UofMGrizFan
Well-known member
http://dimemag.com/2011/07/basketballs-rising-power-couple/
Unfortunately the author has A.J. as a senior last year.....
BASKETBALL’S RISING POWER COUPLE
Every year in March the NCAA Tournament rules the basketball world. And each year during March Madness there are Cinderella stories about teams that make magical runs well beyond what anyone would have expected of them. On each of these teams there is a folk hero, one player who defines the team’s magical run. In 2011 that folk hero was Butler’s Matt Howard. With his shaggy hair and long socks, Howard dominated the boards against any opponent who dared come his way and helped lead eighth-seeded Butler to their second consecutive national championship game. In 2008 there was Stephen Curry and his silky-smooth jumper leading Davidson to the Elite Eight. Last year, one that stood out to me was Montana’s Anthony Johnson.
When most basketball fans hear the name Anthony Johnson they think of the journeyman point guard who most recently played for the Orlando Magic; but for some, images of former University of Montana shooting guard Anthony Johnson come to mind. Last March, as a senior at Montana, Johnson led the Grizzlies to one of the most improbable NCAA Tournament appearances ever. In the Big Sky Conference Tournament championship game, the Grizzlies went into halftime down by 20 points to Weber State. Their season and Johnson’s Montana career appeared to be over – that was until Johnson went unconscious in the second half. He scored 34 of his team’s 46 second-half points, including the last 21 to lead his team to a 66-65 victory and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Johnson’s epic performance led to national media outlets like ESPN and The New York Times giving him a platform to tell the story of his incredible basketball journey.
“It was pretty overwhelming,” Johnson says when describing the attention he got afterward. “It felt pretty good because you know going to Montana you kind of go from being small-time where you are only known in Washington and Montana to now being known nationally a little bit. It felt great to get that type of attention a little bit. I was definitely riding in the clouds for sometime afterwards. And to be nationally recognized for what you do or a performance you had, if you are a basketball player or an athlete there is no greater feeling.”
Johnson’s basketball voyage began in Tacoma, Wash., as a dishwasher at a local restaurant. After graduating high school, he worked that job while playing basketball at the local YMCA in his free time. His girlfriend at the time (now his wife), Shaunte Nance, was off in Idaho playing Division II basketball at Northwest Nazarene University. After she finished her freshman year she came back to Tacoma and lit a fire under Anthony, inspiring him to pursue his dream of playing professional basketball.
“I was pretty much what you would call a dreamer at that time,” he recalls. “I didn’t want to put in the work but I kind of just wanted to go straight to the end. I had all these dreams, for example I’ll be watching an NBA game and thinking to myself ‘I can do that,’ but for whatever reason then I just didn’t put the actions toward it and I didn’t have the belief in myself to push myself toward that and go get it.
“When my wife, then she was my girlfriend, came back from her first year in college, and she really pushed me and told me ‘I played at the college level and you’re way better than the guys I’ve seen and you’re just playing at the YMCA.’ So with her having that exposure and that type of knowledge I was like, ‘Okay, maybe she knows what she’s talking about.’ She really gave me that belief in myself that I have something special and I can really take my skillset and be successful with it.”
More...
Unfortunately the author has A.J. as a senior last year.....
BASKETBALL’S RISING POWER COUPLE
Every year in March the NCAA Tournament rules the basketball world. And each year during March Madness there are Cinderella stories about teams that make magical runs well beyond what anyone would have expected of them. On each of these teams there is a folk hero, one player who defines the team’s magical run. In 2011 that folk hero was Butler’s Matt Howard. With his shaggy hair and long socks, Howard dominated the boards against any opponent who dared come his way and helped lead eighth-seeded Butler to their second consecutive national championship game. In 2008 there was Stephen Curry and his silky-smooth jumper leading Davidson to the Elite Eight. Last year, one that stood out to me was Montana’s Anthony Johnson.
When most basketball fans hear the name Anthony Johnson they think of the journeyman point guard who most recently played for the Orlando Magic; but for some, images of former University of Montana shooting guard Anthony Johnson come to mind. Last March, as a senior at Montana, Johnson led the Grizzlies to one of the most improbable NCAA Tournament appearances ever. In the Big Sky Conference Tournament championship game, the Grizzlies went into halftime down by 20 points to Weber State. Their season and Johnson’s Montana career appeared to be over – that was until Johnson went unconscious in the second half. He scored 34 of his team’s 46 second-half points, including the last 21 to lead his team to a 66-65 victory and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Johnson’s epic performance led to national media outlets like ESPN and The New York Times giving him a platform to tell the story of his incredible basketball journey.
“It was pretty overwhelming,” Johnson says when describing the attention he got afterward. “It felt pretty good because you know going to Montana you kind of go from being small-time where you are only known in Washington and Montana to now being known nationally a little bit. It felt great to get that type of attention a little bit. I was definitely riding in the clouds for sometime afterwards. And to be nationally recognized for what you do or a performance you had, if you are a basketball player or an athlete there is no greater feeling.”
Johnson’s basketball voyage began in Tacoma, Wash., as a dishwasher at a local restaurant. After graduating high school, he worked that job while playing basketball at the local YMCA in his free time. His girlfriend at the time (now his wife), Shaunte Nance, was off in Idaho playing Division II basketball at Northwest Nazarene University. After she finished her freshman year she came back to Tacoma and lit a fire under Anthony, inspiring him to pursue his dream of playing professional basketball.
“I was pretty much what you would call a dreamer at that time,” he recalls. “I didn’t want to put in the work but I kind of just wanted to go straight to the end. I had all these dreams, for example I’ll be watching an NBA game and thinking to myself ‘I can do that,’ but for whatever reason then I just didn’t put the actions toward it and I didn’t have the belief in myself to push myself toward that and go get it.
“When my wife, then she was my girlfriend, came back from her first year in college, and she really pushed me and told me ‘I played at the college level and you’re way better than the guys I’ve seen and you’re just playing at the YMCA.’ So with her having that exposure and that type of knowledge I was like, ‘Okay, maybe she knows what she’s talking about.’ She really gave me that belief in myself that I have something special and I can really take my skillset and be successful with it.”
More...
