and Paul didn't come up or what, I only remember MJ proverb:
"Shit, I gotta come back to the NBA just to go a pickup game with you lot???"
It was a lot of trash talking. Simply I tin can't lie, I think Paul got the better end that night. Not only did nosotros become the win, but he got a huge block on MJ at the terminate, and helped me kind of cap information technology off with a nice lil two-hand douse. Y'all know what I'm saying? Hahaha. I had 16 points, ten rebounds, probably most iii dimes. Hey, playing with Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker in their prime?? Human being, that'southward a hell of a game for a rookie. I remember going home and rewatching the game immediately. I but couldn't believe…. I was similar, Wow, dang.
MJ had 32 points that night. I think he was like 40 years old.
Estimate how old I am now?
Time really flies, homo.
They call up once you hit 40, you a dinosaur.
At that place ain't too many guys who played in their 40s. Merely like a handful, forreal. I mean, it ain't many. It's gonna exist hard to get a real shot in the NBA at 40.
That minute and 57 seconds that I got on the ten-day in Boston this year, I hateful, I appreciate it.
It was a moment. It was a large moment for me. It was aught for me to get into the mid-range and — nail! — hit my lil mid-range jumper, because I been doing that since the sandbox. Since dorsum when I was just hoopin' at the Thrasher Boys & Girls Club off 33rd Street in Little Rock.
Before Boston. Before the fame and the yard's. Before everything.
Those instincts just never leave yous.
And I'll tell you some other thing. I wish I had a 40-twelvemonth-old dude in my corner that I could talk to back then when I was 23 and still had a few more years of the NBA in forepart of me. Someone to tell me what I don't know.
Someone to break information technology downwardly to me like:
Yes, man, don't worry.
It'll all work out.
I grew up in Little Rock, and for as long equally I tin recollect information technology was e'er just me and my mom. We didn't take a lot, merely she always did whatever she could to make ends meet. She worked two jobs — she had the graveyard shift at the state hospital, and so she'd come home and endeavour to grab a few hours of sleep before she had to exist at the Thrasher Boys & Girls Club in the morning time.
Actually, I used to spend my whole Saturdays at Thrasher. Information technology was in the part of town known as South End. And, homo, I fell in love with the game back then, when I was about seven. There were moments when the gym was packed with lots of other kids, but on the best days, it wouldn't exist nobody in there but me. Those were the days that molded me. That was like my sanctuary.
Equally a child, you meet all that and you merely think to yourself like, Dang, Mama gotta work her barrel off. She worked difficult, tired every bit I don't know what. So this idea kinda take hold of you lot like, I gotta make life better. You know what I hateful?
That's why I started to have my craft and so serious, because I knew where it could take me. I could set it upwards so she ain't gotta piece of work no more, and that's more motivating than anything. And for me, that'southward what it was. Being an only child, it'southward nothing like a son and his mother. I was willing to exercise whatsoever information technology took.
You know how nowadays, guys got trainers at like 10 years old?? Nosotros didn't take all that back then. Dorsum then, you was doing any your homies was doing. And all my homies was hoopin'. Hey, I'm non just another dude who's gonna tell you they played point baby-sit as a kid. Nahhh. I really was The Point Guard. I had a overnice handle. And I ain't just got a handle because I got a handle, you know what I mean? I really, really worked on it. That was the first affair I was able to develop as a kid. Even the days I didn't have a hoop in the 1000, I could dribble up the street with the rock.
I was probably a inferior in high schoolhouse when A.I. striking the scene.
Iverson had everybody doing that crossover.
And when I learned information technology?? It was over.
Back then, though, nigh of the hoopers I was looking up to played on that iconic Arkansas Razorbacks squad.
I could merely see myself wearing red and white.
Corliss Williamson (AKA Large Nasty), Scotty Thurman, Alex Dillard, Dwight Stewart, Clint McDaniel, Corey Beck…. Them dudes was serious. That upwards and down twoscore Minutes of Hell?? I mean, it was awesome. Yous couldn't ask for nothing improve than that as a kid, watching that style of play. Information technology's but like chaos throughout the whole game. You pick up full-court, yous full-court press, and and then you trap in the corners. And before long as they go across half courtroom, you speed your opponent up to brand them merely play chaotic and turn the ball over and have bad shots.
