Jones on NBA: Enter the Raptor
Posted March 25, 2011 12:15 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
We’re standing at practice talking with Raptors’ head coach Jay Triano about the health of his ailing front line; Amir Johnson – ankle injury, Reggie Evans – sore foot and Joey Dorsey – flu like symptoms. After a brief injury update the question came up, “Anything else special happen at practice?” He responded with a “not really” kind of answer until he talked about what James Johnson did at the start of practice, before anyone had even started to stretch.
We’ve all seen more than one ball holed up in a hoop and when Triano asked if I knew how Johnson got them out, I answered with, “What, his head? His shoulder?” I implied he displayed a pronounced vertical leap, which led Triano to simply smile.
We come to find out it was Johnson’s martial arts training that allowed him to take a few spinning back kicks to get his foot on the basketballs lodged in the hoop, more than one time. He was unable to loosen the mesh’s grip on the balls, but he did make contact with them.
“I’m about challenges,” said Johnson, who admitted to being put up to it by Jerryd Bayless and Ed Davis.
“I can make my foot touch the rim if I jump and kick,” Johnson replied in very matter of fact fashion when asked if he had ever done it before. “Just a jump spinning back kick,” he smiled.
It might be common place in martial arts, but we’re talking about a rim that’s 10 feet off the ground! When asked about the practical application for the kick, Johnson explained the many places it could be used. One is in brick and board breaking. Johnson explained how he’s broken seven bricks at one time with something the boxing world would call a jab.
When asked about the pain of breaking seven bricks and if it hurt his hand, he responded in a typically focused martial arts manner. “You try to think within the strike,” Johnson said. “That’s how you think with injury or anything else. I even told Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah when I was on their team. They would twist an ankle and I’d just say ‘mind over matter.’ They’d laugh, they’d understand and we’d just get it over with. I just think pain is all in the head.”
Johnson’s dad, Willie, is a seven time world kick boxing champion. Johnson described his many struggles in the ring and how he owns a 20-0 competitive record. He’s been a substitute in a couple cage matches, having fought in Utah, Colorado and Vegas, and notes a cage match is the biggest adrenalin rush he’s ever had.
Johnson understands the popularity wave that has engulfed MMA and is a regular viewer.
“Oh yeah, I watch it a lot,” he smiled. “I was in a couple corners. Like fighting cards with all the famous guys you see now, the Silva’s, the Chuck Liddell’s, all of them before this UFC even blew up.”
Johnson passed his test to become a pro fighter in his discipline the day he was accepted to college, but decided to go the basketball route. Raptor fans hope Johnson can continue to develop and turn himself into a top flight NBA player with that kind of focus and mental toughness.
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So who is your MVP this season?
If you listen to Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy, he thinks the court of popular opinion has already crowned Chicago’s Derrick Rose. But there are some numbers that reinforce Rose’s candidacy. My man Philip Summers, part of Jim LaBumbard’s hard working media relations staff, found this little nugget for me. Over the last 30 years, the MVP has come from a team that has won at least 60 games and only six times has the MVP been on a team that has had a winning percentage of less than .700. Hmmmmm, Chicago is on pace right now for 60-61 wins and while Van Gundy may think it’s a popularity contest, some of the numbers reinforce that popular opinion.
