Dennis Johnson Hall of Fame Finalist -- Finally

DJ in the Hall is a no brainer.

3-time NBA Champion, NBA Finals MVP, 5-time All-Star, 9-time All-Defensive Team, a great clutch player. That's Hall of Fame in my book.

Boston Globe: DJ in Hall OK with [Dominique] Wilkins

Arizona Republic: Dennis Johnson among Hall finalists
Former Suns star could be inducted posthumously

A Final Tribute to DJ

I was talking to my brother last night and we agreed that no one should ever be judged or remembered solely for the worst 10 minutes of their life. (I bet some nasty image of yourself just flashed through your head as you read that sentence.) So we'll remember DJ lumbering down the court, throwing those blind passes to Larry, and smiling his loopy smile. Putting the hurt on the Boston Strangler, Andrew Toney. In Magic Johnson's face. Laughing at Danny Ainge. Larry stole the ball, but DJ ran half the court to lay it in. RIP

Bob Ryan, Boston Globe (a few days late in my estimation): There was nobody like DJ

J.A. Adande, LATimes: Dennis Johnson played to win
The height of athletic achievement is to be at your best when it matters most, and he did.

Portsmouth Herald: D.J. was everybody's Celtic

NBA.com: Johnson Remembered at Memorial Service

Daily Breeze: Commentary: Johnson's coaches recall his rags-to-riches story
Harbor's White and Pepperdine's Colson were fond of their instinctive former pupil -- one of the best NBA players not in the Hall of Fame.

Hartford Courant: NBA: D.J. Had Winning Touch

Peter (The Lesser) Vecsey, NYPost:
CLUELESS IN SEATTLE
SHAME ON SONICS FOR NOT RETIRING D.J.'S NUMBER

Blackathlete.net: Johnson Grew Into A Man Few Anticipated

Dennis Johnson. Flawed Human

Until his too early death this week, I had forgotten about the incident where DJ was charged with assaulting his wife. And I couldn't find anything about it on the 'net, except for the fact that seemingly the family had stayed together. Globe columnist Derrick Jackson lays out what happened.

Boston Globe, DERRICK Z. JACKSON
He kept coming to the game

Johnson, who died suddenly Thursday of a heart attack at 52, had a basketball intelligence that seemed destined for a head coaching job. By most accounts, he took himself off the fast track by being arrested for grabbing his wife’s throat, threatening her with a knife and threatening one of his sons in their Orlando home in 1997.

Johnson was also much talked about as a candidate for the Basketball Hall of Fame. ‘‘If someone is a convicted felon,’’ Hall of Fame president Joe O’Brien said at the time, ‘‘we would eliminate them from consideration.’’

We never heard much about this from his wife, Donna. She did not file charges. But one must figure she was strong in the face of Johnson’s fury. The police report said she told him, ‘‘What are you going to do, kill me? Go ahead.’’

Johnson apparently tried to kill the beast within himself. In the following years, he pleaded to anyone who would listen that he went to counseling and repeatedly apologized to his wife and family. He told the Los Angeles Times that he ‘‘needed to correct myself.’’ He understood how to correct the cost to himself professionally. He got on basketball’s version of the warehouse forklift. He died a minor-league coach.

Johnson told the Globe’s Bob Ryan in 2000, ‘‘People say, ‘Why didn’t she leave you?’ It wasn’t that simple. You’ve got to look at it this way: 22 years invested in a marriage vs. 10 very bad minutes. I knew the next year was going to be bad, and I knew it would be at least that long before I worked again, but I decided I’d have to face the music. I did my counseling. And I never hid ... I tried my best to repair the damage I did.’’

That still leaves Johnson — like most human beings — short of sainthood. But it sounds better than politicians who say they take responsibility without showing how they did. It’s a lot better than O.J. Simpson, who tried to peddle the book ‘‘If I Did It’’ about the murder of his ex-wife, for which he was acquitted, and has paid only a fraction of a $33.5 million civil judgment to his ex-wife’s family.

In a nation where nearly a quarter of women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, experience violence from an intimate partner sometime in their lives, it is important if Johnson really did turn his 10 bad minutes into nearly 10 more years of a healthier marriage before his death. He hasn’t made the Hall of Fame. But NBA commissioner David Stern on Thursday hailed Johnson as ‘‘a man of extraordinary character.’’

Only Donna Johnson knows for sure. If she agrees with Stern, it is because her husband kept coming to the game.

Tributes to DJ

Apparently Bob Ryan and Dan Shaughnessy, who made their reputations covering the 1980s Celtics, couldn't be bothered. No respect.

Things I learned (or had forgotten) about DJ: Red traded him for Rick Robey. (Which means we Celtics fans lost the great thrill of hearing Bob Cousy announce, 'Wick Wobey with the webound!' We still had Wobewt Pawwish with the webound, though.) He had those Groucho Marx eyebrows. When he wasn't running, he walked like an old man. His arms were freakishly long. He was a cut up. His coaching career was curtailed after he was charged with assaulting his wife in 1997. He, his wife, and their three kids first names all started with 'D'. (Dennis, Donna, Dwayne, Daniel and Denise.) He wasn't recruited by any college, and spent the year after high school driving a forklift. His first professional basketball coach was Bill Russell in Seattle.

