Small forward | |
Personal information | |
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Date of birth: December 13, 1938 | |
Place of birth: Akron, Ohio | |
Nationality: American | |
Date of death: April 29, 1987 (aged 48) | |
Place of death: Akron, Ohio | |
Listed height: 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) | |
Listed weight: 235 lb (107 kg) | |
Career information | |
College: Idaho | |
NBA Draft: 1963 / 10th overall | |
Selected by the Baltimore Bullets | |
Pro career: 1963–1973 | |
Career history | |
Baltimore Bullets (1963–1972) Phoenix Suns (1972) Indiana Pacers (ABA) (1972–1973) |
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Career highlights and awards | |
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Info Page |
Gus Johnson (December 13, 1938 – April 29, 1987) was a professional basketball player who spent nine seasons with the National Basketball Association's Baltimore Bullets plus most of one basketball season with the Phoenix Suns and the Indiana Pacers of the ABA. One of the first forwards to frequently play above the rim, this 6' 6", 235-pounder combined an unusual blend of strength, jumping ability, and speed. He was sometimes nicknamed the "Honeycomb", and was also one of the first dunk shot artists in the NBA. He had a gold star drilled into one of his front teeth and shattered three backboards during his career.[1][2]
As a member of the Baltimore Bullets, Johnson was voted to the All-Rookie Team for 1963 - 64. He played in five NBA All-Star Games, was named to four All-NBA Second Teams, and was twice named to the All-NBA Defense First Team. His No. 25 jersey was retired by the Bullets franchise. With the Pacers, he was a member of the ABA championship team in 1972 - 73.
Johnson was announced as a member of the 2010 induction class of the Basketball Hall of Fame on April 5, 2010, and will formally enter the Hall on August 13.[3]
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His High School and College Basketball
Johnson attended Central High School in Akron, Ohio, where he was an All-State high school player, and did reasonably-well in the classroom, too. Among his teammates was Nate Thurmond, a future Basketball Hall of Fame center. Despite Johnson's clears talent and athletic ability, he had just a few college athletic scholarship offers, which was fairly-common among Black high school athletes of that decade.
Johnson decided to head west for college, and he went to the Pacific Northwest, first for one year at the Boise Junior College, and then for his final three college seasons at the University of Idaho. It was at Idaho where Johnson became known as "Honeycomb," a nickname that the head basketball coach Joe Cipriano gave him because of his sweet play.
Johnson averaged 19 points and 20 rebounds per game during the 1962 - 63 basketball season, leading Idaho to a 20-6 won-lost record. Johnson and his team were at their best in their main rivalries, totally a record of 4 - 0 versus the University of Oregon, 4 - 1 versus Washington State University, and one-and-one against the University of Washington. Idaho's primary nemesis in those years was the Catholic Seattle University, who won all three of its games with Idaho. Idaho also lost its only game with Oregon State University.
Johnson and the Creighton University center Paul Silas waged a season-long battle to lead the NCAA in rebounding. Silas claimed this by averaging 20.6 per game, 0.3 per game more than Johnson's average. Johnson also set the Univ. of Idaho record with 31 rebounds in a game with the Univ. of Oregon team.
team photo of 1962-63 Idaho Vandals - Gus Johnson #43
Professional career
At the age of 24, Johnson got a somewhat late start as an NBA player. He was selected in the second round of the 1963 NBA Draft by the Baltimore Bullets team. Johnson was an immediate starter for the team. and he averaged 17.3 points and an very healthy 13.6 rebounds per game. Johnson finished as the runner-up for the Rookie of the Year honors to the winner Jerry Lucas of the Cincinnati Royals, and Lucas went on to have an NBA career that with the Royals and the Knicks that lead him to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Lucas and Johnson had faced off against each other during high school in Ohio, and when the NBA All-Rookie Team was selected, Jerry Lucas, Gus Johnson, and his former high-school teammate Nate Thurmond were the top three stars of the team.
During their college years, Johnson and Thurmond had been overshadowed by Lucas, who drew a lot of recognition from the press as a big star with the national champion Ohio State University team and the American Olympic basketball team (1964). However, being considered just second-best in comparison with Lucas during college was a powerful motivating factor for Johnson when they both moved on to the NBA.
Johnson was both and outstanding inside scorer and an exciting open-court player for the Bullets, from the start. During his early years with the Bullets, an expansion team, this NBA team was not a very good one, and it regularly finished in last place not only in the Eastern Division, but in the entire NBA. However, with good first and second-round draft choices every year, the Bullets gradually grew to be a better team, adding these players - who all made the NBA All-Rookie Team: Johnson, Rod Thorn, Wali Jones, Jack Marin, Earl Monroe, and finally, the keystone of a championship team, Wes Unseld, who became both the Rookie-of-the-Year and the NBA Most Valuable Player for 1968 - 69. Gus Johnson was also a key player for the Bullets, who won the NBA Eastern Division for their very first time in 1969.
Johnson was among the most effective two-way players of his time. His scoring moves around the basket were comparable to those of his peers Elgin Baylor and Connie Hawkins. Yet however effective as Johnson was a post-up player, with his medium-range jump shot, and on the fast break, he was even more effective as a very sticky defender and a rugged rebounder throughout his time in the NBA. Indeed, he was one of the select few players who was quick enough to be paired against backcourt great Oscar Robertson yet strong enough to hold his own against the taller forwards of the NBA in the front line.
Despite some nagging problems with his knees, Johnson was a member of the NBA All-Star Team five times. During his NBA career, Johnson averaged 17.4 points and 12.7 rebounds per game. He also scored 25 points in 25 minutes in the 1965 NBA All-Star Game.
