Hawks’ Jalen Johnson did what it took to make plan A work
When it came to his future, Hawks forward Jalen Johnson never allowed himself to dwell on a plan B.
It’s not that Johnson didn’t want the safety net of a backup career path. But he simply could not see himself doing anything other than playing professional basketball.
Even in his elementary and middle school, when the adults around him encouraged him to have a fallback or asked what he would do if basketball didn’t work out, Johnson simply knew that it would.
To Johnson, it didn’t matter what that professional basketball career looked like. Whether it included him playing three-on-three basketball or playing overseas, Johnson believed he would play basketball.
“I just remember watching (Wesley Matthews’) draft YouTube story,” Johnson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s called ‘(There is) no plan B.’ He was basically saying the same thing, like, ‘there’s no plan B. Plan A is gonna work regardless’.
“And I used to watch that every day as a kid, (or) close to every day. Had my little iPad, and I’m just doing pushups in my room, just doing random little things, where I feel like I’m doing so much. It was just little things like that that really kept me motivated.
“Especially having a guy like Wes make it out of the same city that I’m from, it meant a lot. It made it seem possible. So as soon as I saw it was possible, and as soon as the dream started to get realer and realer throughout the course of my career, it’s like, ‘It’s legit.’”
Since then, the dream has more than materialized for the 24-year-old Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, who was selected as an All-Star for the first time this season.
The road to reaching that dream has had numerous bumps, though.
Flipping the page
Johnson’s first major stumble came when he opted out of his lone season at Duke after 13 games to get healthy after a foot injury limited his freshman year.
The early departure raised a lot of questions about Johnson, and the stories that hit the public ahead of the 2021 NBA draft did not paint a favorable picture of him. It sent him plummeting from a projected lottery pick to 20th overall, where the Hawks selected him.
Johnson has alluded to how that fallout impacted him. But he has never publicly spoken about everything that happened at Duke. He may talk about what unfolded one day, but for now, his eyes are looking ahead.
“Sometimes, you like to flip the page,” Johnson said. “Like, you’re reading a book, sometimes that chapter is not as enticing as the other ones you have read. I kind of look at it like that. Obviously, it happened and it’s a part of my story. But for me to continue to go back on that and look back on that, I try not to.
“I appreciate everything that happened. I feel like it molded me to who I am today. Molded me into the player, person, whatever you want to call it, like, but I just think it’s one of those things that you’ve just got to flush.”
The road didn’t get smoother for Johnson, who worked through minimal playing time with the Hawks’ main roster in his rookie season. The Hawks had veterans John Collins and Danilo Gallinari ahead of him on the depth chart, so Johnson spent the majority of his first year in the G League, logging minutes with the Skyhawks.
A season later, the Hawks moved Gallinari to the Spurs as part of a deal to acquire Dejounte Murray. Johnson averaged just 14.4 minutes per game before the All-Star break, with Collins still on the roster and then-rookie AJ Griffin shooting the ball well.
But the Hawks made a midseason coaching change, moving on from Nate McMillan and hiring Quin Snyder. Snyder shifted the lineups around, prioritizing size and versatility, and Johnson’s average minutes per game increased to 16.7.
The Hawks traded Collins the subsequent summer, opening the door for Johnson as the Hawks’ starter at power forward. But even that elevation came with some hiccups. In his first season as a Hawks starter, Johnson fractured his wrist after an ill-timed chase-down block against Kyle Kuzma, and he had multiple sprained ankles. He was limited to 56 games.
Johnson’s big breakout came the season after, helping the Hawks to reach the semifinals of the NBA Cup. But then he tore the labrum in his left shoulder after nursing a right shoulder injury for multiple games. He needed season-ending surgery, capping his year at 36 games.
But Johnson just used it as fuel.
“He wants to be one of the greatest,” Jalen Johnson’s father, Roderick Johnson, said. “When he had these injuries, the work that he puts in during the summertime, the rehab that he goes to, he is so locked in and just determined and just driven and just focused. I could describe a ton of words for my son, but he just wants to be great.”
‘Surreal moments’
This season, Johnson has put together one of the most durable seasons of his career. He has missed just six of the Hawks’ first 56 games, averaging career-best numbers: 23.3 points, 10.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists, while shooting 35.3% from the perimeter.
“I think there’s so many surreal moments,” Johnson’s mother Stacy Johnson said. “You know, kind of the whole ‘pinch-yourself’ type moments, type feelings. I don’t want to say, ‘Is this really happening?’
“I’m not surprised by it, but it’s just beyond words to see him be where he’s at, knowing what he had to fight through to get to it right.”
His usage has increased, with much of the Hawks’ offense running through him. Johnson has a 28.8% usage percentage, according to Cleaning the Glass. It’s up from 22% last season and ranks him in the 95th percentile, the third-highest among forwards in the NBA this season.
“I think as much as anything, whatever it is when you’re a young player, there are certain things you have to go through,” Snyder said. “You can learn (by) watching, listening, but experience is really the best teacher.
“What Jalen has been able to do is when that experience is a positive one, he’s been able to recognize that and understand why he had success doing something, do it better, and then he’s also been able to have enough self-confidence when something doesn’t or you don’t get the outcome to recognize what you can do differently.”
It’s part of the mindset Johnson, who had always tried to take care of his body, adopted when he attacked his rehab. Johnson did not want to find himself needing rehab again when he returned to 100% health.
It’s paying off now, with Johnson set to participate in his first NBA All-Star weekend at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. It’s the first time Johnson won’t have a little hiatus.
During his previous four All-Star breaks, Johnson always used them to get some work in. For the Hawks’ leading scorer, the work never stops. But now, Johnson will participate in the NBA Shooting Stars challenge on Saturday night as a part of Team Cameron, alongside Hornets guard Kon Knueppel and former NBA forward Corey Maggette. Then Johnson will play in the All-Star Game on Sunday, suiting up for Team USA Stars.
Johnson’s parents want him to make the most of it.
“What do you do in this circumstance?” Stacy Johnson said. “How did you handle when this happened to you? Because J’s got a memory of steel. I mean, I don’t know if you remember ”Rain Man" — Jalen was our Rain Man growing up.
“We would be like, ‘What was the license plate on our black car, Jalen?’ and he would just it rattle off and what middle-school kid cares about what a license plate says? Like, he’s truly — he’s kind of misunderstood. I’m not gonna lie.”
“I think the main thing that we told J is just enjoy every bit of this moment,” Roderick Johnson added. “Soak it up. Soak it in. Have a blast. One of the things that I talked to him about was I’m excited for him to be around KD (Kevin Durant), Steph (Curry), LeBron (James), all these guys that are legends, and just soak up what they have to say.”
The first-time All-Star plans to do just that.
“I’m just gonna take it all in,” Jalen Johnson said. “I can’t tell you what I’m gonna do. I can’t tell you how I’m gonna feel. It’s just gonna be one of those things, you gotta be there and see it to believe it. I think once I get there, maybe, once things start happening and all that. But I’m so excited just to go out there and say I’m in the All-Star Game — not watching the All-Star Game, like, I’m in it. So, that’s cool.”
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