89. Dennis Johnson
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The unsung hero and leader of the great 80s Celtic championship teams, Dennis Johnson was a complete point guard who until recently had been nearly forgotten by posterity. He was a quick and cunning player who won 3 NBA titles, one with Seattle and two with Boston.
Johnson had a rocky road to the NBA. He did not play a lot of basketball in high school and did not actually make a team until he joined a junior college team. He butted heads with the coach and was thrown off the team three times. After two years at the JUCO school he was offered a scholarship by Pepperdine University and played one season there.
In the 1970s the NBA had a huge image problem and Johnson being seen as a trouble maker did not help him in the 1976 draft. Still, the Seattle Supersonice took the risk and drafted Johnson in the second round. Johnson became the Sonics primary backup point guard and averaged 90 points his rookie season.
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Johnson was the backup for the Sonics for two and a half season before Lenny Wilkens was hired as head coach and made him the starter. Johnson responded to his new starting position immediately and helped turn the Sonics around and made the all-star team twice. The Sonics made the NBA finals in 1978 only to lose a heart breaking 7th game to the Bullets. They made it again to once again face the Bullets and this time won the NBA title where Johnson was named finals MVP.
Prior to the 1980 season Johnson was traded to the Phoenix Suns. His years with the Suns are really unremarkable for his career. He played well for the Suns including a career high 19.5 points per game in 1982 but his time there has just been forgotten by the NBA.
He played three seasons with the Suns and was named to the all-star game twice and the team reached the western semi’s as well. But for reasons unknown his time in Phoenix was never memorable.
In 1983 he was traded to the Boston Celtics. With the Celtics is where he would gain his most notoriety as a player but ironically put up his statistically worse seasons.
Johnson teamed with Larry Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale to help the Celtics become a dynasty in the 80s. Though the Celtics had previously won a title before Johnson’s arrival they had struggled against rival Philadelphia and had hoped Johnson would help them.
Before arriving with the Celtics Johnson had been known as a scoring first shooting guard but with the Celtics he became a pass first point guard. Johnson would lead Boston in assists in 4 of his 6 seasons with the Celtics.
With Johnson in the back court the Boston Celtics won two NBA titles and became a fierce rival for the Magic Johnson lead Lakers. Magic Johnson would refer to Dennis Johnson as the best back court defender of all-time.
Johnson would retire following the 1991 season having played in 1,100 career games, having owned averaging of 14 points and 5 assists as well. He also made 5 NBA all-star games in his career.
After retiring for basketball Johnson worked as an assistant coach for the Celtics from 93-97 than as an assistant for the Clippers from 2000-2004 including a 24 game stint as their head coach. He also was an assistant for the Blazers. He was later named head coach of the NBDL’s Florida Flames than the Austin Toros. He died in 2007 while still coach of the Toros. In 2010 he was elected as a member of the Naismith Hall-of-Fame.
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