Dennis Johnson, the head coach of the Austin Toros and a former NBA star, passed away last Thursday from an apparent heart attack. He was 52 years old.
After a 14-year career as a player in the NBA, during which time he won three championships and was an All-Star five times over, Johnson came to Austin in the fall of 2005 to coach the Toros in their inaugural season in the NBA’s Development League. Known throughout the basketball world as a top-notch player and student of the game (no less an authority than Larry Bird called him “the best I’ve ever played with”), Johnson led the Toros to a combined record of 39-41 during his year-and-a-half tenure. At the time of his death, his team was in the midst of a brilliant 14-5 run. (Made all the more brilliant when set against their dismal 1-12 start. All the better: There’s nothing more exciting than breaking late.)
Hall of Fame résumé aside (are you listening, Springfield?), Johnson was just about the friendliest, most affable guy you could hope to meet. Despite the fact that I grew up a Lakers fan and loathed – loathed! – Johnson’s Celtics team of the 1980s, from the very moment he and I met, I was forced to let all that past bitterness and animosity melt away; clearly it wouldn’t wash in Johnson’s world.
“I’m a lucky man in that I really like what I do,” he told me at the time. “I’m one of maybe 7 percent of the population that does exactly what he likes to do for a living. There’s nothing else out there for me; basketball is what I do. I get ornery if I’m not around it all the time. It may be a sad thing that my life revolves around basketball, but it does.”
Johnson died after collapsing outside the Austin Convention Center, where he had just finished leading the Toros through practice. From all accounts, he had capped off that day’s work with a friendly game of one-on-one with forward Jamar Smith.
Let us count a man happy who lived doing what he wanted and died the same way.
[Editor’s note: Be sure to (re)read Rosenblatt’s excellent feature on the Toros and Dennis Johnson, “D-League Dreams,” from the Dec. 1, 2006 Chronicle.]
This article appears in February 23 • 2007.