Derrmar Johnson

[CongoP]

Found this on his music myspace lol

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=147876111&albumID=2375493&imageID=33914302

[lethalweapon3]

DUI Driving Instructor.

OK, just kidding! (that was just wrong, sorry)

He got cut by a popular team in Puerto Rico and is now headed east, as of about a week or so ago...

Al Hilal has signed DerMarr Johnson to play the Asia club with the Saudi team. The 30-year-old forward, who was drafted 6th in 2000 by the Atlanta Hawks was playing lately in Puerto Rico for the Leones de Ponce before being released on March. In his NBA stint, Johnson was in Atlanta, New York, Denver and San Antonio.

http://thehoopsmarket.blogspot.com/2010/05/al-hilal-signs-former-nba-player.html

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Recent retrospective:

The day I first saw Joe Johnson, I watched my dreams of playing high school basketball vanish.

It was a summer morning in 1996, and I was one of the few white kids trying to make the Little Rock Central High School basketball junior varsity team.

I think I touched the ball once during my only scrimmage.

In retrospect, not honing my skills and quickness by playing in junior high, AAU or unofficial summer time practices at Central’s gym probably sealed the deal way before I ever tried out, but at the time I just felt a little wounded.

So I took a bleacher seat, and watched a tall, skinny kid from Dunbar Junior High shoot, dribble and rebound better than nearly every one else on the court. The state accolades started pouring in the next spring, and that's when I realized that kid — a fellow sophomore with an alliterative name — was something special.

I never tried out for Central’s team again, instead pouring my time into what I could do better than play basketball — write about it. I remember thinking what a coup it was that I was getting school credit for reporting what I'd wanted to watch anyway.

Naturally, Joe was the star around which much ink orbited, yet I don't recall even a hint of jealousy among his teammates. I almost always saw them en masse, smiling, goofing off, maybe enjoying a few extra minutes in the hallway after the bell rang than the rest of us. By the beginning of senior year, Joe had gained recognition in the summer circuit as a national up-and-comer, but I still didn't know how he stacked up against the nation's elite.

Pretty well, Joe and his teammates informed me one late summer day in the cafeteria.

So, what did Joe et al think of Maine's DerMarr Johnson, then the No. 1 ranked player in the class of '99?

Man, DerMarr’s not even that good, I was told. There was a satisfying insinuation that Joe was the best of Johnsons.

Reeling a bit, I looked at the 6-foot-7, 190-pound teenager seated in front of me, and thought to myself: "So how good are you?"

http://sync.arkansasonline.com/news/2010/apr/27/joe-johnson-then-and-now/

~lw3

[DrReality]

That's one sad story.