Kris Johnson

Kristaan Iman Johnson (born November 18, 1975) is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins, winning an NCAA championship his freshman year in 1995. Johnson played eight years professionally in multiple countries, winning the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Champions Cup in 2002 and being named the tournament's Most Valuable Player (MVP). He later worked as a basketball analyst for Fox Sports before starting his own sports website, JerseyChaser.com.

Johnson played high school basketball for Crenshaw High School, where he was named Los Angeles City Section Player of the Year and won two consecutive California state basketball championships. He and his father, Marques—who played basketball professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and college under legendary coach John Wooden at UCLA—are one of the few father–son combinations to either each be named Los Angeles City Section Player of the Year or to have both won an NCAA basketball championship.

Early life Johnson was born in Los Angeles on November 18, 1975, to former NBA player Marques Johnson and health and beauty practitioner Sabrina Sheran. He changed schools often due to his father's changing locations during his professional basketball career. He estimated he attended 27 schools. In 1987, Johnson was instructed to watch his 15-month-old brother, Marques Jr., when his little brother later accidentally drowned in the pool of the family's home in Bel Air in Los Angeles. Johnson contemplated suicide. His parents decided to move Johnson to Atlanta with his mother to ease the pain. He ended up in juvenile court after a school incident and was later kicked out of the Clayton County school system. After repeated conflicts with his mother, Johnson returned to Los Angeles, and he did not speak to his mother for three years. His father had told him that his best chance of playing for a big Division I college like UCLA was to attend a school like Crenshaw, where Marques had starred. he and Marques, who won the award in 1973, became the first father–son combo to be honored. Johnson won the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Division I championship with Crenshaw that season as well as in his senior year in 1994. He averaged 23.3 points and 9.2 rebounds his final season. Johnson associated with gangs while at Crenshaw, which was in the Crips' territory. He was once shot at by a member of the Bloods, a rival gang. He was tough to defend, especially when he backed in toward the basket. Marques had won the 1977 John R. Wooden Award as the college basketball player of the year. UCLA was 102–27 and won three consecutive Pacific-10 titles during Johnson's career. A swingman with the ability to score in the low post and outside, Johnson was at times between and overweight. Combined with his temper, he was called by one newspaper "The Round Mound of Sound", a play on Charles Barkley's nickname of "The Round Mound of Rebound". His second season in 1995–96 ended with UCLA's 43–41 upset loss to Ivy League champion Princeton in the first round of the NCAA tournament. "There was just a lot of chemistry-type issues about who was going to be the star," said Johnson about the team. "I can't say we were the most focused team going into the tournament. We kind of went into it like, 'Ivy League, schmivey league.' It was a total 'whatever.' What-ever." In his junior season in 1996–97, the Bruins won 12 consecutive games before losing in the Elite Eight.

Johnson was suspended for 50 days in the 1997–98 season, reportedly violating the school's drug policy on marijuana. He was honored as the team's co-Most Valuable Player along with Toby Bailey and J.R. Henderson. Johnson became so responsible after the suspension that coach Steve Lavin used him as a model for the freshmen. "The trivial things that made him mad before don't bother him. He sees the bigger picture. He always felt like he had something to prove. Now, he seems at peace," said Bailey. Johnson was drafted by the Yakima Sun Kings in the eighth round with the 67th pick of the 1998 Continental Basketball Association draft. "I saw him work out in Seattle with (NBA draft picks) Felipe López, Corey Benjamin and Miles Simon, and he was as good or better than those guys," said Kings coach Paul Woopert. He started playing in Russia for Avtodor Saratov before playing in Turkey for a few months. He returned to the United States and played in the Continental Basketball Association for the Quad City Thunder in the 1999–2000 season and briefly the next season for the Sioux Falls Skyforce in 2000. He next went to Qatar and played in 2001–2003 with Al Rayyan, winning the 2002 Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Champions Cup; He later went to Lebanon to join Riyadi, and then Antranik in 2005.

Outside basketball Johnson worked at Fox Sports starting in 2008, where he worked for three years and served as a college basketball studio analyst and co-host of a segment named "Beyond the Arc." He managed several business ventures, and started the sports website JerseyChaser.com.

Personal Johnson has a younger brother, Josiah, who also played basketball at Montclair Prep Another younger brother, Moriah, enrolled at Tuskegee University in 2011 and joined its basketball team; he also co-starred on the reality television series, Baldwin Hills.