TOM's Talks | Kevin Johnson

with the seventy sixers for seventeen seasons. Now here's my conversation with kJ. Well, welcome to another edition of Tom's Talks, and we are joining by the long time athletic trainer of the seventy six Ers, Kevin Johnson, one of our favorites, so popular among the staff and obviously the players. kJ. How are you doing. I'm doing fine, Tom, Thanks for having me. I really appreciate this opportunity and I hope you and all your loved loans are staying safe. Same.

It's been three months since the season went out a hiatus. What had been doing to fill your time? I'm sure you've had some meetings with staff and whatnot, but what else aside from zoom and preparing to come back to play and check it in with the players daily to make sure that they're okay and all of their needs are met, you know, physically and mentally as well. You know, a lot of them have a lot of questions, so you would answer questions that they might have or they

might have about their loved ones. So even though there's been what we would consider downtime, we've been very, very busy trying to prepare and keep a safe environment, in a clean environment for everyone to return back into the facility and return to play. I can imagine, and that seems to be right around the corner where your thoughts and about going back to play and eventually going down to Florida. You know, the league is going to do

a great job, as they always do. They're going to think everything out, So it's going to be well thought out. It's going to be well staffed from a medical standpoint with regards to everything the league has done, from a

testing standpoint to just everything. I mean, the league never bears an expense and doesn't follow through on all their research and details, so it's going to be as safe as can be You've been around long enough to have endured not one, but probably two lockouts, but that was different because you weren't able to communicate with the players.

And as you say, now, with this being such an unusual situation and worried about their health and safety and their conditioning, it'll be interesting to see what you get back because all the different players have been in different situations with different workout apparatus or lack thereof. It'll be interesting in that light as well. Correct, Yeah, I mean it's definitely been an unloading period, if you will. I

mean the bone, the tendons, the muscles. It's just not the same load you would get going up and down the court. Now, our staff has done a great job preparing, doing zoom workouts, giving having equipment dropped off at their house. I mean everything from the mticals to bikes, to free weights, to basketballs to bands, you name it, they got it. I mean the staff and then the players attentiveness to trying to stay in shape has been great as well. So I mean kudos to the staff and the players

and the organization. I mean everything for meals to anything you need. That's great. Certainly times of change with the ability to communicate in this manner and everything that's part of today's world in twenty twenty, particularly in this most unusual of times. But let's go back. You grew up in Indianapolis. I always laugh, I grew up in Illinois. So when we go back to the Midwest, you always joke about it being God's country. But you're very proud

from Indianapolis. You went to Indiana State. Basketball in Indiana is such a huge staple of wife and the loser state. What's it like, particularly on the high school level, of being a young basketball player growing up in Indiana. In Indiana,

basketball just like Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio is everything. You can drive down a street in the neighborhood and every other house or every three houses has a basketball hoop outside, and you know, you go by the parks and they're full of people just playing, and you go there and if you're not there first, you're waiting sometimes forty five minutes to an hour to play. But it's just a

focal point and it goes without saying. In the summertime, you know, after you make up your bed and brush your teeth and do what you're supposed to do as a kid, you're going down to your neighbor's house and you're playing, and then when you get tired of their court, they're coming back to your house and your plan on your home court, so no one gets home court advantage. You know, you're trying to alternate and rotate because every

who has different obstacles. You got to navigate to if you're driving or if you're shooting and things like that. But I know there's some some huge gyms there like the Marians, De Andersons and whatnot. But Indiana is also known for the field House, and Butler of course hosted the state tournament for years. But our mutual friend Courtney Whittie, who grew up in Indiana, ended up playing at IU

as a staff member with the Pacers. Probably when you were there, talked about a lot of staff members taking trips during the season down to some of the smaller places and to the field houses where that's kind of what we think of too. I think maybe a little bit from the movie Hoosiers. But when you think of Indiana basketball, and I always go back, I hearken back

