LJ b BB annals: Ken Johnson, NBA player

By Ed Piper

Back in the day (1981), a basketball player from La Jolla High made it to the NBA. His name was Ken Johnson, a 6'8" powerhouse, and he led the Vikings to a CIF championship on the way.

The funny thing was, according to Rick Eveleth, long-time La Jolla boys basketball coach, the behemoth basically landed in the Vikings' lap.

"(Johnson) was the object of an eligibility issue," explained Eveleth recently. "His mother remarried and moved to another town in Alabama." (His proud coach remembers him as 6'9" or taller, but online information indicates 6'8".)

Johnson originally came out to San Diego on a recruiting trip with Smokey Gaines, the coach at San Diego State. At the Cactus Club, the young man met James Del Rio, a retired Michigan Supreme Court justice.

When the prodigy went home, he would have been ineligible for his senior year of high school. Yet his AAU team won the national title. He was a valuable commodity.

Facing the roadblock in Alabama, he called up Judge Del Rio. Eventually, he got connected with LJHS. "He enrolled. He made us a very good team," the coach says understatedly. "I became a great coach," Eveleth adds with wry humor.

"In 1981, there were other good players on that team. Dan Blackwell was a sophomore, and skinny. He was our starting forward. He had an illustrious record, I think 62-0 at one point.The next year, 1982, we lost in the CIF Division 2 semifinals to Oceanside and Junior Seau. That's another story. In 1983 we won again."

Regarding Johnson, Eveleth says, "He was a very fine player. He was a very fine student, too. An English teacher, James Carey, took him under his wing."

After La Jolla won the CIF 2A championship, Johnson was named CIF Player of the Year. Also, Parade magazine named him to its High School All-American team.

Meanwhile, Eveleth helped his star field offers from several college teams. "We started the recruiting process," says the coach, intentionally using the pronoun "we". "He received interest from Kentucky, Indiana, Louisville, Michigan State, and others, and it went on and on. He headed to Louisville (on a visit). He detoured to Michigan State."

Johnson matriculated at USC and was named All-Pac 12 Freshman of the Year. After two seasons, he transferred to Michigan State. He eventually played a season in the NBA. "He was mobile, shot from the outside. He was a good inside player. He had a decent mid-range jump shot at USC," remembers Eveleth.

"Ken was probably the greatest player who ever played at La Jolla," asserts Eveleth, who should know.

For the Portland Trailblazers, Johnson played 64 games during the 1985-1986 season, averaging 4.1 points and 3.8 rebounds a game.