The DerMarr Johnson Story

Written By Chris C-Ford ---- Thursday, October 2, 2008

The Washington Post today has an article about Wizard's hopeful DerMarr Johnson. That reminds me of a great story of mine...

It was the summer before my senior year in high school. Our starting point guard had graduated, and it appeared that I was in line for the starting job (yeah right). Since it was early in the summer, our team didn't yet have its entire basketball team imported from other schools.

So it was me and some other white guys, all who would be on the bench when the real talent was shipped in, and a few of the recruits from the previous year that did not graduate. Our team was in the Georgetown Kenner Summer League and our first opponenet was Oxen Hill (I think).

My dad told me that they had an amazing player being recruited by all the big colleges. His name was DerMarr Johnson. The NBA was in his future. I thought it was pretty sweet, and something I would later brag to my friends about, as this was the first NBA player I ever played against.

Although he was 6'9", he was a point guard. But at 5'9" there was no chance I was guarding him.

The game went pretty well, as we were only losing by about 40 points. I think DerMarr only had 2-3 windmill jams, all on fast breaks. I thought it was great. (don't tell the coach)

Late in the game, some screens were set, and all of a sudden I was matched up One on One vs DerMarr Johnson. I took a quick glance backwards and saw there was no help. Just a clear lane to the hoop. The crowd could sense the mismatch and the Johnson entourage in the crowd behind him was already laughing at how white & skinny I was.

I wanted to play about 10 feet off him, but didn't want to look scared. So I got up in his face. He easily brushed me back with a quick elbow. The crowd continued to laugh/get hyped. Then It Happened!

DerMarr launched up a three point shot.

I was very happy that he didn't drive by me and dunk the ball. I turned around, ready to box out. That is when I noticed that there was no rebound. There was no rebound because he did not shoot the ball. He had pump faked the ball over my head, and I now had my back facing him. As the crowd laughed hysterically, I turned back around. DerMarr, laughing himself, went by me as soon as I turned back around, and as I fouled him as hard as I could, he made a layup and the foul.

When DerMarr became an NBA player, this became a great story. Too bad he didn't turn out to be better than Jordan like he thought he would be. Can you imagine how awesome a story it would have been if Jordan did this to me.

1 comment:

Truth About It said...

Funny stuff.....I might've tried a Cobra Kai 'sweep the leg' move myself.