to that thing. They used to use it, but then Consaco field House and that is when they would open the game just about to introduce the Pacers, and they would say, you know, and every forty nine others they just basketball. But this is Indiana and that's right. Speak to that a little bit about the small fieldhouse teams and whatnot. I mean, it's if you think about the

movie Hoosiers, it sums up Indiana basketball. Up until recently, you could have we didn't have different classes, so you'd have a one A class playing against a five A class high school to win the state championship. And I think that's why it was so unique. We had one champion. You know, some states have a class one A champ but two, three, four, five A know, we had one championship and that meant everything. And to play for that and to work out every day with that as your

end all coal. I mean, you have women and old three grandmothers and little girls. Everybody knows about basketball. I remember going to see my sister play and she played in high school and they had three on three where it was three offensive players or three defensive players. A lot of the weirdest thing. But everyone plays basketball. I'm everyone. And in the end, that deal with the three on three my professional basketball stant if you will started in

Iowa in the CBA. As I mentioned probably too often, but Iowas still had that. And when you say that about the three, and they were six players but only run to half court, you were either an offensive player or defensive player. So you'd get it across an bird. You would stop at the top of money. I mean, you have about antiquated basketball, but it wasn't that long ago. No, No, I'm talking. My sister graduated in nineteen seventy nine, so maybe they changed it after that or right before that,

right around seventy eight seventy nine. Right, little known fact. You can still shoot the rock and we've shot over the years. We joke about the championship belt and you've had it more than I but you can fill it up. That's been a little bit of something that's never left you, that ability to shoot the ball, you know. And that's the one thing I say about people from Indiana. They don't have the crossovers and around the back and go into the basket. But the one thing we pride ourselves

on is being a shooter. And that's how I knew you were from the Midwest. Top when I would sit there and watch you. That was a defender. I would see you shoot five, big, five, six, seven in a row and it was like, yeah, he's got to be And this was before we had been formally introduced to seeing you on the courier. Right. I still love to get out there and shoot. I'm fifty three now, so

I don't do a lot of up and down. I might play a half court game every now and then, but my game now was around the world or horse right, me too, because there's a price to pay. If you do anything more than that, that's for sure, I'll be coming to see again. So then after high school you went to Indiana State. It wasn't long after Larry Bird.

Speaking of nineteen seventy nine, that's when Burn and the Sycamorees made it to the NCAA Championship game, still to my knowledge, the most ever watch game in college basketball game with Michigan State. But it wasn't idealic Indiana State is in terror out Indiana. It's southern Indiana, and as you've mentioned before, Indiana is one of the most conservative states.

They were one of the last states to recognize the holiday for Martin Luther King's birthday in January, and you shared with us as a staff, some of your personal experiences. The six ers HBSc is a larger whole company has been great in terms of all of us getting together and listening to people's stories, people of color. And you tell a story about in the dormitory at Indiana State and the ku Klux Klan kJ tell us a little bit more about that January on Martin Luther King Day,

nineteen eighty six. Now I go down and August nineteen eighty five was my first year, so not even through my first year, I saw the klu Klux clan march down the street in front of my doorm there right there on Third Street in downtown Tera Hode to Indiana nineteen eighty six, and every year thereafter on Martin King Day, and it just sent a message to how things hadn't changed,

even though it seemed like things really had changed. They always sent that message that we're still trying to control your minds and the situation down here in Tara Hope, and it was just it was something you couldn't even finish class that day. Literally you'd sit there and go, oh my God, like you wouldn't be able to study. That's crazy. It's the most and the things that they would say and chant and throw business cards and flyers, and you know, people would pick them up and look

at that and they say, hey, you want one? I was like, what would I want with that for? But it was just the reality in nineteen eighty six that we had not made the changes that every that some people thought we had me And now with the groundswell of support and peaceful protests and so much action, it seems like we are on the cusp of what could be tangible change. You feel that way, Yes, see what happened. The invention of the cell phone with video on it

