If James Johnson was not paid to play basketball he would spend his time doling out punishment in a cage or ring as a professional fighter.
The Toronto Raptors forward comes from a fighting family. His father is a seven-time world kickboxing champion and his mother is a black belt. In fact, Johnson and his eight brothers and sisters have each earned their black belts in the striking art. “We was brought up to destroy,” Johnson joked Thursday on Sportsnet 590 The Fan. “This is one family tree you don’t want to climb.”
Johnson has a kickboxing record of 20-0 and is 1-0 in mixed martial arts. As an 18-year old, Johnson defeated a 31-year-old fighter named Damond Clark — a fighter that went on to compete against former UFC champion Dan Severn and current UFC middleweight Chris Camozzi — in just 87 seconds.
The 24-year-old says that many things he has learned while training in MMA helps him on the basketball court on a nightly basis. Kickboxing has helped him not be afraid of getting hit in the face when driving the lane, and jiu-jitsu has helped him learn how to fall properly and take less damage if he gets knocked to the ground.
Johnson admits fighting is a passion of his and a future in fighting could be in the cards, but hopefully won’t be.
“I always knew I could fall back on that; I love to fight, but I hope I have a long enough career in the NBA that I won’t have to go and risk it every day, every night to fight for anything,” Johnson said.
“I want my career to be long enough and hopefully one day to open up a gym and start teaching people, if it’s not basketball camps then definitely fight camps.”
The third-year pro out of Wake Forest said he gets to watch a fair amount of UFC events while he’s travelling with the team, and also puts MMA on the TV at home when he is looking to relax and take his mind off of basketball.
His favourite fighters include a few oldies but goodies, Chuck Liddell, Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock. He also likes UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, but his favourite fighter right now is UFC light-heavyweight champ Jon Jones.
“I love his aggressiveness, I love his cockiness coming out, he knows he’s about to be in a fight and he’s okay with that,” Johnson said.
The 16th pick in the 2009 NBA draft says Raptors head coach Dwane Casey somewhat resembles that of a fighter in his coaching style.
“He’s tough, he preaches defence, he wants to beat the crap out of the competition, just like (a fighter),” Johnson said.
“With my background, when you’re training for something, you want to train to win, you never train to lose and that’s the mentality (Casey has). He’s physical, he’s rugged and he’s not scared to talk to anybody on the team, everybody’s treated the same.”
The Raptors play their rivals, the Boston Celtics, on Friday at the Air Canada Centre and Johnson said that there are a few Celtics he wouldn’t mind getting in the cage with, none more than Boston’s team leader Kevin Garnett.
“To tone him down just a little bit would be nice to just show that we’re not intimidated,” Johnson said, tongue firmly planted in cheek.
In 26 games with the Raptors this season Johnson has averaged 7.4 PPG and 4.5 RPG.
