Ivan Gets Some Coyote Love

[lethalweapon3]

http://magazine.csusb.edu/2012/03/pack-tracks/hard-work-on-the-hardwood/

Ivan Johnson is only the second player from the CCAA in the last 15 years to make it to the NBA. The former CSUSB basketball standout plays for the Atlanta Hawks – without fear and motivated by memories of his mom.

When Ivan Johnson filled out a personal information sheet along with his Cal State San Bernardino basketball teammates in 2006, he wrote under the heading, career goal: “graduate from college and play in the NBA.”

Johnson’s road to the NBA began after his senior year at Cal State San Bernardino, where he averaged a team-leading 15.6 points and 4.7 rebounds per game with 19 blocked shots as the Coyotes posted a 26-6 record, earned an NCAA Division II West Region title and advanced to the NCAA D-II Final Four in Springfield, Mass., in 2007. The 6-8, 255-pound Texas native averaged 19.2 points and 4.0 rebounds a game in five NCAA tournament games. Against Wingate (N.C.) in the quarterfinals, he had 25 points, five rebounds and seven assists in a 100-73 Coyotes win. In the semifinals against eventual champion Barton College (N.C.), he scored 19 points with six rebounds, three assists and three steals in a hard-luck 80-79 loss.

“We should have won that game,” Johnson said.

Johnson chatted with Coyotes Head Coach Jeff Oliver via Facebook after he signed with Atlanta. “I told him, ‘Congratulations and don’t mess it up,’” Oliver said, knowing, too, that Johnson’s temper could get away from him.

Rembert Browne, a writer for the Triangle Blog on Grantland.com, an ESPN Ventures Internet site, said Johnson “is not a typical NBA basketball player. He doesn’t seem caught up in the slightest with the glitz and glamour and fame of the NBA and … treats it like a job that he must show up for every day in order to survive.” The work ethic motivated the Hawks to sign him in December and release the team’s top draft pick, center Keith Benson.

Browne produced “The Ivan Johnson Chronicles,” a two-part series on the Hawks rookie based on Johnson’s 2008 public radio interview with d*ck Gordon and posted it on The Triangle Blog.

In that radio interview, Johnson confided that he has battled his own temper for years, starting in high school at Fox Tech in San Antonio and continuing at Cisco Junior College in Abilene, Texas, at Los Angeles Southwest College and at University of Oregon.

His failure to control his temper cost him. He lost his scholarship at Oregon, where he averaged 7.5 points and 3.2 rebounds a game for the Ducks in 2005-2006, helping them advance to the semifinals of the Pac-10 conference tournament at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Johnson arrived at CSUSB at the start of the 2006-2007 season way out of shape, tipping the scales at 305 pounds. “I’m grateful for Coach Oliver and Trev (former associate head coach Paul Trevor) for getting me into shape,” he said.

As Oliver recalled, “We got him down to around 260 by the first of the year.”

The Coyotes were well aware of the anger management issues that dogged Johnson since high school. But being around a veteran CSUSB team only improved Johnson’s attitude.

“Away from the court, Ivan was actually a funny guy,” Oliver said. “After the new year when he was contributing more to the team, he was pretty enjoyable to be around. He’s bounced around so much it takes a while for him to trust people.”

Johnson said in his 2008 radio interview that what inspires him to work hard and put his anger issues behind him is his mother, Sandra Johnson. Before she died in 2007, Johnson said he promised her he would not give up on his dream to play in the NBA. In the public radio interview a year later, Johnson said, “I always told her that I’d make it so she wouldn’t have to work no more…… So now that’s my main thing. I know she’s watching me, so I gotta go hard.”

Before she died, Johnson had an image of her face tattooed on his body, “so I’ll never forget how she looked. And that means so much to me.”

His temper not only cost him his scholarship at Oregon, but a job in the Korean pro league. His former high school coach, Charles Cooper, said he is happy that the Hawks took a gamble on Johnson.

Cooper told Mike Monroe, sports writer for the San Antonio Express-News, last month, “The trouble was always finding a team that would take a chance on him. They were waiting to see if he could handle himself appropriately. The Hawks took that chance and I hope he can continue to make an impact like he’s done so far.”

CSUSB’s Oliver was asked if Johnson was the best player ever to play at Cal State.

“I don’t think he was the best we’ve ever had. But he had the best pro talent in terms of size and athleticism. He could have been dominant at this (D2) level.” Johnson’s future in the NBA depends solely on Johnson himself, said Oliver.

“It’s the same formula everywhere he’s been. He has to contain his emotions, play within himself and deal with adversity.”

~lw3

[Admin]

Very good read! I love having Ivannon this team and hope he has a long career with Atlanta.