By Steve DelVecchio | April 1, 2013 - Posted in Basketball
If Amir Johnson and Jonas Valanciunas had a plan going into the Toronto Raptors’ game against the Washington Wizards on Sunday night, they executed it to perfection. Toronto may have gone on to lose the game, but Johnson and Valanciunas were down in the trenches doing the dirty work just seconds after the opening tip.
The two big men apparently got together before the game and decided they were going to spring their teammates free on offense by setting double-screens. As you can see, that entailed locking arms and setting picks that were borderline impossible to break through.
Were they just screwing around? Given Johnson’s history of wearing sneakers like this and having eccentric haircuts, that’s probably a safe bet. But if I’m ever coaching a youth basketball team, this is one of the first things I’m going to teach about moving without the ball on offense.
By Steve DelVecchio | December 21, 2012 - Posted in Basketball
Amir Johnson is in his fourth season with the Toronto Raptors, and the power forward is damn proud of it. If you weren’t aware of that before Friday morning, you are now.
Johnson tweeted a photo of his new haircut early Friday morning, which includes the Raptors’ logo — color and all. We have seen athletes shave their team’s logo into their standard haircut or their sweet high-top fade before big games, but Johnson took the detail to another level.
Should Johnson earn himself another ejection for throwing a tantrum like this one, NBA officials will now be frightened as they look at the back of his head while he’s walking off the court. That’s just one of many perks this haircut is going to provide.
By Larry Brown | December 11, 2012 - Posted in Basketball
Amir Johnson was ejected during the third quarter of the Toronto Raptors-Portland Trailblazers game on Monday after getting into a fight with referee David Jones over whether Johnson could touch the ball following a free throw. Seriously.
Johnson wanted to touch the ball after Portland’s J.J. Hickson made a free throw line, but referee David Jones maintained control. They struggled over who would hold the ball, and it ended with Jones blowing his whistle and giving Johnson a technical foul for holding things up. The technical foul caused Johnson to lose it.
“He turned his back, I really wanted to know what happened,” Johnson explained after the game, via Ben Golliver of The Point Forward. “Nothing was said. I lost my cool right there. I never had any problems all the eight years I’ve been in the league. I never argued with a ref or did anything wrong. From there, I just lost my cool.”
“I think [it was childish] between both of us,” Johnson said. “We were both wrestling with the ball. That was kind of childish. We both either could of let it go or anything. That part was childish. Plus, on my part for reacting that way.”
Johnson’s blowup culminated with him angrily throwing his mouthpiece toward Jones. He knows he was wrong and is ready to accept the consequences.
“I don’t know if anybody got hit, I apologize for that,” Johnson said, per Golliver. “I’m going to accept the consequences. Whatever happens, happens. I apologize if I hurt anybody or I did anything wrong.”
At least Johnson is acting like a man after what was very much a childish incident. Sheesh. This should be a fun one for the league office to review.
By Steve DelVecchio | November 30, 2012 - Posted in Basketball
Do tall people like tall things? That would appear to be the case with Toronto Raptors forward Amir Johnson, who stands 6-foot-9 and has a condo with some very high ceilings. In order to properly utilize the space provided by those extremely high ceilings, Johnson decided to buy himself a massive Christmas tree for the holiday season.
As you can see from the photo above that he shared on Twitter, Johnson had to balance in an acrobatic stance to put the finishing touches on his tree, which has to be at least 20 feet tall. The Raptors probably look at the photo and cringe, but we look at it and see a man who is fully committed to spreading holiday cheer.
Between this nifty photo and the picture he tweeted of those hilarious custom shoes he wore during Toronto’s opener, Johnson is shaping up to be a must-follow on Twitter.
By Steve DelVecchio | November 2, 2012 - Posted in Basketball, Swag
The sneakers you see above belong to Toronto Raptors forward Amir Johnson. He wore them in his team’s opener against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night. The face you see on those sneakers also belongs to Amir Johnson.
It takes a certain type of person to want their own face looking back at them when they look down at their feet, but to each his own. LeBron James was wearing some crazy kicks with some personalized inscriptions on them when the Miami Heat kicked off their season, but I don’t think even he would have the stones to put his own face on his sneakers. Johnson proudly shared a picture of the shoes on Twitter before Wednesday’s game, so I guess you can say he has swag. Good for him.
If Amir Johnson and Jonas Valanciunas had a plan going into the Toronto Raptors’ game against the Washington Wizards on Sunday night, they executed it to perfection. Toronto may have gone on to lose the game, but Johnson and Valanciunas were down in the trenches doing the dirty work just seconds after the opening tip.