has changed things for me. To tell you that story is one thing. But had the portable video quarter been out then and I took a video to show you, Tom, I mean my words and adjectives can't describe that at all. I mean, it just doesn't do with justice to see that, to hear that, to look in those people's eyes when they look at you, it's just unbelievable. And they would say things that, you know, my grandfather did something to your grandfather. I mean, things that you would hear just

ripped you through to your bone. We'll have more with Kevin Johnson in a moment. In this time of social distancing, Novacare Rehabilitation is offering physical therapy from the comfort and safety of your home. Through their new tel a Rehab program, Novacare will virtually bring their services to you so you may heal, build strength, and get back to the things you love. Tell a Rehab let you easily connect with one of Novocare's licensed therapists through web based technology that

is Hippo compliant. For more information, visit novacare dot com. And now back to my conversation with Kevin Johnson. Your career. Then after Indiana State, you got, I believe, an internship with the Colts. What was that like working in the National Football League in a huge training room. I can only imagine with all those players and working in the NFL. The NFL is a whole different animal and two in itself.

I mean, you've got one hundred guys in during training camp, so they would bring in an additional six interns to help the three full time trainers that they had. I mean, we were the first ones there, last one to leave. You know, you start in July and you've got ninety five degree temperatures with high humidity and You're just trying to keep people from from cramping up, You're trying to keep them healthy from heat stroke and then all your

other muscle skeletal injuries as well. I mean, it is if you work in the National Football League, you're not afraid to work. It's work, I can imagine. And then not long after that, you get a job with your hometown professional basketball team, the Indiana Pacers, and your back you know, working in basketball and that it was still a great franchise. What was that transition like to be an assistant trainer in the India Going from an assistant

trainer in the NFL to the NBA. You're looking at going from one hundred players in training camp to eighteen maybe twenty in training camp, and it was just unbelievable. It allowed you to really see rehab through because the numbers were small, so small, it allowed you to develop relationships and learn that that's what these players really really value when you're taking care of their bodies is to know that you really care about them as well. So you spend a lot of time getting to know the

athlete and their families and things like that. That's a tremendous fund. One of the players you became close to. Was the great Reggie Miller. Yes, yes, a good friend. We still talk quite a bit whenever they're in whenever he works with the networks and they cover our game, he always comes to the locker room and training room and says hello, and we give each other big hug and we talk about old time stories and you know, he was in my wedding and the whole line. So

good guy. You know, we fished together, we swimming together. We did it all. Reggie Miller. You talk about body types in terms of the n FELL, the NBA obviously very slender six to seven. But what struck me and it struck my dad too, because we played those teams three times in a row and he was able to come down to Indianapolis for those games against the Pacers,

but he was out there at four o'clock. I mean you talk about my dad was a big golfer, so he almost liked the range more than he liked competing on the course. The practicing, execution, and boy, Reggie Miller put in his time and he loved that and I love that and you saw that so much. I mean he put the working. Yes, he would call you on an off day and say, hey, I need to go shoot, but I want someone to stretch me out, or I

want someone that iced me down when I'm done. And literally he would go down and shoot, and if he wasn't satisfied with making ten in a row from a spot that he struggled from the previous game, we'd be there all day and I say, hey, Rich, you know, like, although we're about the world is done, and we did. I would be shagging the balls for him sometimes as well. Right,

his work as was incredible. He always wanted to have his workout done on game days before the visiting team arrived, right, And he was sitting in the gym and watched the team as they walked through and I and he would say, I'm already warmed up, guys. I hope you can get the little swagger there, rightwag. Yeah. So then you move on to the Washington Wizards. At the time, they were the Bullets, but it was Chris Webber. You had some pretty good teams down there with Washington. Tell us about that.

