Former Tyger standout Keon Johnson in action this season for the Winthrop University Eagles in Rock Hill, S.C. (Photo courtesy of BigSouthSports.com)
The brilliant college basketball career of Keon Johnson, a Mansfield Senior High star, ended Thursday when the Winthrop University Eagles lost to Butler 76-64 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Johnson finished with more than 2,000 points as the highest scorer in Winthrop history. His astonishing years with the Eagles were profiled in a lengthy story by Jon Spencer in the Mansfield News Journal on Feb. 20.
Johnson also was featured in Michael Arace’s column in Wednesday’s Columbus Dispatch.
The 5’7” Johnson recalled the years that led to his success in NCAA Division 1 basketball in a first-person contribution this week in The Players’ Tribune, a new media company founded by Derek Jeter.
In his contribution, titled “Somebody’s In Trouble,” Johnson wrote:
“Growing up, I always had game. Being shorter than the other kids in your class matters less when you’re young. But that changed before my freshman year of high school.
“My team was playing in the AAU nationals in Florida. All the top players in the country were there. I remember walking into the gym and the energy was palpable. Players were sitting on bench chairs lining the court, and all the college coaches and scouts were sitting right behind them.
“The other players were … huge. I’m talking, 6′ 8″, 6′ 9″ — and some of them were barely even high schoolers. They were all taller than me sitting down.
"That hit me like a ton of bricks. But I also realized: I gotta go to work
"That’s been my mindset my whole life — because it’s had to be.
"And in case you were still wondering: it’s absolutely 5′ 7″ — no taller, no shorter. (I’m definitely not 5′ 4″, like some outlets have said.)
Recalling his years growing up in Mansfield, Johnson wrote:
"I’m not from the best neighborhood. Recently, I read a study that said Mansfield is one of the most dangerous cities in Ohio. That didn’t surprise me at all — it’s been that way since I was a kid. There’s a lot of negative stuff going on where I’m from. I had close friends caught up in the streets. That’s just part of the environment and something you have to take into consideration every day of your life.
“I came up on King Street, where the half-court in a patch of park across the street was my salvation. It wasn’t anything special — in fact, it didn’t even have a 10-foot goal. It was a square of concrete with no three-point line, and a single orange rim on a plaster backboard that was mounted on a thick aluminum pole. There weren’t a ton of hoops in my hood, so the fact that there was anything close to me was a blessing.
“You can ask my parents — I was out there every day playing basketball or football. When I started kindergarten I’d play on the toy hoop at school, and then come home and go straight to that half-court to play more basketball, no matter the weather. To play pickup, me and my friends might move down the road to Johns Park, which had a full court. All the adults would be hooping there.
Almost everybody in my community, even my friends who were caught up in the wrong stuff, saw that sports were my passion from an early age. My friends and family shielded me from the negative things in our area and encouraged me to do something positive with my life through basketball. I knew I wanted to be that guy that, years down the line, people from the neighborhood would read about as a success story. So I did my best to stay focused on school and hoops.”
Johnson’s complete essay can be found on the Internet by entering Somebody's In Trouble The Players Tribune.