Gus Johnson had his best years with the Bullets in 1968 - 71, including the watershed basketball year of 1968 - 69. While the Bullets improved year-by-year, Johnson started receiving more recognition from the press and the spectators for his outstanding play at forward. He was voted onto the All-NBA second-team during this time span. During the 1968 - 69 season, the Bullets achieved their best regular-season record, but they were quickly swept out of the playoffs by the Knickerbockers, largely because Johnson was sidelined during the playoff series because of an injury.
After fading to third place in the Eastern Division in 1969 - 70, Johnson and the Bullets upset the regular-season champion Knickerbockers four games to three in the playoffs. Then advanced to the NBA Finals in 70 - 1971. Injuries had decimated the team, and the Bullets quickly fell to Lew Alcindor, Oscar Robertson, Bobby Dandridge, and the Milwaukee Bucks in a four-game sweep.
Injuries sent Johnson to the bench for most of 1971 - 72, his last with the team. The next season, the Bullets traded for Elvin Hayes and drafted Kevin Porter, making Johnson expendable. Johnson was signed by the Phoenix Suns for the 1972-73 season, but wound up playing only 21 games for them before being released. The Indiana Pacers, then of the ABA, picked him up, and he became a steadying veteran influence on the team as they went on to win the ABA championship that season.
Injuries limited Johnson's pro basketball career to 10 seasons, and this no doubt prevented post-career honors such as Hall of Fame induction and inclusion on the NBA 50 Greatest Players Ever list.
On April 29, 1987, Johnson died of inoperable brain cancer at age 48 at the Akron, Ohio, City Hospital. Less than four months before his death, he had been honored in Boise, Idaho by both Boise State University and the Univ. of Idaho during a conference basketball game between the two teams on January 17th. A sellout of 12,000 or more spectators at the BSU Pavilion, setting a Big Sky Conference attendance record for the regular-season game.
Here is what Earl Monroe had to say about Gus Johnson - "Gus was ahead of his time, flying through the air for slam dunks, breaking backboards and throwing full-court passes behind his back. He was spectacular, but he also did the nitty gritty jobs, defense and rebounding. With all the guys in the Hall of Game, Gus deserves to be there already."
"I first saw Gus on television...I had never seen a player dominate a game so. Gus was the Dr. J of his time and anyone that ever had the privilege to see him play will never forget what a great basketball player Gus Johson was." - By the late great Abe Pollin
"The Nail"
While Gus Johnson played basketball at the Univ. of Idaho in 1961 - 1963, he earned a reputation as a leaper of the highest order. On one evening at the "Corner Club", a tavern on north Main Street in Moscow, Idaho, Johnson was challenged by Herm Goetz, the owner, to demonstrate his outstanding jumping ability to the assembled patrons. The "Corner Club" was a quite modest establishment, one that had been converted from a small chapel built in the 1940s, one with hardwood floors and beams on its ceiling. From a standing start near the bar, Johnson leaped, and he touched a spot on a beam that was 11' 6" (3.51 m) above the floor level. This spot on the beam was marked with a ceremonial nail by Mr. Goetz, who next proclaimed that anyone who could duplicate that leap could drink for free, something that he knew would be highly improbable. A 40-inch (one meter) diameter circle was painted on the floor below that beam, and any duplicator of the leap had to have both feet on the floor within this circle to ensure a standing start. Twenty-three years elapsed, with a considerable number attempts to touch Gus Johnson's Nail, including some by the 7' 1" UCLA basketball All-American, Bill Walton, during the summer of 1984, but not even Walton could touch that high up.
That was until January 1986, when the team bus of the junior college basketball team of the College of Southern Idaho stopped in Moscow en route to a game against the North Idaho College team. Joey Johnson, the younger brother of the NBA star Dennis Johnson, was brought into the bar by his coaches for a try before opening time. The 6' 3" tall (1.90 m) guard had already recorded a remarkable 48" (1.22 m) vertical leap during basketball practice.
Joey Johnson laced up his game shoes, and he touched "The Nail" on his first try, but this attempt was disqualified because he did not start with both feet inside the given circle. His next attempt came from a legal static start, but he was a little bit short. On his third try, Johnson leaped, grabbed, and bent the legendary nail, a landmark event in local sports history. Mr. Goetz next pulled "The Nail" out of its beam, and he pounded it back in one-half inch higher.
Due to road reconstruction on north Main Street during the 1990s, the entire front portion of the Corner Club was demolished. Unfortunately, the condemned portion of the establishment included "The Nail's" original location.
External links
- TheDraftReview.com - Gus Johnson's NBA Draft History Page
- Basketball-Reference.com - Gus Johnson stats
- Database Basketball.com - stats for Gus Johnson
- Idaho.Scout.com - "How great was Gus Johnson?" reprinted from 1997 article
- University of Idaho - Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame - Gus Johnson
- [http://www.nba.com/wizards/history/gusjohnsonhistorypage.html - Gus Johnson 2010 HOF Induction
References
- ^ Goldaper, Sam (April 30, 1987), "Gus Johnson, Ex-N.B.A. Star with Baltimore, is Dead at 48", The New York Times, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE6D6153FF933A05757C0A961948260
- ^ Smith, Marlin (December 31, 1997). "How Great Was Gus Johnson?". http://www.pkmeco.com/vandal/gus.htm.
- ^ Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2010-04-05). "Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Announces Class of 2010". Press release. http://www.hoophall.com/news/2010/4/5/naismith-memorial-basketball-hall-of-fame-announces-class-of.html. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
- "S.Idaho's Little JJ almost brings down the house," The Seattle Times, 04-May-1986, p. C-10
- "A Case of Vandalism in Big Sky Country," Sports Illustrated, 25-Jan-1982, p.20-21