Those are some good days. Um, you know, I was young, they were young. Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, George mures Son, Calbert Cheney, it was. It was unbelievable. We really played, we really played hard and well. We went to the first round in the playoffs and played the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan ninety eight, and back then it was the best three out of five, and we lost those three games by a total of I want to say eight or nine points. That's how Cloud played them. But

you could just see his dominance. I mean, it was unbelievable. We did everything we could, but at the end of the day, Michael Jordan's Michael Jordan, and we just couldn't beat him. So you must have, especially for somebody's been in the NBA, to watch the last dances everybody did a few weeks back. You had to send me a keen interest in that because you saw that you'd seen

enough clothes. Oh man. One of my first games ever in the NBA, we played in Chicago in the old Chicago Stadium and Reggie Miller comes out and he hits I want to say, eleven straight points and Michael hasn't scored. So Phil doesn't like to call timeouts, or whoever the coach was didn't want to call a time out. Eventually there's a dead ball, so it's the TV timeout. I'm on the end of the bench and everyone's going crazy and I'm like, yeah, Reggie, keep giving it to them.

He doesn't want to see you tonight. And Reggie didn't even go to the huddle. He runs right to me and goes, don't say that. I don't want to wake this guy up. And I learned that that that was the end of my trash talking days as an athletic chairman. Speaking of timeouts, you and I was going to get to this, but this is pretty good point. You've always kept the fowls and the timeouts, and then if the

shot clock got under five you yelled out red. I mean it, really, you have so much to do in terms of like taking care of the athletes, but you're part of the game in that sense. You must enjoy that and love that a lot. It really keeps the trainers locked in. You know, you're not caught looking into the stands or being distracted. You know, you really or there to sit there and watch for injuries and monitor

minutes of guys that are coming back from injury. But keeping the timehouse, the team fouls, the shot clock, things like that really helped keep you locked in. On the job and good communication with the coach. So I'm not just telling the coach it's time for this guy to come out. We've already had dialogue and he knows that I'm looking out for the best interest at harm And you're not going to get on the referees because there's many times that you're in there with the team doctor

and you're caring for the referees as well. Yes, yes, so that's that's part of our obligation. Generally, it's it's someone on on the staff. It could be an assistant trainer, a head trainer, head athletic trainer, one of our pts, anyone, you know. So we do supplement the officials with care as well. Now you've traveled all over certainly with the six Years, recently China, in Spain and London. But when you're with the Wizards, the Sixers and the Wizards played

in Mexico City preseason. You guys had Leonard Hamilton and we shared it together in Mexico City. Do you remember that? I sure do. Wow, we went to We actually went to Mexico City a few times, and I do remember those times and sitting down with the Sixers and having team dinnis. It's funny that this is, uh, you know, we're on the zoom or the internet, I don't know what you call it now. But I did that game.

And if you remember, they probably have a new arena nowtum but that used to be used for bullfighting, and so the upper reaches of that little arena in Mexico City had chicken wire on it, right, remember, so the fans couldn't come down. Yes, so this was at the very beginning of webcasting or whatever. So I did that. I don't know what this would have been, maybe ninety eight, maybe ninety nine, whenever, but so actually the NBA had gone they brokered their their webcasting if you will, through

this company in Denver. The game went to I think two overtime. So it's preseason at this stage. Everyone's like, we done, and I was doing the game. I'm not on the radio, as I say, and it didn't ever get on. So I kept asking, like everybody okay, and the girl who was working with him, he's like, yeah, I got I'm not looking for Finally got back. We went to Chapel Hill. We played a game up there. We had to stop in Houston and refuel and then fly to Raleigh. But and I found out the next

day that didn't make it. So if you go to Mexico and you call a double overtime game in the preseason and you talked the old time that it never lands, it's like the tree, and course nobody heard it. I just didn't remember the most. The one of the things that stood out to me the most was when we walked in and the signs of the shower said do not open mouth, bile in shower, like they didn't want

us to drink the water. Those are some of the things that people don't think about, you know, No, in our eyes, we were talking about that dinner that we had. We shared it, I believe the Intercontinental in Mexico City, we had staff members our home game, if you will, so we had staff members down there. We went to the consulate. Behelipe Lopez spoke for you guys, and one of the staff members, Patty Butler, went a great old time employees and the sixers that, hey, the guys, your

