John Johnson, American basketball player, Died at 68

  Sports

John Howard Getty “J.J.” Johnson was born on October 18, 1947, and died on January 8, 2016.

He was an American basketball player.

John was a 6’7” small forward.

He played high school basketball at Messmer High School, (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and collegiately for Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming and for the University of Iowa.

John Johnson set an Iowa record for points in a season during his senior year, his averaged was 27.9 points per game.

The player also holds Iowa’s top two scoring performances with 49 and 46 points.

John has played two seasons for Iowa, leading the team in scoring and rebounding both seasons.

He was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 7th pick of the 1970 NBA Draft.

He was also selected in the 1970 ABA Draft by the Texas Chaparrals.

John was the franchise’s first player to play in an NBA All-Star Game.

John Johnson went on to have a productive twelve-year NBA career with four teams, making two NBA All-Star Game appearances and scoring 11,200 career points.

Mr. Johnson also won an NBA championship ring as a key contributor for the 1978-1979 Seattle SuperSonics, where he was reunited with former Iowa Hawkeye teammate Fred Brown.

Mr.Johnson had moved from Seattle to San Jose when his son Mitch was recruited to play for Stanford.

He has a son who played on the Stanford University basketball team from 2005 to 2008.

John Johnson passed away at 68 yrs old.