Dennis Wayne Johnson (September 18, 1954 – February 22, 2007), nicknamed "DJ", was an American professional basketball player for the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Seattle SuperSonics, Phoenix Suns, and Boston Celtics. He was a coach of the Los Angeles Clippers and an alumnus of Dominguez High School, Los Angeles Harbor College and Pepperdine University.

Johnson overcame early struggles to have a successful NBA playing career. Drafted 29th overall in 1976 by the Seattle SuperSonics, Johnson began his professional career as a shooting guard. He eventually led the Sonics to their only NBA championship in 1979, winning the Finals MVP Award. After three seasons with the Phoenix Suns, he became the starting point guard for the Boston Celtics, with whom he won two more championships. Johnson was voted into five All-Star Teams, one All-NBA First and one Second Team, and nine consecutive All-Defensive First and Second Teams. Known as a defensive stopper, he retired with a 17.2% three-point shooting percentage, the lowest of any NBA player with at least 200 attempts. Some sports journalists consider him among the most underrated players of all time.

Early life

Dennis Wayne Johnson was born the eighth of 16 children, to a social worker and a bricklayer who lived in Compton, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. In his rookie year, the 1976–77 NBA season, Johnson, playing backup to the experienced Sonics backcourt tandem of Slick Watts and Fred Brown, averaged 9.2 points and 1.5 assists per game. and missed the 1977 NBA Playoffs, leading head coach Bill Russell to resign. Johnson revelled in this new role, improving his averages to 12.7 points and 2.8 assists per game.

Finishing strongly, the Sonics ended the regular season with a 47–35 record and made the 1978 NBA Playoffs. After eliminating the Los Angeles Lakers, the defending champion Portland Trail Blazers, and the Denver Nuggets, they almost defeated the Washington Bullets by taking a 3–2 lead in the 1978 NBA Finals. In a 93–92 Game 3 victory, Johnson blocked seven shots—the most blocks in NBA Finals history for a guard. The Sonics lost in seven games, however, partly because of Johnson's Game 7 scoring drought, in which the second-year guard missed all of his 14 field goal attempts. He scored 32 points in a Game 4 overtime victory, and was named NBA Finals MVP. At the end of the season, Johnson was traded to the Phoenix Suns for Paul Westphal and draft picks. The Sonics' record was 22 games worse the next season despite, or perhaps because of, the addition of Westphal. Johnson's situation deteriorated towards the end of his career at Phoenix. Like in Seattle, he often clashed with his coach, John MacLeod, and finally was traded by general manager, Jerry Colangelo, to the Boston Celtics for Rick Robey and draft picks.

Boston Celtics (1983–1990)

Between the 1979–80 season and the 1981–82 season, the Celtics had lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals two out of three times, mainly because physical Sixers guard Andrew Toney routinely caused problems for their defensively fragile backcourt. After subsequently getting swept by the Bucks in the 1982–83 Eastern Conference Semifinals, Celtics general manager Red Auerbach added the perennial All-Defensive Team member Johnson to his squad, hoping that Johnson would help the Celtics fare better in the Eastern Conference playoffs (particularly against the 76ers). Johnson described joining the Celtics as a "dream come true" and enjoyed the tutelage of highly successful general manager Auerbach, who was "living history" according to Johnson.

In the 1984–85 season, Johnson continued playing smothering defense, earning his next All-Defensive Second Team call-up while averaging 16.9 points and 7.3 assists per game.

The Celtics were unable to repeat their title in 1987 despite several dramatic playoff victories. Johnson played strong defense again, earning yet another appearance on the All-Defensive First Team, In Game 5 Johnson was involved in a crucial play: down 107–106, Larry Bird stole the in-bounds pass by Pistons point guard Isiah Thomas with 5 seconds left and passed it to a sprinting Johnson, who converted a difficult layup with 1 second left in the game.

According to Johnson this was his favorite play of all time.

The next three seasons were disappointing for the aging Celtics. In the 1987–88 season, Johnson averaged 12.6 points and 7.8 assists, In that season, Johnson started in 65 of his 75 games, averaging 7.1 points and 6.5 assists,

Johnson retired after the Celtics did not offer him a new contract at the beginning of the 1991 season. During his retirement ceremony, his perennial Los Angeles Lakers opponent Magic Johnson telegraphed him lauding him as "the best backcourt defender of all-time". In addition Celtics colleague and triple NBA Most Valuable Player award winner Larry Bird called Johnson the best teammate he ever had.

Florida Flame (2004–2005)

In 2004, Johnson was named head coach of the NBA Development League's Florida Flame.

Austin Toros (2005–2007)

Johnson became head coach of the NBA Development League's Austin Toros the following season, holding the position until his death two years later.

| 1,100 || 673 || 32.7 || .445 || .172 || .797 || 3.9 || 5.0 || 1.3 || 0.6 || 14.1

|- class="sortbottom"

| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| All-Star

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Legacy

left|95px|thumbnail|alt=A "3" inside a square, written in green|In 1991, the Boston Celtics retired a no. 3 jersey with Dennis Johnson's name.

In 1,100 games, Johnson scored 15,535 points, grabbed 4,249 rebounds and gave 5,499 assists, translating to career averages of 14.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game. Johnson is also acknowledged by the NBA as a "money player" At his retirement, Johnson was only the 11th NBA player to amass more than 15,000 points and 5,000 assists. On April 3, 2010, ESPN Boston reported that Johnson was posthumously elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. This was officially confirmed two days later when the Hall released the list of 2010 inductees.

The NBA G League Coach of the Year Award is named after Johnson.

Personal life

Dennis Johnson was married to Donna, his wife of 31 years, and had three children named Dwayne, Denise, and Daniel. Johnson was also known for his appearance: he had freckles and red-tinged hair. Dennis's brother, Joey, is a former Arizona State Sun Devils basketball star. Johnson's nephews are Nick, who appeared in 37 games with the 2014–15 Houston Rockets after being drafted by them in the 2nd Round of the 2014 NBA draft, and Chris, who appeared briefly in four games with the 2013–14 Arizona Wildcats college basketball team.

On October 20, 1997, Johnson was arrested and detained overnight for allegedly holding a knife to his wife's throat and threatening his 17-year-old son. Johnson was later charged with aggravated assault and was ordered to stay away from his family. The prosecutors dropped the case several months later after his wife declined to press charges. Johnson reportedly went to counseling to repair his marriage.

Death

On February 22, 2007, at the Austin Convention Center, Johnson had a heart attack and collapsed at the end of the Austin Toros' practice.