eyes are all blood run. It was the error pollution in the city. Didn't even realize that that was affecting you just by walking around. So I guess you weren't supposed to open your eyes either, or had a great time in Mexico did so. But you come to the six Ers. You're in your seventeenth year. You've had a great run here and coming to an iconic franchise like the Sixers, you must have been stoked to come to Philadelphia. I was. It was really, to use the old cliche,

a dream come true. So rich in history. I mean as a kid in Indiana on Sundays, there was the Celtics, the Sixers. You might see the Knicks. Didn't you have the Western Conference game with like Denver or the Lakers, But the Sixers seem like as a young kid, they were on every Sunday. And you know there was only four stations back then, or three stations NBC, ADC. It's

CBS over the your stations, as they say. So it's been a great run for you, and I've shared this with you before, but you know, like we sit together in the back of the plane with a host of others, and I know your job is to take care of the players, obviously, but you've been so gracious with one of us, like for me personally, with my back over the years, whether it's coming to your suite and you know, trying to get some something to loosen up my back, or even if somebody comes back to you to get

a tile at all or parall flu because they're under the weather. And you've just been so down to earth and helpful and kind. And it's never lost on me or the rest of us that come to you throughout the time. And you've got, you know, multimillionaire players, star athletes that you're taking care of, but you've never lost that. And I so much appreciate that, and I know we all do. Tom Thanks for me for the kind words.

I really appreciate that. It means a lot, you know, I obviously want to take care of the players and the staff. That that's just part of what you do. If you're an athletic trainer, if you're in the medical field, you're you're a giver. You're a provider, you know, and you can't stand to see someone in need, and if you do, it's my job to help, you know, I'm paid by the team to take care of everybody after

we've taken care of obviously the players. But that's just the way I was taught from my mentors with David Craig and Hunter Smith, and it's being a host of others. You have Pascal Gerrero and Leslie Gardner that work with you, and Lorena Torres works performance with the guys, and Scott

Epsley is the medical director. So you have a great team around you with the sixers and the emphasis and treating the athletes the best way possible in today's world for sports fight and great soft tissue help with Doris and you know, uh, it really is a great staff. I think we have a great team that's been as symboled. You know, you don't it's and it's around the clock, trust me, it's around the clock. You know. When you get to the hotel, guys are on different schedules, you know.

So and then again I'm on call, so I can get three thirty four in the morning and have some gastron ritis or whatever problem. You need to go take care of them. So that's what we do, and then get up and help somebody go get an image in

a different city. And you're right there. I've been there drinking coffee and you guys are getting into an uber back in the day, a cab like you say, it's almost twenty four to seven with you, yes, yes, but you know it's a love and if you're passionate about your job and your passionate about athletic training, and you're passionate about helping people, that's what you do and you find the joy at the end of the day when someone like you just came and said, I appreciate what

you've done. You know, it's a great satisfaction when you see a guy that had to be walked off the court to now go up and get his average and points or get to steal or whatever he does on whatever his job is, but to help him get back to doing his job, and say with you, you know you couldn't do your job and then you needed some help, whether you were sick or under the weather or whatever. And then you know, hey, listen and you hear Tom say,

are you kidding me? And you're like, hey, he's back crunched over like the letter C with my back, but actually I can't talk when I've had it's embarrassed you walking around the arena when it's out, shall we say. And you've been recognized, you know, you were the chairman for two years from fifteen to seventeen with the National Athletic Basketball Trainers Association. You've got Trainer of the Year

in twenty seventeen. That must make you feel proud to be a a leader in your field and then to be recognized as such as well, Yeah, those two really special moments in my life. Winning the Athletic Trainer of the Year from the Physicians of Podiatric Sports Medicine, so the foot doctors also voted me that year. Those are special individual awards. But I'm happy about that, but I'd be really, really really happy tom them when you get

to say the seventy sixers are crowned NBA champions. That's that's the goal we want and that's what we're striving for. I want to hear you say that. It would be the line. Apparently that's going to be the line right there. Twice or one and seventeen, you were the trainer for

