Ken Johnson (basketball, born 1978)

Kenyata Allen " Ken " Johnson ( born February 1, 1978 in Detroit, Michigan ) is a retired American professional basketball player. One of the great strengths of the center player counted the shot block.

Career

The 2.10 m wide and 110 -pound center played from 1997 to 2001 for the Buckeyes of Ohio State University in the NCAA. There he belongs with 444 blocks in his four-year collegiate career among the ten best shot blockers of all time in Division I. Three times you could qualify for the national finals. However, these results have been removed for violations of the regulations of the NCAA later. When NBA Draft 2001 Johnson was selected as 49 players from the Miami Heat.

After Johnson was not included in the season Cadre the Miami Heat in 2001, he began his professional career working in Italy, where he played in the Lega Basket Serie A for Felice Scan Done from the Campanian Avellino. Shortly after the beginning of the season of the contract in mid-November 2001, it was released again and Johnson returned to his American homeland, where he played for the Dakota Wizards of the Continental Basketball Association ( CBA). This won with Johnson at the end of the season the championship in the re-established CBA.

Finally, Johnson moved into the 2002/03 season but in the squad of the Miami Heat and completed 16 appearances in the NBA. After he could not prevail in the NBA, he played in the 2003/04 season in the NBA Development League (D - League) at the Huntsville Flight, among others, along with Ronald Dupree. At the end of the season reached Johnson, who was the best shot blocker of the D -League in 2004, with the flight the final game for the championship, which, however, was lost to the Asheville Altitude in the extension.

In the season 2004/ 05 Johnson played in the highest French league LNB Pro A for Jeunesse laïque from Bourg -en- Bresse, the first time the play-offs reached at the end of the season in the club's history at the French Championships, where she were eliminated in the qualifying round against defending EB Pau Orthez -. Then he was again in the D -League active for the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, the new name of the Huntsville Flight after moving to Albuquerque, which this time also won the championship finale at the end of the season. Johnson had already left at this point the team and was replaced in the Korean Basketball League KTF Magic Wings to the South Korean Busan. Then he helped reinforced the Yunnan Bulls in Kunming in the Chinese Basketball Association, before he returned in March 2007 to Europe and Autocid Ford Burgos in the relegation in the Spanish second division LEB Oro in China.

For the season 2007/ 08 he was first with the Swiss champion Benetton Fribourg Olympic from Fribourg in the national basketball league contract, with whom he played in the ULEB Cup in 2007 /08. However, the year he moved to the German Basketball Bundesliga for the German Bank Skyliners Frankfurt am Main, with which he the Championship play-offs just retired at the end of the basketball league 2007/ 08 in the semifinal series against Telekom Baskets from Bonn. After he should first go to the league rivals Köln 99ers, but after three weeks refrained from undertaking had their competitor Rhine from Bonn took him as a replacement for the injured John Bowler under contract. The temporary contract was then to end of season and Telekom Baskets Bonn reached at the end of the Basketball Bundesliga 2008/ 09 once again the final series for the championship in which they this time the EWE Baskets Oldenburg documents in the closing seconds of the decisive final game.

For the following season 2009/ 10, the Telekom Baskets Chris Ensminger took under contract and waived a further commitment of Johnson, then the Estonian champion BC Kalev / Cramo from Tallinn joined. However, this team played with little success and Johnson was released in February 2010 from his contract. Then Johnson was no longer professionally active.

Achievements

  • 2009 German Vice Cup winner with the Telekom Baskets Bonn
  • 2008/2009 best shot blocker of the league with an average of 2.2 blocks and second in the poll for Best Defensive Player
  • 2008/2009 German Vice Champion with the Telekom Baskets Bonn
  • 2003/2004 D -League runners-up with Huntsville Flight
  • 2001/2002 CBA champion with the Dakota Wizards
Center (Basketball) National Collegiate Athletic Association Santa Cruz Warriors France Canton Charge BC Kalev/Cramo National Basketball Association Tulsa 66ers Ligue Nationale de Basket (LNB) Bourg-en-Bresse Albuquerque, New Mexico Ligue Nationale de Basketball (Switzerland) 2007–08 ULEB Cup Basketball-Bundesliga
472354
de