Jackie MacMullan, Boston Globe: He always rose to the occasion

ESPN, Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy, Page 2: DJ should have made Springfield while still alive

East Valley (AZ) Tribune: Ex-Sun Dennis Johnson dies

Seattle Times: Biography | All about D.J. Bio

NYTimes: Dennis Johnson, 52, N.B.A. Defensive Wizard, Dies

Seattle Times: Goodbye, D.J., a favorite when Sonics were champs

Hartford Courant: Career Was No Layup
Dennis Johnson Dies; Bird's `Best' Teammate

LATimes: Dennis Johnson, 52; former NBA star played on 3 championship teams

SI.com: One cool customer
D.J.'s toughness, gamesmanship made him special

Metrowest News: Lenny Megliola: Farewell to a true C's great

SouthCoastToday.com: Celtics lose another great
D.J., coaching in NBDL, collapses after practice, dies at age 52

CapeCodTimes: Remembering DJ

RIP Dennis Johnson: The Best Player Larry Bird Ever Played With

Celtics 1985-86 championship starters (from left) Larry Bird, Johnson, and Kevin McHale at the Boston Garden.
(Globe File Photo)

Like all basketball fans, I was shocked to hear of Dennis Johnson's untimely death today. I was peripherally aware of Dennis Johnson when the Celtics acquired him in 1983. He had been the NBA Finals MVP in 1979, but I was a new college graduate that year and I don't even think I owned a TV that June. Plus he played in the west, so he only played the east coast teams twice a year. I knew DJ as a tenacious defender, a player who was always on the NBA all-defensive team. He was recognizable with all those freckles.

The Celtics had won the NBA championship in 1981, but Tiny Archibald retired at the end of 1983 season. Danny Ainge and Gerald Henderson were no Tiny Archibald, so Red (Auerbach, also recently RIP) went out and pulled another rabbit out of the hat. DJ arrived in Boston with a mixed reputation. He had been traded twice in three years, and Seattle had traded him the year after he was MVP of the NBA Finals, which was weird in itself, and it was rumored he was a problem in the lockerroom. (David Halberstam painted an unflattering portrait of DJ in Breaks of The Game, the best book ever on basketball, as well.) That's the context in which Larry Bird started talking about DJ as the best teammate he'd ever had. He was telling Celtics fans, this guy is your guy.

And if DJ was Larry's guy, he was our guy. And he played like Bird. They shared that hypercompetitiveness and confidence. If Larry wasn't taking the final shot in a game, you wanted it to be DJ. He could have shot 1 for 12 in the game, but if he took a shot with the game on the line he made it. He wanted to take that final shot. He loved to win, and he hated to lose, and he took the game into his hands in those situations. You had to love a player like that.

DJ had a very distinctive style. He always played low to the ground, and when he went for the ball he went in underhanded. He would put a body on a guy when he did it, but unlike everyone else going in and slapping at the ball overhand, DJ hardly ever got called for fouls no matter how much contact there was.

It's a sad day for Celtics fans, and for basketball fans everywhere. Even those who hated DJ respected him. Thanks for the memories, DJ. We'll never forget you.

NBA.com: Dennis Johnson Career Statistics

Randy Hill, FoxSports: DJ overcame obstacles time and time again

WaPo: Former NBA Star Dennis Johnson Dies

Dennis Johnson Through the Years: Boston Globe Photo Gallery

Yahoo Slide Show: Dennis Johnson

YouTube: The Play Johnny Most: "Now there's a steal by Bird. Underneath to DJ, he lays it in. Right at one second left. What a play by Bird! Bird stole the inbounding pass. Laid it off to DJ, DJ, laid it up and in. And Boston has a one point lead with one second left! Oh, my, this place is going crazy!"

ESPN Page 2: Ex-hoopsters who should be in Hall

2. Dennis Johnson (23 letters)
I hate the Celtics. I drove in Boston once and one rotary was enough to make me eternally despise all things New England. All things, that is, except Dennis Johnson. While Kevin McHale mugged people down low, Larry Bird practiced his career-long imitation of Rick Barry, and Danny Ainge played basketball as well as any other Blue Jay, Dennis Johnson played defense.

The Hall's lack of Dennis Johnson ranks as one more example of non-white Boston athletes screwed by their sports. Rather than whining about Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach should join Page 2 and recognize that Dennis Johnson belongs in the Hall.
Greg Allison
Las Cruces, N.M.

If I may quote Basketball Jesus, "The best player I ever played with was Dennis Johnson." -- Larry Bird. 'Nuff said.

Get DJ in the Hall.
Shane Papatolicas
San Francisco