It's funny, when Coach Richardson asked me and my mother upwards to Fayetteville to see the campus, he didn't know that in my caput I was already committed. I made a name for myself in that system. You lot accept to give Nolan Richardson a lot of credit, considering he made it expect fun, made it await enticing. You wanted to buy in. And I really did. I played for that plan for two years. And then I was drafted to the league.
Information technology's merely 400 some guys who get to play — 400 some out of millions and millions who've had that dream. And I was one of the ones to go far.
- Joe Johnson
When you get drafted, you think it'due south gonna exist similar, Oh homo, I've become a millionaire overnight. Merely it didn't hitting me like that correct abroad. You go that coin, simply deep, deep down, yous notwithstanding got that lil feet in yous, you know?
That fear.
The average career span of an NBA role player is like four, five years. I was hyper aware of that.
Nobody come into the league like, Yes, if I get v years I'll be skillful. Nah, human being. Yous wanna be one of the best. Yous wanna be elite. You wanna be one of the top players that they talkin' near.
Only it's non a lot of room at the elevation.
And it's and then crowded at the bottom, bro.
You become to the league, you only wanna do what y'all can to make it concluding.
I got traded from Boston to Phoenix right after All-Star as a rookie.
My start couple of years with the Suns, it was up and downwards. Come 2004, I guess the organisation saw an opportunity to shake things up, and they went for it. They brought Steve in from Dallas, and they also signed Q Rich.
And I'll tell you what, man … '04–'05?
That team was special.
I don't care what the history books say — Suns were the simply team that mattered that twelvemonth. We had Nash playing MVP ball, had Amar'e dunking on everyone in sight, had Matrix doing Matrix things, had Q raining threes. And you know I was getting buckets. We beat all the top teams, and virtually nights information technology wasn't fifty-fifty shut. That group was just unfair.
And that was probably the only time in my career where I actually felt similar, O.Yard. — we are going THROUGH this thing. We're gonna win us an NBA title. I didn't have no worries.
But then I got injured. I broke my orbital bone against Dallas in Round two, which made me miss our offset ii conference finals games. And the Spurs … credit where it's due. I idea we was too complete as a unit to be trounce. But they controlled things from the jump and took us out.
Come summer, I was a restricted costless agent — and I'll put it this style: I don't think anyone was surprised that I wanted a bigger role. With Shawn, Amar'e and Steve, they was all gonna be All-Stars for a while. That was understood. Then if I was gonna take the next stride as a player, I knew I needed to find a place where I could have those types of expectations.
Atlanta made an offer, and allow it be known they wanted me to be that guy. I asked Phoenix not to lucifer. Sarver wasn't about to let me walk for nothing, though, then they worked out a sign-and-trade.
Was it tough leaving? Yeah, man, it was. Only I believed in my abilities. And I wanted to play for an organization that believed in me the aforementioned amount.
When I got to Atlanta, there was so much expected of me.
And to attain that level I knew I was capable of, I needed some adjusting — and some more discipline. I didn't have a lot of that. I had some of information technology, but I didn't accept a lot.
Atlanta was hot. The city was jumpin'.
In that location was something to exercise every mean solar day. The big jerseys, big alpine tees, baggy pants. Y'all didn't take to throw goose egg on only a lil crisp white tee and keep information technology moving back and then. Late nights in Buckhead, knowing we had to get up early for practice…. It's only lil things like that, that you don't really remember through at that age.
Homo, it's a lot of responsibilities coming with being a professional athlete at the acme of your game. You know what I mean? When I become to Atlanta, for the starting time time it's similar, Alright, you're the focal point. Teams are gonna exist trying to slow you down, then you gotta make everybody effectually you lot ameliorate. When you're the point guard, you gotta elevate everybody's game. It took me a while to understand that. But I was still able to help guys be successful in certain spots and positions on the floor. As a floor full general, that'southward valuable. Human being, that's important.
We improved every year until finally nosotros were a playoff squad in '07–08.
