University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Johnson Takes His Game To The Streets
November 28, 2001 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 28, 2001
By Adam Lucas
TarHeelBlue.com
New York City playground lore is full of stories about the stars of the playground.
The great players always come with great nicknames. The Goat. The Helicopter. Sweet Pea. And now, there's Carrot Top.
OK, so it doesn't have quite the ring to it that some of the others do. But Will Johnson isn't really a nickname type of guy. His playing style isn't flashy. Admit it--when you think about the playgrounds of Harlem, he isn't exactly the first person who comes to mind.
After all, Johnson has one of the most diverse resumes on the 2001-02 team. In high school, he was an All-State soccer goalie. Like former Tar Heel Hubert Davis, he enjoys playing the cello. And, of course, he's attending Carolina on the Morehead Scholarship, one of the most prestigious awards given by the University. He's majoring in political science and is considering attending law school after graduation.
It sounds like he should be in the boardroom, not the playground courts of New York City.
He knows that. And that's part of the reason he spent several weeks of his summer playing in a Harlem summer league. By day, Johnson had a buttoned-down internship at Morgan Stanley. By night, he was Carrot Top, the red-headed basketball avenger.
"It made for some long days," Johnson admitted. "But it was also a good balance, and it was a help because I got a break from the Wall Street atmosphere. The games were always packed, and the crowd was jammed in on the sides."
The Dyckman League, an NCAA-certified event that is played with referees and a more structured approach than most fans might assume, is one of several summer leagues that take place in New York City. Along with the Rucker League and the Greater New York Pro-Am League, it's where some of the best basketball of the summer is played.
It's also a place where pedigree doesn't matter. Johnson's Division I scholarship to one of the most prestigious basketball schools in the country didn't mean much on Harlem's outdoor courts. Most Dyckman games, which featured several other major college players, including Iowa State point guard Ricky Morgan, were played near 190th Street in Harlem.
"They're pretty proud of New York City basketball," Johnson said. "They don't defer to anyone just because they play for Carolina. I had only told a few people, and I guess the word got around, but it wasn't a big deal."
It wasn't a big deal because in New York City, it doesn't matter where you play, it just matters how you play. And how Johnson plays doesn't seem to fit the image of streetball. There's a lot of freelancing, a lot of clearing out and going one-on-one.
But it's also real basketball. The league had referees and organization, so it wasn't a free-for-all. And even on the playground, someone has to set screens and grab rebounds. Just as he does for the Tar Heels, that someone was Johnson.
"They kind of got on me at first," he said. "But all they really care about is if you can play."
It wasn't a new experience. After all, the ACC is filled with arenas where judgments about skill are made on first impressions. When a 6-foot-8, 218-pound redhead from Hickory, North Carolina walks into the arena, the immediate assumption is that he can't play.
Johnson isn't going to slam down an alley-oop dunk or break a defender's ankles off the dribble. But Tar Heel fans are warming up to his hardnosed style. He had perhaps the most solid exhibition season of any Carolina player, and that translated into 12 minutes of playing time in the disappointing season opener against Hampton.
In those 12 minutes, he managed to grab four rebounds, the best rebounds-per-minute average on the team. He also scored six points and committed zero turnovers, a line that may result in an increased role as the season progresses.
His recent New York City experience even showed through on one play. As Brian Morrison was running a three-on-two fast break, he faked a pass to the wing and then fired underneath the basket to Johnson. The junior from Hickory caught the ball in stride and laid it in. Just another great play from Carrot Top, the New York City playground legend.
"All the guys in New York play a lot of basketball, so they know how the game works," he said. "It was definitely the best part of my summer."
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Adam Lucas is the co-publisher of Basketball America. He is a lifelong observer of UNC sports and can be reached at JAdamLucas@aol.com.
