James Johnson is Dealing with the Slow Start

Johnson went back to his Wake Forest days and sought out teammates, like Bobby Hoekstra, who were walkons, guys who worked every practice with the team as hard as anyone but never played in games.

“I call the walkons and talk to them,” Johnson says. “They went hard for us in practice every time and they didn’t see five minutes of the game.

“Talking to them helps me out realizing if you are not on the court it doesn’t mean you didn’t help the team win,” said Johnson. “They said it was tough, but they were in a way different boat. I’m getting paid; this is my job. I don’t have to worry about schoolwork or nothing like that, and I’m still getting five or six minutes.

“They went 100 percent for us every day and all they got was a ‘great job’ on the scouting report or something like that,” recalled Johnson. “My job is my job and if I get called to work six minutes, I’m going to do that. They were cool kids and we all hung around together.

“I remember,” says Johnson, “I used to ask them how does it feel to not play. They’d say it sucks, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t help us. It was easy for me to realize it’s bigger than me. I love winning. If I really love winning, I should have no problem doing my job.”

So Johnson does, which for now is mostly being ready, lately playing a few first half minutes and finishing up in blowouts. It’s not what fans expected of a player variously compared to Charles Barkley, Rodney Rodgers, Ron Artest and LeBron James for his size at 6-8 and about 255 and deft ball handling.