Nosotros was a young, naive grouping with a lot of confidence and a lot of energy. Nosotros was something to exist reckoned with. Probably wasn't the wisest team, lol, only nosotros had crazy talent and some exceptional coaching. Mike Woodson and Larry Drew — those guys challenged u.s. and made us better.
So, we get through the regular flavour and pull the No. 1 team in the playoffs, the Celtics, led past KG, Paul and Ray.
I remember coming into the series, everybody got something to say…. Hawks gonna get SWEPT. This, that, and the tertiary.
Game ane and Game 2 in Boston, they were correct.
It was so lopsided, man…. We was getting our butts smacked.
But we got dorsum to Atlanta for Game 3, and information technology was like a movie. Philips Arena was PACKED. They was damn near blowing the roof off that joint. T.I. probably one of the hottest rappers in the Due south at this betoken. If I'm non mistaken, he had been gone for a lil minute. House arrest or something, I don't know. But he was one of the biggest supporters of ours back then. Running up the sidelines seeing him posted up courtside. I just remember Atlanta coming out for these games.
And so, we beat them in Game 3, and information technology was like, O.Chiliad., we gotta push this to 7 games. We needed to win Game 4.
That nighttime, a switch flipped. The but fashion I tin explain it is similar I just willed myself with everything I had. I willed myself to tap into something downward deep. Considering two nights later, in Game 4, nosotros went into that fourth quarter … I recollect we were down 10 or 12 points, if non more. And only thing I recollect saying to myself was, Man, we gotta make a push. We gotta make a move, when we touch the court I'k talking nigh, we got to exist MOVING. And we gotta go back in this game. And before you know it, we had a tied game.
Then we took the lead.
I just remember the roof getting diddled off that thing. You couldn't even hear yourself thinking. It was crazy. I had 35 points, and I scored 20 in the fourth. It was insane. I simply recall every time I touched the ball, I had two people guarding me considering I was hot.
At present we thought nosotros actually had a serial.
That was insane — every game we played in Atlanta that series was. Nosotros were only a agglomeration of young, hungry guys, sick of being counted out. And suddenly the mood went from Alright, y'all'due south season virtually to be over with REAL quick to, Oh, them Hawks might exist a problem.
Nosotros gave them a scare, man. We was able to push button them to seven games. Obviously, they won the series — and the title. But I look dorsum on that season, and we had some guys. Some young guys who had really came into their ain similar Josh Smith, Al Horford, Zaza Pachulia. Those guys played huge. Josh Childress. We had guys who played big in the biggest moments.
And those were some special times. That was a high point for the Hawks, and for me too. Being on a playoff-leap team, hoopin' on a big stage. You gotta think: This was everything I ever wanted.
Unfortunately, over those next few seasons, we ended up hitting a plateau.
I'm non sure what inverse. But afterwards year seven, it felt similar it was just time for guys to go split up ways. It started with me, then Marvin got traded, and the next thing you lot know, it was simply a trickle-downward result.
But in that location's apparently a lil more to the story.
Everybody knew when free agency hit in 2010, it was gonna be anarchy. The Hawks offered me the max extension, and I took information technology. I understood what was going on. There was a major shift happening in the NBA that summer. We couldn't have known it dorsum then, merely over the next few years, things were gonna modify. That contract I got?? That's similar the going rate now. You don't need to have no credentials behind your proper name to get that type of contract. Just anytime you're i of the first, you always gonna catch fume. People are gonna talk shit — that'southward just function of information technology. It is what information technology is.
And yous know what?
I'd take it again in a heartbeat.
This the real shit they don't tell you though. The truth is, there were times where I got too in my head. The role I took on the Hawks came with a lot of actress pressure. You lot get that kind of number by your name, suddenly everybody's like, "Why aren't you leading the squad? Why aren't y'all this or that?"
Everything becomes your fault, your responsibleness.
And I can be a man now and say that some of it was my fault. Merely that's a forty-year-old human being talking. If you asked me back and so? Which a lot of people did in the media, I probably deflected more of that responsibility than I would today.
That's why I always say you take to have older people around yous. Peculiarly guys who've been through the wars and the battles that you're currently in, or going through, or gonna face up, who can help yous through those crossroads.