the Eastern Conference All Star team. Now you know you might not be taping the ankles is tight that day, but to be around the best players in our game, that must have been really for a basketball guy, kind of a little slice of basketball heaven those times, those weekends, it is, and to see them when they're not so focused just on winning. Now, this last All Star game was was quite different, but typically the other ones that I've been a part of, Um, it's a little more

laid back atmosphere. You get to see guys being themselves and it's it's it is good especially, it's great, especially when you're a basketball fan, as I am as well. Right, So you touched on this a little bit earlier, and you kind of just brought us into the locker room

a little bit. I'm sure there's a lot of joking in that All Star setting, but you spend so much time with the players and as you said, they know you're vested in their best interests, with their health and mind and their well being, and there's times that you're I would imagine a lot a listener where you're they're unloading and they they're venting and or even sharing in something that's they can't go bragging around the locker room. So you've really created a bond and known these players

and really get close to them over the years. Correct, Yes, Yes, that's that's an interesting side of it too. And as I've been in the field for quite some time now, you've go from being looked upon as one of their peers almost someone that's around their same age to now it's like uncle Kajor or you know, almost like their father, and they ask you about oh man child, you know, raising kids, or being in relationships, or how to handle different real life situations. And that's fun as well. I

know something else speaking of relationship. You've been involved in Big Brothers throughout the years, and when we start to tackle this issue of mentoring young people and trying to raise people to see people evenly across the board and fairly and justly, that's a great way right there, because that's one on one. I get a little of that in college. Obviously we do a lot of community work with the seventy six ers, but that's lasting right there.

Speak to that relationship that you're able to build for a young person as a member of Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Tom, you said best, it's a great way to make a difference in a young child's life. We

just don't know. I know, before I got involved, had no idea how many young men didn't have a young man, or how many young women didn't have a lady in their life to show them things and to be that voice that they could talk to You're not their parents, but you're there to give them a guidance and showing things. It's a beautiful relationship. My little brother has now graduated from more House College, is working, has a great career,

and is now about to start his own family. And we talked quite a bit and he tells me things about like I was. You know, he saw a man. I showed him how to shave things that people forget. It's not always just shooting a basketball. It's about telling him how to open a car door when he takes his girlfriend out on a day. Things of that nature that he mentions to me, and it's like, you still remember that I made an impression and you made an impression. And there's a lot of people that can help make

lasting impressions on people. And how to out of time because you've won Best Dress Trainer thirty years in a row. Right, it depends on whose voting the thank you. I did teach them how to tie a tie. That was one of the things I did as a as a how to speech when I was in college, speaking of Indiana State, which was a way to get a quick a if

you knew how to tie tie. And this was before YouTube so you know, my dad showed me had a tie tie the old demonstration speech, right, yes, yes, right, Well, I know you're going back to work, and but you love to go fishing. You have a boat. I see your pictures. I'm the absolute worst fisherman, but you've caught some big ones. Don't catch them all. Save something for me. Tell us a little bit about your time out in the water, throwing one in, throwing the line in the water.

I think one of the most satisfying times was I went out two years ago on Father's Day and as you know, luck and a little bit of skill kind of matched up one day and I was able to bring back enough stripe a bass to feed the staff and some of the players at the facility, and our chef he played them all up and then we had grilled stripe fast. I love to go to Tom and one of these things. When I retire, it'll be mentoring

youth and fishing and just give him back. You know, a lot of people opened a lot of doors for me, man, So I'm very thankful. I'm thankful to the Sixers organization and everybody from top to bomb you know. Well, with that, we appreciate your time and I know it's going to be a busy time, an unusual time for you as you get ready to go back down to Florida. And again we appreciate it and all you do. Thank you, kJ, Tom, thank you, Thanks everyone out there that's listening, take care

of please stay safe. Thanks for listening to Tom's talks with me Tom McGinnis on the seventy sixers podcast Network. Check for new episodes every weekend.