I didn't really have that. In that location were plenty of guys that I had played with that I could take asked for help, merely I'll exist honest, I really never reached out or sought guidance. I came up in a different era. A different NBA. We didn't talk near things like the mental side, like they do now. That wasn't a part of the culture yet.
So, I just kind of dealt with all those challenges in the best way I knew how: I didn't say nix to nobody.
I recall I was a Brand Jordan athlete, and we were doing all blazon of functions, and hanging out, and vacations, and I never, not once, pulled MJ to the side and was similar, "Human, I'm having this problem, how should I deal with it?" We had so many lil powwows every bit a group. But every bit a hooper, I never wanted to … I don't want to say be disruptive to what we were doing, but I just tried not to make it about me during those times, you know? Because he would get all the Jordan athletes together, and we would all hang out, and just chill and enjoy the moment. But I hate that I never took advantage of those opportunities to ask questions and pick his brain.
I'm not a guy who's gonna merely get up to a dude and be similar, "Hey, man. I'm having a hard time with this, this, and this."
Nahh. I was and then airtight off, closed in, in my own shell, dealing with it how I bargain with it.
Merely I wish I would've sought a little advice here and there from guys who had been through them wars, guys who knew how to lead.
Most people had no thought almost the things that were going on in my life.
I came upwards in a dissimilar era. A different NBA. Nosotros didn't talk virtually things similar the mental side similar they practice now. That wasn't a role of the culture however.
- Joe Johnson
Back in 2009, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. For a whole decade, for virtually of my NBA career, she was contesting. It would get into remission and she would feel great. In that location would be no signs of the cancer, and then all of a sudden it would come up roaring dorsum.
But the last fourth dimension that information technology came back, at the end of 2018, it happened at such a rapid pace I didn't see it coming. It was like it simply took over.
I recollect it was Christmas Day, dorsum in Lilliputian Rock, and she had opened up some of her gifts. Probably most an 60 minutes later, she was similar, "I call up I need to go to the infirmary, baby. I only don't experience right."
So we took her to the hospital … and it was similar from that indicate on, everything was downhill. She was in the hospital all the style from December 25 to about February 8 or ix. Nosotros already knew that she was virtually to pass away.
She knew it, too, and she asked the doctor if she could merely rest at home and basically be with me. And that'south what it was.
Probably almost her concluding two weeks of her life, it was just me there, with her in bed. Basically what happens with multiple myeloma, it simply takes over your body and eats away your basic, joints, all that until y'all go limp, similar until y'all can't do anything. She went from walking and talking, to beingness completely unresponsive, all in the bridge of 2 weeks. She was losing weight at a rapid pace, and her mobility was gone. If she needed something she would but kind of await at yous, and you would have to judge what it was that you recollect she needed.
She couldn't fifty-fifty leave of bed, and it was only ... human.
That was the toughest, toughest time I've ever been through in life. My mom was gone. I was out the league. I didn't have that sanctuary to fall dorsum on. I was really pain.
Only you know what? As hard equally it was, I'm grateful that I got to spend my mother's last days past her side. Our terminal conversations were merely her telling me how much of a blessing I was to her, and me telling her what a blessing she was to me.
She laid in that location until her heart stopped. After she passed, I called the coroner people and they had to come put her in a bag. Carry her out of the house. I had to scout all this. You think that don't do nothing to you every bit an only kid???
Going through something like that moves you, whether it moves y'all to a place where you experience like yous shouldn't be here, or information technology moves you to a space where you feel similar you're going to conquer the world.
Every nighttime I would only lie in that dark room staring up at the ceiling. But asking, Why?? Why my mama?
But we're not supposed to ask that. We're non supposed to ask why or how it happens. It all happens in divine order. Information technology'southward a college power to it.
Information technology was like, Damn, she'southward really gone. Now I gotta figure out this shit on my ain.
I call up Jannero Pargo hit my line outta nowhere like, "Man, nosotros gotta join the BIG3!!"
This was in 2019. Me and Pargo hooped together in higher.
He made information technology sound like shooting fish in a barrel, like hustling dudes on the pool table or something. Nosotros'd put our work in during the calendar week and basically just exist kicking everybody ass on the weekend.
It wasn't no question. We knew if we signed on to this matter, we were gonna win. That'southward basically how it was, you lot know what I mean? And Pargo said we could too pick upwards our other higher teammate, Sergerio Gipson, who was playing ball overseas at the time.
That was like a lifeline for me. That BIG3 thing came nearly, and I was like, "Aye, I'll practice it."
I joined for therapy. I was excited at the adventure to compete with my higher teammates again. Simply I also just needed to exist around other people, you know? I needed to exist in an surround where I could have fun and proceed my heed off other things.
When the league was well-nigh to start, Pargo was walking me through it like, "This dude terminal year was the MVP, this dude the year before, he won the scoring title." And I'm making lil mental notes in my head similar, O.Grand. MVP, scoring title, championship, da-da-da. I'one thousand already thinking like, we gotta become all this my first year. We needa win the whole thing.
Through the toughest time of my life, I was but working my ass off.
And by the finish of the season, nosotros were at the peak. The 2020 flavour got canceled because of COVID. Merely when we came dorsum this past summer, I came out and broke my own scoring record, and I averaged a double double. Yet won MVP even though we didn't win it.
I'one thousand just having the time of my life.
The camaraderie in the BIG3 is amazing, man. It's probably amend in the BIG3 than in the NBA, because we all have so many stories that we can talk about now. (I keep saying we demand a bear witness lol. The locker room chronicles would exist crazy.) Information technology'due south no-holds-barred in there. I beloved information technology.
In January, merely a couple months after my MVP win in the BIG3, my amanuensis hits me like, "I might take a gig for you." A team had about seven or eight guys that were gonna be out with COVID.
"Boston might desire y'all to come in in the next day or and so."
Well, we hang upwards, and he calls back in about thirty minutes. He wanted to know if I could make a flying at vi:30 p.m. I looked at the time — it was three o'clock. Iii hours afterward, I was on a plane headed to Boston.
I got to the facility that morn for the mandatory COVID testing and bumped into Jayson, so we got to chat a lil bit. Simply that was information technology. Before the commencement game, I didn't really see everyone. But they let me shoot around in the gym a little scrap after I tested. For about 45 minutes, I got shots up alone, and I can't even prevarication to you. That was a moment. Shooting in at that place past myself like I did at Thrasher back when my mama had to take me to work with her. On the showtime pro court I ever touched when the Celtics drafted me 20 years ago.
It didn't feel strange, though.
This fourth dimension, I knew I belonged.
Recollect about it, man…. Information technology's like I said — the average career span of an NBA player is most four, 4 and a half, five years.
And I was able to squeeze out 18.
I'm proud of that.
I wouldn't have seen this at 14, 15 years old.
My son, Gavin, is 15 at present, and I find myself looking at things more than and more than from his perspective, trying to see through his eyes.
So, my son, he love basketball game, right? Only he hasn't hit that growth spurt yet, then he's a fiddling anxious for that to happen. And I remember what it'south like to be xv, then I definitely understand.
But I tell him, longevity in this game is about piece of work. If you get up every day and run you about a mile or two — just something like that alone. You don't even take to touch no basketball. Man, do yous know the endurance that that'south going to put on your body when y'all touch that floor? That way in the third or quaternary quarter, when everybody tired and hunching over grabbing their shorts, you continuing up similar it'due south the kickoff.
That'due south the part that you lot don't understand yet at that age. That's the role that I had to learn. Information technology's gonna exist days when y'all own't gonna feel like doing shit, but those are the days y'all gotta get your ass up and do it. That's the recipe.
The bottom line is: You can't take this game for granted. The NBA is a prestigious fraternity. It'due south only 400 some guys who get to play — 400 some out of millions and millions who've had that dream.
And I was one of the ones to brand it.
If that's all I e'er did — buy my mama a business firm and make it to the league — and then that would be alright with me.
But guess what?
I not only made it … I made a career out of it.
I made a life out of it.
And until they tell me not to, I'thousand still gonna be out here hoopin'.
Source: https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/joe-johnson-nba-basketball
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